The same home that they have lived in since at least the time Biff and Happy were in high school. In fact, in a later scene both Willy and his wife Linda sigh in contentment when they learn that they have finally paid off their mortgage and finally own their home. It idealized the concept of working hard, dutifully paying ones mortgage and other loans to eventually acquire the good things in life. The “American Dream” focuses of accumulating material wealth, being well liked and loved. This is a glimpse of both Willy’s psyche and the distorted truth of the “American Dream”. Willy is citing the life of legendary salesman David Singleman, who according to him, died the noble “death of a salesman”, a death that Willy aspires for. ‘Cause what could be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four, into twenty or thirty different cities, and pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people?” Commentary 1 “ And when I saw that, I realized that selling was the greatest career a man could want. This quote is from act two in Howard Wagner’s office. He is enthralled by the life of a salesman and the benefits it can bring. He glorifies the life of a salesman several times, in the beginning of the play, in flashbacks to his early years and even towards the end. Willy Loman’s role model is a deceased salesman who died wealthy, loved and helped so many different people. Willy Loman’s pursuit of the “American Dream” is doomed by his inability to connect with reality. In truth, Biff has been a listless vagabond for years, Happy is a charlatan and towards the end Willy is a fired for being a failure of a salesman. as the story begins he thinks all his dreams will still come true. In his youth he had every right to dream, he was in the process of owning his house, his son biff was a promising football player and because he was still young and vigorous he was doing well as a salesman. According to Willy the man he hoped to emulate died in his 80s an immensely successful man and people from three states came to visit his funeral. To obtain these ends he chose the path of the salesman. Regardless of when exactly the play is set Willy is an early 20 th Century average American who aspires for his own, his own house, a car, and other material possession. Willy Loman’s name is a pun on the term “Low Man” he is an ordinary American caught in the rapture of the American Dream. This paper will attempt to show this all-consuming “vision” of Willy Loman’s by examining 3 scenes where he interacts with Howard his neighbor, his son Biff and his “mythical/imaginary” brother Ben. This obsession comes at a tremendous cost to his family-particularly, his son, Biff. For him, the “American Dream” is the pursuit of material wealth as “the whole reason for being.” His obsession is to become a great salesman. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, we see a devastating portrait of a man, Willy Loman, consumed by the wrong dream.
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