Paper Summary:

This paper takes a close look at the ideology of the American Dream which is behind both Arthur Miller's classic play, "Death of a Salesman" and its tragic protagonist, Willy Loman. The paper argues that the ideology is flawed, its flaws being Willy's wrong interpretation of it as a popularity contest, it not fitting the world in which he lives, it being destructive and it not being as easy as he believes it should be. Finally, the paper discusses the effect of Willy's ideology on his sons.

From the Paper:

"When Arthur Miller's classic play came out in 1949, the United States were in the middle of another huge boom: a literal Baby Boom, a boom of housing, a boom of sufficient and well-paid employment, a boom of success, a boom of prosperity. I use the word "another" to qualify this particular "boom" because the country had just ended times of Depression and war, in the never-ending cycle of good times and bad times that had started from America's very independence, a cycle of war or poverty followed by riches, or at least financial stability."

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