Preview

Death of a Salesman Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
751 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Death of a Salesman Essay
Death of a Salesman Essay

Sometimes the books we read, the movies we watch and the experiences we have show us that underneath the surface we are all very similar. In the play Death of a Salesman, author Arthur Miller shows us ___________________________. One aspect that leads to the downfall of American Families today is bad parenting. Another damaging aspect is poor morals and ethics. Finally, another damaging aspect is chasing the American Dream. Bad parenting often comes from contradicting ones self. Many times throughout the play Willy contradicts the things he says. At one point in the play Willy calls Biff “a lazy bum” (16). Three lines later he contradicts himself saying, “there is one thing about Biff – he’s not lazy” (16). Willy’s contradictions are confusing at the beginning of the play but soon become a trademark of his character. Throughout the play Willy’s behavior is riddled with inconstancies. Willy swears to Linda, his wife that the “Chevrolet is the greatest car ever built” (20). But then three pages later he changes his point of view and angrily exclaims “that goddamn Chevrolet they ought to prohibit the manufacture of that car: (23). With Biff and Happy exposed to willys contradicting behavior it is no wonder why they are how they are. Willy’s inconsistent behavior is a result of his in ability to accept reality and his tendencies to recreate the past in attempt to escape the present. Unfortunately, living that out inversely affects Biff. Willy is confronted with this reality when Bernard asks Willy about “ what happened in Boston” regarding willys affair (78). Willy pushes away this reality and continues to pretend nothing ever happed, making him a walking contradiction. Familys across America, like the Loman family, struggle to instill good moral ethical values. Willy as a parent failed in providing Happy and Biff with good moral value. When Willy asks Biff where he got his new football and discovered it was stolen from the locker

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    In this literary analysis piece I will be breaking down the popular play by Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman. Death of a Salesman, is a very riveting story that follows Willy Loman, a retiree-aged working class business man living in New York. Who deals with troublesome denial, and uses the events of the past to deal with his problems of the present, this begins to create more problems for Willy as he becomes unable to separate past events with current events. Along with intense financial strain as an ageing business man in a new era of business. Willy feels pressured to be very financially successful and well liked person by himself, and the people around him like his brother, Ben, and his neighbor, Charley, who has a very successful son who is a lawyer. Willy, along with many people in the real world, suffers…

    • 1599 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" reflects the numerous issues post-war United States was dealing with during the late 1940's when it was written. Death of a Salesman was written and published in 1949, when the United States was booming with new economic capabilities and new found power, resulting in a golden age regardless of the growing tensions of the threat of communist invasion. Racial violence and the escalating issues regarding the deluded American dream that was turning out to be quite different than that which our founding fathers had originally idealized. During the time "Death of a Salesman" was created, Post-War United States was undergoing a metamorphosis into a new era of prosperity, communist paranoia, and social/philosophical change.…

    • 1542 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    During the play the main focus point is Willy’s volcanic relationship with his eldest son Biff, in which he is on the same path as his father. “WILLY: Sure. Certain men just don’t get started till later in life. Like Thomas Edison, I think. Or B.F. Goodrich. One of them was deaf. [He starts for the bedroom doorway.] I’ll put my money on Biff. (Act 1)” Willy sticks to his gut and hopes that Biff will be the greatest major business entrepreneur. He’s desperate for Biff to follow in his foot steps even though his advice is not the reality of the new world they live…

    • 860 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Compare and contrast Biff and Happy as Willy's sons. How do they reflect or reject Willy's philosophies?…

    • 321 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "Death of A Salesman" is really about how reality and illusion interplay in each and everyone's personality in the context of achieving success in life. All people dream and most consider a dream as a typical example of an illusion—merely a construct of the imagination that extends past and present experiences of one's life into a realm that is not bound by logic. Reality, on the other hand, is what one directly perceives through the basic senses of perception.…

    • 980 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the constant journey of life you are often under pressure. There is pressure to satisfy, pressure you put on yourself and the pressure that other people put on you. Throughout the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and the short story “Brother Dear” by Bernice Friesen, the characters find themselves facing these pressures on a daily basis. Both plotlines show how people can experience these pressures, for all different reasons, during various times in their life.…

    • 817 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the play, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman suffers a death of an average man. This story comprises of a whole family of unsuccessful men who use backdoors to accomplish a triumph. As the main focus of the play,Willy’s personality traits are gained through involvement with other characters.…

