American Dream In Death of a Salesman

American Dream In Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman is a quintessential family drama that finds itself in the whirlwind of major American social changes that followed the Depression and World War II. America was ready to take off after the profound challenges brought about by the major events and enjoy long periods of prosperity. The author of this play wanted the demise of Willy to be a cautionary tale of what the main character viewed as being wrong with America: that it was false hope to believe that one would make a success ofone’s life and the tendency for materialistic gain termed as success and treating personality as a commodity for sale. This was depicted inWilly’s need to be liked by all. The play demands that the viewers immerse themselves in making dreams that Willy is obsessed with fulfilling. Willy had“so completely internalized the values of his society that he judges himself by standards rooted in social myths rather than human necessities (Bigsby xviii). In this essay, the American dream will be discussed in relation to the commonman’s tragedy.

The American Dream

The American Dream rides on the notion that working hard can attain anything. It forms the core ofAmericans’ lives. In the play by Miller, the dream is categorized into two meanings: success in business and Americanhistory’s dream. In American society, one is deemed to have attained the highest success after acquiring a stable job, owning a home, and generally living a decent life. Achieving this is equivalent to achieving the historical dream. On the other hand, having a corporate job that pays very well, owning a home or not, and having enough money to meetone’s living expenses is viewed as achieving the dream of business success. Willy Loman had succeeded in achieving the historical dream. Willy had a family, a job, a house, and a car. However, Willy was obsessed with achieving the business success dream and, in his quest to pursue his dream, ended up dismantling his family.Willy’s ambition to achieve the business dream blurred his comprehension of having achieved the American Dream. When Willy met David Singleman, a salesman who had a successful enterprise, thelatter’s successful and tranquil career made the former reconsider his career choice. Stanton states that Willy could have seen a father figure in Singleman, which propelled him to pursue a career as a salesman (133). However, Willy possessed a lot of snobbery to admit he was only good as a carpenter. Although his career gave Willy and his family a normal level of success, he wanted more, and once he perceived that he did not get it, he opted to teach his children to view life as he did. Willy hoped his children would follow his path and accomplish what he had failed to fulfill.

In the 1930s, the Great Depression turned the American Dream into a nightmare. The land changed into one of despair from its previous symbol of hope, prosperity, and optimism. Most farmers had to migrate to the cities in search of greener pastures. However, survival rather than advancement was the main problem. The situation deteriorated with World War II, which negatively influencedAmericans’ lives. In his play, Miller draws the viewer into the political and economic effects of WWII through the representative family of Willy Loman. In the capitalistic society, Loman was ignored, though he tried to get noticed: “. . .Don’t sayhe’s a great man. Willy Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper.He’s not the finest character that ever lived. Buthe’s a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid.He’s not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must finally paid to such a person (Act 1, 44)”

In the above text, Linda tries to protect her husband from capitalism’s regressive effects that exploit and enslave Willy. The system victimized Willy, and hence, Linda protested its outcome on the psychology and lives of ordinary people. However, Willy follows his own goals just as Uncle Ben followed his and realized the American Dream. Willy desires stardom and no longer wants to be a common man but rather a respected citizen like Ben:

“Like a young god. Hercules – something like that. And the sun, the sun all around him . . . And the buyers I brought, and the cheers when he came out –Loman, Loman, Loman! God Almighty, he’ll be great yet. A star like that, magnificent, can never really fade away! (Act 1, 54”

Although the American Dream is not expressed openly or even mentioned or defined in the book, the author drew inspiration from the society of the day (102-103). Eisinger states that Willy gives the reader a corrupt version of the American Dream (98). This claim is supported by Zheng Danqing, who states that this view of the American Dream was the driving force of Willy’s death (27). Willy is an unsuccessful salesperson because he misunderstands that hard work is equal to the success concept of the American Dream. If Willy had not held such a misconception, he would have accepted the job offer that Charley extended to him (76) and worked his way to success. However, Willy chose to chase his unrealistic dreams of success and wealth to his demise.

A specific theme of the American Dream is evident, and that is self-fulfillment. Every person has the opportunity to become better and richer, and that success can be achieved based on one’s achievement or ability. In other words, any person has an opportunity to achieve success based on one’s achievement and ability. On the other hand, Willy hinges the success concept on his personal perception of the same: It’s not what you say; it’s how you say it—because personality always wins the day” (51).

This implies Willy perceives that the only ingredient that one needs to attain success and wealth is personal attractiveness. According to Willy, hard work is not the route to success; rather, a charismatic personality is the key to success. His concept of being liked is Willy’s notion of success and is expressed in his quote on his opinion of Charley’s vocation:

“[b]egger than Uncle Charley! Because Charley is not – liked. He’s liked, but he’s not – well liked” (Miller 23). He also goes onto say that “[b]because the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the Man who creates personal interest, is the man who get ahead. Be liked and you will never want” (25- 26).

From these quotes, Willy gives insight that he believed in being liked as the ingredient to success. Willy Loman’s unrealistic ideals were a cause of torment to his family. When he began to lose his job, his false dream tormented the entire family and made them believe that the company required him while, in fact, he was working on commission. Howard Wagner moved Willy to work on commission before finally firing him from his work. After perceiving that he could not achieve the success he dreamed of, Willy thought that he could only achieve the  American Dream success by committing suicide. However, his suicide only caused sadness to his family. When Biff told his father during a confrontation that committing suicide would not make him a hero, Willy did not realize that committing suicide would not help his sons respect him more. However, Willy thirsted for success more than his family’s perception of him; hence, he paid no attention and opted to pursue his twisted business success dream.

