Death of a salesman

The American Dream can be described as a belief in freedom that allows all citizens of the United States of America to achieve their goals in life through hard work. Today, in America it generally refers to the idea that one's prosperity depends upon one's own abilities and hard work. In the American mindset your societal role is not definitive but can change according to one’s effort. Those are values, which European settlers have kept and passed on to generations since the beginning of USA.

This is exactly, what Willy Loman tries to live up to in Arthur Miller’s tragedy “Death of a Salesman” from 1948. One of the first problems which occurs in the play is, when we as readers find out, that Willy has tried to put his whole life into his sons, Biff and Happy, and they reward it just turning their backs on him. Willy still hopes, that Biff can go all the way one day, and become a businessman like his father. But hope became weakened one day after Biff flunked math. Biff was heading towards Boston to make his father help him, but instead he finds him with another woman. This makes Willy feel guilty with good reason, and he thinks that he is responsible for Biff’s choices in life and his failure to become successful. Another problem which Willy faces is that he is aging and his temperament is getting uncontrollable. Because he is getting older, he can’t do the same things as he used to. He can’t drive his car all day long anymore, and he is not making enough money. He asks his boss Howard for a new job, and he ends up getting fired. This destroys Willy’s pride. It all ends up with a discussion between Biff and Willy. Biff is trying to say, that he can’t and never could fulfill Willy’s dreams about him, as Biff says here: “Pop, I'm a dime a dozen and so are you.". Willy realizes in the end, that he loves Biff, even though Biff never became what he wanted to him to be. Willy can’t get control of the situation anymore; he is an old man and now without a job. The play concludes tragically when Willy leaves the house and crashes his car to end his life. He ends up being a tragic hero, a failure of the American Dream.

Biff: "I looked up and I saw the sky ... and I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been." That sentence is the main action in Biff’s crisis of self-knowledge. In his attempt to make Willy happy and find a job by his old friend Oliver, he realizes that this isn’t the way he wants to live. He wants a job where he can use his body, earn enough money to live, and at the same time enjoy the outside environment. This could still be compared to the American Dream. You can follow your own dreams with your own abilities and hard work. You don’t have to listen to other people that yourself.

In the play there are a lot of symbols. The seeds represent for Willy the opportunity to prove the worth of his labor, both as a salesman and a father. It’s the symbol of a something new in growth, and Willy is desperate, and that’s why he tries to plant seeds in the yard with almost no sunlight at all. Beside the seeds, there are also the diamonds. This is the symbol of some kind of material wealth. Willy sees diamonds as a result of hard work, and he envies Ben because of his success. In addition to this, there are also the stockings. The stockings which were supposed to be for Linda, Biffs mom, but is instead given to “the woman” that Willy is seeing. This is the symbol of Biff’s changed view of his father, he can’t stand that he is seeing another woman and later in the big discussion he refers to it by saying: "We never told the truth in this house for ten minutes". Another symbol is more mental, it’s where Biff was heading home from the visit at Oliver’s, and he goes down the stairs, eleven floors. This symbolizes him becoming more and more depressed.

There are two ways the author can make his message come across. He can use the actors, by letting them say, what he wants which can allude to the message of the text or he can use the stage directions. As an example he makes the actors comment on the environment, which is his voice and view that come across through their lines. In that way we can see what he want to express.

Throughout the play the family in general cannot separate reality and illusion, particularly Willy. This is a major theme and source of conflict in the play. Willy cannot see who he and his sons are. He believes that they are great men who have what it takes to be successful and beat the business world. Unfortunately, he is wrong. In reality, Willy and sons are not and cannot, be successful. Beside this the American Dream, father and son relationship and identity are also key themes of the text. The best example is the hard-working Willy, which is a symbol of a man who is trying to fulfill the American dream. The relationship Willy and Biff and the development of it, seems necessary to emphasize the message. And finding your own identity is more important than having a great job, and this could Biff and especially Willy learn a lot from.