"Death of a Salesman"

Paper Summary:

Arthur Miller's play entitled "Death of a Salesman" is a story about a man who has created a conflict with his family because of his great belief in the American Dream. Willy Loman, the main character in the story, makes a living by being a salesman, and the story revolves around his frustrations in life, particularly the strain in his relationship with his eldest son, Biff Loman. This paper examines how this problematic relationship is what leads to Loman's downfall.

From the Paper:

"Willy's frustrations stems from the fact that Biff was not able to have a permanent and stable job, and is often fired from work because of some petty offense or misconduct on his son's part. Willy always insist that his son Biff must develop relations with other people, and he must also have charisma and the ability to interact with them in order to achieve prosperity and success in looking and handling work/jobs. Biff, meanwhile, has conflicting opinion about Willy's advice: he thinks that Willy's dependence on relations and charisma is not applicable in the advanced, modern American society. Instead, hard work and perseverance are valued instead of personal relations with other people. In addition to Willy's dependence on personal relations in job-finding and economic prosperity is coupled with his faith in the American Dream. The American Dream is, at Willy's society, the main "ideology" of many people: the American Dream is the equal opportunity of every individual in the American society to achieve economic success and prosperity."

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