Death of a Salesman
American Dream
The author has pronounced the story on the basis of American dream that prevailed in the society after the Second World War. American dream sustained the idea of the people that they would get a social stability and better living standards. The reason why people took American dream as an opportunity to elevate because a great deal of people in the upper level class society of American society accepted the American dream and as a result got major achievements such as prosperity, more wealth. While on the other hand people from the lower and middle class did not get equal opportunities. Instead of making the society a better place for living, American dream contributed in failures of practice notions and ethical codes for upheaval of society. Arthur Miller describes that Willy Loman worked all his life to attain wealth and riches to fulfill his dreams for his family. A number of symbols and motifs have been used to describe different dimensions of the story revolving around the characters of the play such as abandonment, dignity, American dream, loss of social values and family ethical setting etc (Cardullo).
Contextual Pointers
The author has defended his account in the play on the basis of failure of Willy Loman in the struggle to get a better living standard. Arthur Miller had elaborated the disgraced American dream by characterizing and projecting Willy Loman as a protagonist of the story. He elaborates that the relationship among the man who works with constant dedication and dignity without understanding the corruption of mind around him tends to get nothing in result. The author had appointed the tone of being cold and hopelessness regarding America dream due to the fact that American dream did not in any case help Willy in attaining a better standard of living (Miller).
The play does not only reflects the assumption of negative impact of American dream on the dignity of man but also on the family values and notions that had prevailed in the society Willys life kept on loosing the American dream because he could not understand the rules of society. The author defends his assumption by referring to the life Willy as he got disillusioned when he could not see the plantation of seed going well. Here plantation of seed had been used as a symbol by Arthur symbolizing Willys constant hard work to nurture his two sons with perfection. The gap became massive between the father and sons. The reason behind the expansion of gap between them was due to fact that American dream lead to the lost of individuality. Both the sons Happy and Biff became ruthless as they experienced their fathers adultery (Rosinger). That is evident in the book when the author quotes, I am not a dime a dozen I am Willy Loman, and you are Biff Loman(Miller 132).
Arthurs assumption reflects correctness according to the frame of projection of protagonists life. Arthur Miller further elaborates that Willy wanted to achieve enough wealth for his sons so that they would not have to live a life fully of disparity as Willy did because of his father. Willy at the last years of his life was able to bring food at the table for his family thus he started to plant vegetables. Planting vegetables is a motif used by the author indicating the inability of Willy to achieve success as a salesman. The protagonist of the play is Willy Loman who had been projected as a person who had tried to live his life with dignity but the end of the day he represents those who could not achieve better for himself and for his offspring. Willy dreamed of a life where he could have achieved better living standards by working as a salesman. The character Willy Loman lived all his life to fulfill his American dream as mentioned in the book, Hes a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine and when they start not smiling back- thats an earthquake. And then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and youre finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesmanis got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory (Miller 138). The title of the play The Death of a Salesman signified to the same concept as discussed above (Rosinger).
The conclusion of the life of Willy turned out the opposite of what he strived for. In the pursuit of achieving the American dream, Willy became psychologically hit as he could not succeed. Outside factors or in other words demand for social status from within lead Willy to live with constant distress. The traumatic mental hit that was experienced by Willy affected him because what he believed became his own mistake. Willy was his own culprit as he believed on the system to the extreme as persuaded by his brother Ben who abandoned Willy in a very young age to get better business opportunities (Miller).
The thought that evokes the reader of the play is to open eyes to the reality. It is more important to become realistic than becoming Willy who owned a home, expensive appliances, raised sons to contribute to the American dream which was more a myth and democratic agenda.
American Dream and Literature
Arthur Miller is not the first writer who had highlighted and pointed the failure of American dream. A great deal of journal articles, books and critiques had been published by various authors and renowned sociological writers for the same purpose. On the surface the assumption provided by Arthur Miller works as a national ethos but in real it was just a political agenda or democratic agenda to promise prosperity to those who were left abandoned in the Second World War. The assumption of failure of American dream had also been used by F. Scott Fitzgerald in his literary work, The Great Gatsby. After the Second World War, American dream became the common subject of economist, sociologists and literary giants (Cardullo).
Concluding remarks
Hence on the basis of the analysis of the major character Willy and the story of Death of a Salesman, it can be concluded that the journey of Willy in the pursuit of achieving American dream turned into a crucial path for him that resulted in disparity and failure as a father and a salesman. Therefore, the argument of the correctness of Millers assumption regarding the American dream could be justified as correct. American dream was observed to be nothing but a democratic agenda to play with the minds of people.
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