thisisntarealessay

Arthur Miller is one of the most highly regarded playwrights in American History. He was best known for his plays Death of a Salesman and the Crucible. Miller was heavily influenced by what was going on in the world around him. World War II, The Great Depression, and people striving towards the American dream are often topics reflected in his plays. In his play The Death of a Salesman, Miller reflects on his childhood, his immigrant parents’ business, and how his family struggled after they lost nearly everything in the Stock Market Crash of 1929 (Arthur Miller). Miller also drew inspiration from The House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), whose accusations destroyed the careers of many entertainers, writers, and artists in the 1940s and 1950s. The attacks lead by the HUAC prompted him to write The Crucible. Although Miller never considered himself an autobiographical playwright, his plays reflected otherwise. Arthur Asher Miller was born on October 17, 1915 in Harlem, New York. Miller’s father was a Polish immigrant and his mother was a native New Yorker; together, his parents owned a successful women’s clothing store (Galvin). During Miller’s childhood his family was well-off, and he showed much more of an inclination in sports, rather than school (Hurwitt). However, his parents lost nearly everything in The Stock Market Crash of 1929 (Arthur Miller). After Miller’s father lost the business, his family was forced to move from a spacious apartment in Uptown Manhattan to a small, cramped home in the remote Gravesend section of Brooklyn, New York (Hurwitt). Arthur Miller was shaped by the poverty he was surrounded by as he progressed through his young adulthood in the Great Depression. After graduating from high school, Arthur Miller began working odd jobs to put himself through college. He worked as a radio singer, a truck driver, and even a clerk in an automobile-parts warehouse (Galvin). Miller began writing