Willy Loman`s American Dream
Willy Loman`s American Dream
Many perceive the American Dream as obtaining fame, fortune, and success. The
play" Death of A Salesman," by Arthur Miller, tells the story of traveling salesman, Willy
Loman, who encounters frustration and failure as he reflects on and experiences his own
life. Willy's quest for the American Dream leads to his failure because throughout his
life, he pursues the illusion of the American Dream and not the reality of it. His mindset
was on perfection, success, and his constant reminiscence of the past and foretelling of
the future, all contribute to his defeat in the end.
The reality of the American Dream is that people are capable of succeeding.
Success, though, requires one to work hard and be dedicated to both his/her professional
life and family life. Yet, the illusion of the Dream is that attaining material prosperity
defines success. Failing to acknowledge the importance of hard work in achieving the
American Dream is another aspect of the illusion. By ignoring the present, Willy fails to
deal with reality. He has a tendency of living in the past and thinking of the future. He
always thinks that if he had done something differently then this could have happened, or
things will get better as time passes. His habit of distorting the past, never allows Willy
to realize what is going on right then and there in the present. At one time, when Willy
goes off down memory lane, he "says" to Biff and Happy, "America is full of beautiful
towns and fine, upstanding people. And they know me, boys...the finest people...there'll
be open sesame for all of us, 'cause one thing boys: ...
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always thinks that if he had done something differently then this could have happened, or
things will get better as time passes. His habit of distorting the past, never allows Willy
to realize what is going on right then and there in the present. At one time, when Willy
goes off down memory lane, he "says" to Biff and Happy, "America is full of beautiful
towns and fine, upstanding people. And they know me, boys...the finest people...there'll
be open sesame for all of us, 'cause one thing boys: I have friends. I can park my car in
any street...and the cops protect it like their own" (31). Willy makes this distortion of
the past in order to make himself believe that he has achieved the American Dream. At
times when doing this was not possible, Willy looks to the future and thinks he can still
achieve it then. For instance, he has this dream of having a big, spectacular funeral. In
the end when Willy dies, at his funeral, Linda says, "Why didn't anybody come...where
are all the people he knew?" (137). All his life, he holds on to this fantasy, but he never
faces the reality of how he could have made it come true. It is his vision of the people of
the past that lead Willy to follow a particular path, leading to his demise in the end.
The success attained by Willy's role models, his father, Dave Singleman, and
Ben, is what he envisions to be the American Dream. He only visualizes the end product,
being successful, and not the process they may have gone through to achieve that success.
Willy's father sold flutes and made that his living. In an encounter with his thoughts of
the past, Willy listens to Ben, his brother, who refers to their father by saying, "Great
Inventor, Father. With one gadget he made more in a week than a man like you could
make in a lifetime" (49). Willy assumes that by being a salesman, like his father was, he
is automatically guaranteed success, and that it wasn't something that he would have to
work for. Material success, such as money, luxury, and wealth, and popularity are his
goals and his definition of success. On the other hand, self-fulfillment and happiness
through hard work is not. By only focusing on the outer appearance of the American
Dream, Willy ignores the reality of the hard work and dedication required to obtain it.
His constant preoccupation with being successful, being well-liked, and attaining that
Dream with the "perfect" job, the "perfect" family, and the "perfect" life, never left his
mind.
The unattainable part of Willy's notion of the American Dream is perfection. This
illusion shadows Willy as it takes him through his life. He has this set picture in his mind
of how everything should be: a good job, a high paying salary, a wonderful family with
smart kids and a perfect housewife, being well-liked, being happy, and having no
problems at all. Because Willy has this perception of how life should be, any entity that
does not fit his viewpoint turns out as this huge ordeal. This obsession of perfection is a
reason for why, in reality, he did not have a happy family. By trying to make his family
fit the image of the American Dream, he actually caused their unhappiness. Failing at
this attempt of "perfecting" his family is just one example of Willy's many mistakes.
Due to the fact that he is a so-called perfectionist, accomplishment is never evident to
Willy. Once he reaches any "goal", he never sees the good in it, instead he only sees what
he could have done better. Perfection is just a figment of the imagination, an elusive
illusion, just as the American Dream is in Willy's mind.
Willy Loman portrays a "common man", who lives a life that is purely an illusion.
Although Willy has good intentions, his tragic flaw is that he focuses only on the
appearance of the American Dream and never on the reality, the work ethic, or how to
achieve it. Willy brings about his own downfall, his defeat, because he tries to pursue
this "superficial" idea. Miller includes this theme of the American Dream in his social
criticism in an attempt to portray the deviation in the values of society. For instance,
materialism and technological advances, causes the American Dream to change as times
changes. The salesman is a position that has declining importance at the time. He shows
that an individual's values are based on what society has established. Yet, as society
changes, the values one have may not, causing conflict between the society and the
individual.
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