Success In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman

Bob Dylan once said, “A man is a success if he wakes up in the morning and gets to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.” I completely agree with Bob Dylan and his definition of success, but let me make his definition even simpler yet: success is happiness. Success is the absence of want. Many other famous and smart people have also tried to define or lead others to success and success is often a common theme in literature.
In books, we often follow along as a character tries to reach their goal: their own version of success. Often times, as in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, success is never actually achieved. In Death of a Salesman, our main character is Willy Loman, a traveling salesman with two sons and a loving wife. We’ve just been introduced to WIlly when we realize, he’s not exactly stable. Even though he has a loving family, a job that provides, and a roof over his head, he’s not happy. He wants to be well-liked and rich, …show more content…
It’s easy to find someone willing to talk about what it takes to be successful at this or that or life in general. One notable example is Richard St. John. Considered an expert on success, Richard St. John has been everything from a researcher to a creative designer, has won many awards, and is a black belt in Judo. His book The 8 Traits Successful People Have in Common: 8 To Be Great explains in detail what seems to be necessary to be a success, the first of which is passion: to do something for the love of doing it, not for the profits that may come from it. This is the first ingredient to success and it’s the most important. It’s like how when someone picks up some food and reads the ingredients and if the first thing is something impossible to pronounce it shouldn’t be eaten because it’s pretty well known, or at least assumed, that the first ingredient that shows up on the list is usually the one that is used the most or has the greatest impact on the person eating