Heyen (51) states that, “‘To save his life, he has to kill himself’ because he hoped that his family, especially Biff, would get the insurance money.” Although the insurance pays off, Biff does not want anything to do with the ambition that his father had for him. Heyen (49) asserts that Willy did not realize that Biff did not care for white-collar jobs; rather, the latter wanted to work on a farm and in the outdoors. Willy was the only one who understood his own decision to commit suicide for a supposed better life for his sons. Linda thought of the incident as unnecessary because although the suicide had paid off the house mortgage, there was no one to occupy it. However, admitting failure would have led to Willy committing suicide; just his enduring dream had led him to end his life. In other words, the end result would have been suicide; however, his actions were cowardly as he opted to sacrifice his life to get money for his family.

Conclusion

In this play, Miller revises both the tragic hero and classical tragedy to create the modern-day tragedy of his era. The modern hero is an ordinary person often affected by capitalist and materialist values, as was Willy. This modern-day tragic hero may suffer without the ability to alter events in his life. The outcomes on economic and social levels of the era between the Great Depression and World War II affected most people whose American Dream was shuttered by the capitalist system. Miller chose tragedy to emphasize the effects of this era on the ordinary man. Miller stated that “it is time that we who are without kings, took up this bright thread of our history and followed it to the only place it can possibly lead in our time – heart and spirit of the average man” (1974, 897). Miller redefined the tragic hero by depicting Willy Loman as a product of societal injustice and broken dreams.

Works Cited

Dan-qing Zheng. “Who is to Blame for Willy Loman’s Death? — on Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.” Canadian Social Science.4 (2007): 25-29. Print.

Eisinger, Chester E. “Focus on Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman: The Wrong Dreams.” Critical insights: Death of a Salesman. Ed. Brenda Murphy. California: Salem Press, 2010. 95-105. Print.

Heyen, William. “Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and the American Dream.” Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 1988. 47-58.

Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman: Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts, and a Requiem.

Stanton, Kay. “Women and the American Dream of Death of a Salesman.” Critical insights: Death of a Salesman. Ed. Brenda Murphy. California: Salem Press, 2010. 121-160. Print.

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American Dream In Death of a Salesman

Unit 7 Wring Assignment – Researched Essay

Instructions

Topic: Researched Essay

• Format: You are required to use MLA style for all wring assignments. These assignments include the Summary Wring Assignment, the Focused Annotated Bibliography and the Final Researched Essay. Your instructor may also require MLA style for other essay assignments, including the midterm and final exams, and for discussion posts. Therefore, it is important that you understand how to use MLA style correctly.

          Please refer to the Purdue Online Wring Lab for MLA formatting and style guide

• Length Requirement: minimum of 1000 – 1500 words
• All sources must be cited

Your Process:

You are researching and wring an essay on Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman (1949).

Instructions:

Part 1:

There are a few different ways you could approach the wring of this essay:

• The thematic approach: You will choose a theme or idea that you see in the play and then make an assertion about how and/or why that theme is being used. Consider the themes discussed in Unit 2:
  • Love
  • Alienation/Otherness
  • The American Dream/Nightmare
  • The Quest for Identity/Coming of Age
  • Conformity/Rebellion
    

    American Dream In Death of a Salesman

• Perform a character study. Discuss what motivates this character to do what he or she does or perhaps discuss how and why the character deals with the conflicts within the play. You could also choose to compare and contrast two characters.
• Compare and contrast the play—or some element of the play—with another literary work. Please contact your instructor if you are planning to use a literary work for comparison that has not been covered in this class.

In addition to or in place of the approaches described above, you might want to employ a formalist’s approach to analyze and interpret the literary work you have chosen. You might consider the following questions and considerations:

• How do paradox, irony, ambiguity, and tension work in the play?
• Is there a central or focal passage that can be said to sum up the enrety of the work?
• What are the key symbols in the play?

Part 2:

Once you decide on an approach and a topic:

1. If you have any questions or need guidance, discuss your choices with your instructor.
2. Make sure you have a strong thesis statement. This should not be a question or something “obvious” and undebatable like a synopsis of what happens in the play. Instead, it should be your own fresh idea that takes a firm stance on your chosen aspect of the play.
3. Set forth to prove your assertion about the text. To do so, you need to:
   • Analyze your primary source (Death of a Salesman) and find quotations that support your assertion.
   • Find secondary sources (scholarly articles) to back up your assertion. (Include these sources in your working bibliography.) This is your scholarly research. By finding scholars to support your ideas or even counter them, you are backing up your own thoughts using evidence from experts in the field.
4. Follow MLA Format:
   • Use MLA format for the paper: Purdue Owl: MLA info
   • Length: minimum of 1000 – 1500 words
   • Include a Works Cited Page, not to be counted in the 1000-1500 word minimum
   • Appropriate Scholarly Secondary Sources Included: minimum of 3 scholarly sources. You are required to use at least one direct quote or paraphrase in the body of your essay from each of your three required secondary sources in order to meet the minimum requirements of this research essay. Be sure to have an appropriate tle for your essay (See Titling Your Essay)
5. Write with an analytical purpose: Do not spend too much space summarizing the text. Assume that your reader has already read or seen the play. Aim for an organized paper that offers your reader some new insight into the play.

In summary:

• You make an assertion.
• You prove it with textual examples.
• You back it up with other scholarly support from your research.

Academic Honesty

Plagiarism in any form is unacceptable. Please ask if you have questions about what constitutes plagiarism. Your words and your ideas must be your own.

Formatting and Style

Be sure to maintain an appropriate academic tone (no slang, second-person, contractions, etc.)

Your essay should be typed, double-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman font, with one-inch margins, and numbered pages. Include your name, my name, the title of the class, and the date in the upper left-hand corner of the first page. Center your title (you do not need to underline or italicize it) and place it above the body of the essay. Do not include a title page.

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