Willy Loman and the American Dream

Paper Summary:

This paper suggests that Arthur Miller's play, "Death of a Salesman" could be viewed as a doctrinal thesis that heavily criticizes democracy and capitalism. The paper analyzes the theme and the main protagonist in the play, Willy Loman, and explains how the play is symbolic of Miller's attempt to combine the motifs of social and personal disintegration with Willy Loman's quest for the "American dream."

From the Paper:

"Loman's eventual destruction by his own hand, being his suicide, demonstrates the overall failure of American culture and the failure of his chosen profession as a door-to-door salesman, a job which requires steady nerves and much determination. Miller's concept of Willy Loman as one of millions of American middle-class workers in search of the "American dream" exemplifies the true nature of American society via Loman's inability to realize that such as dream, at least for many Americans, is based on an illusion of great magnitude and depth. Thus, Miller's Death of a Salesman stands as one of the most important plays written in the last sixty years, due to its ability to illuminate "certain values which civilized men in the 20th century share," being the "cruel paradox of human existence" which often inserts "a sense of greater meaning than that conferred upon it by reality" ("Death of a Salesman-Protagonist," Internet)."

More papers on Willy Loman and the American Dream:

• Book Review # 100648 : "The Low Man and the American Dream"
• Analytical Essay # 130841 : "The Low Man and the American Dream"
• Analytical Essay # 65120 : "Willy Loman and Disillusion in the American Dream"

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