Theme Of Success In Death Of A Salesman

Register to read the introduction… It can be as small as making enough money to feed your family or as large as being the CEO of an international company. In Death Of A Salesman by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman struggles with his lack of success. Throughout the play he talks about his lack of success and his older brothers success. He was given chances to join his brother and be just as successful as he was. "What’s the mystery? The man knew what he wanted and went out and got it! Walked into a jungle, and comes out, the age of twenty-one, and he’s rich! The world is an oyster, but you don’t crack it open on a mattress" (Miller 41). He was saying how successful his brother was, how he knew what he wanted and just got it. Willy was never able to do that. In life Willy only wanted to be known as a successful salesman, and he could not achieve that. Even when his sons were young all he wanted was for them to be as successful as they possibly could be. He focused more on his son Biff Loman. "I don’t think that was funny, Charley. This is the greatest day of his life" (Miller 63). Willy talks about Biffs championship football game being the most important day of his life. He wanted Biff to become the greatest football player he could be, that could not happen. As Willy goes on and dies Happy Loman does not accept that his father's dream was never met, "All right, boy. I’m gonna show you and everybody else that Willy Loman did not die in vain. He had a good dream. It’s the only dream you can have — to come out number-one man He fought it out here, and this is where I’m gonna win it for him" (Miller 138-139). Happy recognizes that his father has died and never succeeded to what he wanted, he even goes to say exactly that Willy's dream was to be the number one man. Willy was becoming more and more unstable as the play went on and the audience/reader is able to see how he was progressively getting farther and farther from his dream. Everything …show more content…
She only wanted to be free, but with the chance that she could be put into these games she was never free. Katniss had to fight through the harsh games to be 'free', she was still stuck in her depleting district with nothing to show except not being forced back in the games ever again; still having to deal with her corrupt government. She has not yet met her dream. Not until later in her life: Catching Fire, would she have the chance to actually be free by inadvertently starting a rebellion. When she fought the government by having two people survive the Hunger Games she inspired more people to live out their dreams of freedom. "All I was doing was trying to a keep Peeta and myself alive. Any act of rebellion was purely coincidental. But when the Capitol decrees that only one tribute can live and you have the audacity to challenge it, I guess that's a rebellion in itself" (Collins 10). She did not even mean to do it, but it happened and inspired many people. Katniss then has deal with the pressure of her government and the pressure of the rebellion to do what is right, reach her dream, reach everyone else's dream, to be free. Not only do people have to fight for their freedom: their American dream, but they also have to run away from the people preventing them from reaching their dream, "But it warn’t. It was Jack-o’-lanterns, or lightning bugs; so he set down again, and went to watching, same as before. Jim said it made him all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom" (Twain 91). In the novel Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Jim is doing just this. He was a slave and his only dream was to be free. He is willing to risk his life just to be free. Jim had to escape from his owner and was giddy at the idea to be even close to freedom. His only dream was to be free, he had to worry about being turned in, injured, or even killed, but all he wanted was to reach his dream of