Materialism In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman

Death of a Salesman Essay
In the play The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, an event which influenced me to think differently about the dangers of a materialistic and consumerist society was the suicide of Willy. A critique, Nas Mulhasas wrote, “Miller alludes ‘American dream’, which is an effect of capitalism and consumerism, through the depiction of the protagonist Willy... and moves further to criticize these ideas by showing tragic end of Willy Loman.” Throughout the play, the reader can see how Willy’s need for materialistic riches leads to his mental and physical undoing. The want for riches caused him to focus on the wrong things in life, and eventually led to him wasting away his entire life, in hope of becoming richer and more
Prior to Willy's suicide, expressionism is used to shows Willy’s imaginary conversation with Ben, and depict Willy’s internal struggles. Tragically, he still believes the money equates to success and believes that the $20,000 insurance that Biff would receive upon Willy’s death would help him become successful according to the capitalist ideal. This shows that even at his death, Willy was unable to let go of the consumerist ideology that money can buy happiness. Even after he realizes that Biff truly loves him, Willy still forgets the fact that his death would deeply wound his son, and no amount of money would heal that wound. Expressionist theater and is shown through the sentence, “One foot - [He breaks of as Ben appears to the right and moves slowly towards him,]”t and shows the deranged state of Willy’s mind. During his imaginary conversation with Ben, Willy, compares the $20,000 to diamonds, “Oh Ben, that’s the whole beauty of it! I see it like a diamond, shining in the dark, hard and rough, that I can pick up and touch in my hand.” This shows that materialistism is
The dialogue, “The Chevrolet, Linda, is the greatest car ever built.” and, “That goddam Chevrolet! They ought to prohibit the manufacturing of that car!” shows that Willy has a distorted sense of reality. It also shows that although Willy is proud of his materialistic possession, he is worried and annoyed because he barely has enough income to keep up with the repairs and costs of the car. Willy is in a tough financial position, and yet he is still worried about the materialistic things he owns and will not settle for anything short of the best. Incidentally, the car ends up being the machine he uses to kill himself. The Chevvy symbolises Willy’s weaknesses, and the wrong ideals that he became prey to. Willy is a man who is prey to consumerism, and the fear of not having enough money and not being well liked lead him to end his life, and his life depicts the dangers of a consumerist society. Miller has revealed that The Death of a Salesman is based on his uncle, a man who live a wayward life driven by materialism. This shows that consumerism affects each one of us, as materialism and consumerism is directly linked, it may take over our entire lives. Studies show that a middle class family own on average, $20000 worth of ‘unnecessary’ machinery and materials, or machines the families think they can go without. Housewares,org reports than