American Dream Meaning

Death of a Salesman

The term "American Dream" has many diverse meanings. For some, it may be to become

wealthy and live in big houses. For others, it could be to simply live a productive life that

contributes to society. Wanting to live the "American Dream" is the conflict in this novel that

opens the doors to many interpretations that can be related to wanting to be successful.

The setting of "Death of a Salesman" takes place in 2 major time frames. The story

is told mostly from the present memory of the main character, Willy Loman. However, there

are numerous times in the novel when he has flashbacks to when his two sons, Biff and

Happy, were children. Something else that was also deemed important to the setting
is in the

opening of the book when Willy comes home and complains about the cramped atmosphere

of his home. He has a flashback to when there were two trees and a garden before the

population of the area bloomed and row after row of apartment blocks were built. It shows

that Willy had a longing for green and to be outdoors, not be cramped inside.
To be open

and able to roam represents being free, largely what the "American Dream" is to many

foreigners. Ironically, the need to be outdoors was shared by one of his sons and paved the

way for the symbolic meaning of the story considering that his sons were happy to work

outdoors yet Willy pushed them to pursue what he wanted out of them.

The theme of this story is that of having values, or lack thereof, in pursuit of the

"American Dream". Willy's values are almost nonexistent. The few values that he did have,

which obviously were not good ones, were instilled into his sons. An example of this is in a

flashbackearly on in the novel where Biff "borrowed" a football from the school to practice.

Willy was well aware that the football was stolen, but failed to punish him. Biff was very

popular in high school, and is the way he is presented throughout the novel because of

Willy's "it's not what you know, it's who you know" business attitude that was his hypothetical

nail in the coffin. Willy thought that being successful in a job was being successful in life; that
if

you were well liked then you would automatically become successful. Unfortunately for Willy,

he was neither liked nor successful and this was because of his misdirected value system.

Willy wound up killing himself in order for Biff to collect on the $20,000 life insurance and start

a new business.
However, it is unkown if Biff can even collect on the money considering that

most life insurance policies do not cover suicide and that no suicide provision in the insurance

contract is mentioned. In a sense, he took his own life over guilt for the wayhe brought up his

sons.

There was an irony in the setting prior to Willy taking his life. Generally, green represents

prosperous and free. In this novel, there were numerous references to nature and they symbolized

positive values. The two trees that were demolished by the builders to build apartment rows can

be looked at as a time that can be associated with a more clean way of life before people were

forced into fighting tooth and nail for the sake of pure competition. Perhaps the most noticable

symbolic meaning in the novel are the seeds which Willy attempts to plant in an area that

receives no natural light. This was a way for Willy to leave something fruitful in his wake, but

just like most of the things he did, it made no sense whatsoever. The symbolic meaning of
this

is that the seeds cannot grow in conditions that do not favor them, just as Willy has put both of

his sons in situations that would not allow them to grow. If it weren't for Willy's upbringing of

them, they would have had the knowledge required to be a real success in life. Ironic, indeed.

In conclusion, if Willy had taught his sons that you have to work to be a success and to

achieve any semblance of the "American Dream", the entire story would have been different.

Sadly, there are some people who value the same beliefs as Willy did, and those people will not

be successful by the standards they set for themselves. The outcome can best be described by

comedian George Carlin: "They call it the 'American Dream' because you have to be asleep to

believe it." Assumably, Willy is now living the "American Dream" in his infinite sleep.