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In Death of a Salesman, a play written by Arthur Miller, Willie Loman is a salesman! In the introduction of the play, we can see exactly how Miller feels about a person being a salesman by the reply he made to a comment and said " he sells what a salesman has to sell, himself. As Charley insists , the only thing you got in this world is what you can sell. As a salesman he has got to get by on a smile and a shoeshine. He has to charm. He is a performer, a confidence man who must never lack confidence. His error is to confuse the role he plays with the person he wishes to be" (as cited in Death of a Salesman,1998, pp xxv). Arthur Miller understood the impact that the societal beliefs of what constitutes being a success had on the average man and how he viewed his current social status in relation to what his dreams of it were. I don't view Willie Loman as being some crazy old man, but a man who has worked hard to provide for his family. I see him as a man that had the same hopes and aspirations for his sons that every parent has. I respect Willie Loman. However, as a medical professional I am going to stick with my original assumption that in addition to being a salesman, he is a man that is suffering from Alzheimer's dementia. My goal is not to take away from the belief that Willie is a man that just hasn't figured out yet who he is, but as Willie Loman, an ordinary man that is suffering from Alzheimer's Dementia. I am going to provide information collaborating the parallels between symptoms of Alzheimer's and Willie's actions throughout the play.…

    • 1210 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Willy Loman Dishonest

    • 412 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Willy Loman’s moral compass often does not point true North in his life and the series of dishonest statements over many years eventually lead to his demise and detriment of his family. When his boys were young, Willy makes many promises of great riches and achievements for them, something he lives for, but never really has. While Willy continually puts Biff on a pedestal, setting him up for failure, he barely pays attention to his younger son, Happy, who simply desires respect and affirmation from his father. Further, Willy is frequently dishonest, in particular to his wife, Linda, about his income, his actual stature, and his faithfulness. It finally culminates when he is caught cheating on his wife by Biff, and goes so far to get his son to keep quiet about his indiscretion.…

    • 412 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Willy is careful to never let his two opposite lives cross and hopes that his family will never find out. When Biff finally does discover the infidelity at the hotel room in Boston, he is devastated. Biff’s long-standing image of his father as a hero and a morally sound man, is shattered. In his shock and anger Biff screams, “You fake! You phony little fake! You fake!” (Miller 121). This illustrates that Willy Loman was much more covert in his handling of the affair. Since it came as a surprise to Biff, no one ever suspected Willy was seeing another woman. Furthermore, Willy is devastated to the point that he kills himself. He realizes that he has nothing anymore without his family saying, “Nothing’s planted. I don’t have a thing in the ground” (Miller 122). His infidelity has destroyed his family and through this metaphor he realizes he is…

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Willy Loman has the confidence of a billionaire. He acts like he is a hero, almost as if he ran the town. Willy’s confident attitude rubbed off onto his kids (Biff and Happy) making them believe that their father was a very successful man and that they were living the high class life. When in reality it was so far from that. Only Willy saw himself as the best. His friends, his bosses all knew he was full of talk, but never mentioned anything to him. “Well, that's the training, the training. I'm telling you, i was selling’ thousands and thousands, but I had to come home.”(34) The reality of Willy Loman's life is quite sad and pathetic, thinking that one is making so much money and is going to be so successful when really none of that is going…

    • 148 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Both the play ‘Death Of A Salesman” and the feature film ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ explore the notion of success and failure, the sacrifice of money to peruse a “million dollar idea” and undying will to never give up and the compressing business world. They also explore the concept that it’s a necessity to be well liked.…

    • 629 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The text opens to a man named Willy coming home depressed. Willy would best be described as the main character of the story. He has lived an average life as a salesman with two kids and a loving wife. What is learned about Willy from the get go is that he has a passion for success. He has pushed his boys to be their very best their whole life, especially his eldest son, Biff Loman. He treasures those times when life was full of hope and happiness. He treasures it so much that he often flashes back to moments in the past when he is struggling or is caught in a moment of chaos. His flashes back and forth to past and present are what create the conflict inside of Willy. That conflict and chaos is always caused by betrayal. Both Happy and Biff betrayed Willy's confidence. Biff especially betrayed his father when he refused to make anything of himself. He flat out told his father that he was a worthless human being and that all his father's hopes and dreams were wasted on a loser. This broke Willy's heart completely. Happy also betrayed his father…

    • 1009 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death of a Salesman

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages

    An excellent father will make every effort to constantly do what is best for his family. He will put his needs last, ensuring that his family is well cared for and not lacking for any necessities. And, most significantly, a first-class father will make his family his main concern, coming before his job, his friends, or even himself. In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is a prime example of a horrific father in every way mentioned previously. Not only is Willy Loman not a good father and spouse, but he furthers his failure by being a typical anti-hero and by failing to accomplish the American Dream. There for I believe the play is not necessarily what Miller and Kazan perceive it to be. Here I will be discussing Willy Lomans discraceful actions towards his family and finally expose the actual theme of the play.…

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Thesis: Through a strict image of success, the creation of a metaphorical planned obsolesce is inevitable within a family.…

    • 658 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics