Death Of A Salesman Essay

Expectations come with having dreams. When dreaming or setting a goal/ideal in life, you can’t expect for it to happen because you want it to happen. In order to fulfill your dreams, you have to work hard for it to happen. In the excerpt from the book Death of a Salesman, written by Arthur Miller, it suggests that as a unique individual, you can’t relive another person’s life or experience. Willy Loman’s main goal or dream in life to be well-liked and to be on the top. Back in the day, a business person, or salesman would be considered as being on the top, being the best. The quote “... I realized that selling was the greatest career a man could want” tell us that Willy is completely blinded by the benefits that Dave Singleman had as a salesman.
The excerpt says that Dave Singleman died the death of a salesman, and that hundreds of salesman and buyers were at his funeral. Willy Loman liked the idea of being well-liked by other people, and through the death of Dave Singleman, Willy thought that if he died, he would have a funeral just like Dave, because they were both salesman. The final sentence from the excerpt quotes Willy as he says “They don’t know me anymore.” This goes in relation to the topic because Willy isn’t exactly who he really is. He is just following in the shadows of Dave Singleman.

Expectations can really get in the way of your dreams.
You can’t let it get in the way of fulfilling it. A true example for that would be parents. Mothers and fathers would expect the most out of their children, especially for the older children. As a parent, you would want to show the world how special your child is. It can range from perfect grades, good morals, amazing talent to so much more. Also, as a child, you want to accomplish all the dreams and goals set by your parents. But too much expectation would tend to bring you down. For instance, if your parents expect you to have perfect grades, you will have the tendency to either do everything in your power to make your parents happy, and just fail because it isn’t what you want to do. Willy and Biff Loman, characters from the book Death of a Salesman, are a perfect example. Willy expected for Biff to be as successful as he was. Also, Willy wanted Biff to take his place in the business. But all Biffs’ ideals in life are different than that of Willy’s. Eventually, Biff started to grow abhorrence towards his father for giving him a bunch of expectations that he can never achieve. Expectations are a good thing. Because it gives you a goal to look forward to and it could be something anyone could achieve if given the right one, but sometimes, if you have too many expectations, it could just corrupt everything and fall
apart.

Along with expectations, a person’s pride will definitely get in the way of your dreams, goals and ideals. There are people in this world that have the feeling of superiority, an attitude where they believe that they are better than others. Everyone in this world has a goal of being well-liked by other people. Showing other people that you value self-importance the most, would prevent people to like you. Willy Loman is just the right example for this. Willy is a very arrogant man, thinking that he will die the death of a salesman where hundreds of people would attend his funeral. But at the end of the day, only his family, his good friend Charley and his son were present at his funeral. Setting dreams and achieving them could take a lifetime, but going through all the necessary difficulty and struggles would pay off. Willy has been a salesman all his life, and he has yet to attain his entire dream. When Willy lost his job, Charley offered him to give him a job so he could pay off his debts. Being his usual conceited self, Willy declined help that Charley was so kind to offer. His pride and his jealously towards Charley blinded him, and thus, he took the easy way out of his problems – to commit suicide. Dreams, goals and ideals are attainable to anyone who is willing to surpass all the expectations and pride.