The Slipping of the American Dream in Miller’s Play Death of a Salesman

Millers book Death of a Salesman is like no other book of the time. Instead of focusing on high, successful parts of life, or focusing on heroes who save the day, Miller chooses to focus on the common man. His book is a reflection of the American Dream slipping through the fingers of the characters in the play, which can also be society as a whole.

A common fact that seems to be avoided in most books is that more people fail in life than they succeed. Even successful people fail many times before they succeed. For example, Michael Jordan was cut from his basketball team his freshmen year of high school. Death of a Salesman shows that not every person receives successes. The book may be depressing and disturbing, but it is depressing and disturbing because people realize that it is a reflection of their own life. Most Americans dont go out at night and defeat an evil Grendel to save the town. Americans also tend not to travel around the world and encounter various monsters such as Sirens and Cyclops.

When Americans read Death of a Salesman, they realize that their life is not much different than Willy Lomans life. To look on the bright side to this depressing story, Americans can force themselves to look at their own life and attempt to put more meaning into it. Willy Loman was never capable of visualizing his life as desolate and worthless, but the readers were able to see his immobility in life from the beginning of the story when he comes home from his business trip as a salesman. A man who is sixty-four years old should have a better job than a salesman. Americans can in turn try to become more successful.

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Death of a Salesman opens the eyes of people to realize that life does not always have a happy ending. Books such as Beowulf and the Odyssey only focus on a person who is almost invincible. Sure, Beowulf died, but he died a hero because he saved the town of the evil Grendel. Willy Loman dies with no such success. He cannot live with being a failure, so he dies in a pre-planned car accident. No crowds of people cheered for his greatness. No statue was built outside of the city for him. No holiday was created for him. Hardly anybody even showed up for his funeral.

Americans sometimes feel that their life is making a crater on the entire world, but in reality it is very rarely even making a scratch. As depressing as this sounds, it is usually true. Americans need to realize this fact. An impact on the world is not as important as society makes it seem. If a person is happy with flipping hamburgers, then who is to judge his success? The key to life is not making an mpact, but being happy.

Society is full of lust for money. From the first moment a student enters preschool, he is being forced to succeed. The word successful in America is synonymous with making lots of money. Americans always strive to be a famous person or to be in an occupation that will give them a lot of money. When someone says the word doctor, most people think of a person who makes lots of money before they think of a person saving peoples lives. America is screwed up for this reason because it shows that we care more about money than we do about peoples lives. Money in Death of a Salesman is prime factor in determining the success of an individual.

Willys brother, Ben, is really not successful, but simply lucky. He went into a forest and found gold and came out a millionaire. Willy wants to be just like and he tells his children to try to be like Ben. Since Ben was simply lucky, Willy is telling his children to rely on getting lucky instead of actually working toward success. However, in Death of a Salesman and in America, we view Ben as successful because he has lots of money! A true successful person works towards making money. Making the journey to riches is part of being successful.

Almost the whole book takes place at the Lomans house. There is not exciting journey that is taken. Movies like Rambo and Terminator have a hero who travels all over the place destroying bad guys. In Death of a Salesman, no such excitement occurs. It is a story of a middle class family, fighting over petty issues such as the way to act at a job interview or the way to be well liked. Readers may put themselves in the shoes of the Loman family and say to themselves Last week, I fought with my brother because my brother refused to cut his afro, and we still arent talking. These small issues may smother life and cause people to stress over small issues. When reading the book, society sees what kind of issues the common folk fight over and they can try to avoid the petty fighting.

A great parallel to Death of a Salesman is American Beauty. It is a story of a man, Lester Burnham, who hates his job and is tired of living his life through his job. He wants to live his life instead of work through it. Having this view, he quits his job as a sales executive, buys a red 1978 Pontiac Firebird, and works at a fast food restaurant. He wants as little responsibility as possible. Willy Loman is a lot like this. They both are tired of working for success. They just want to be happy without working for the happiness. Part of the American dream is being happy without going through the trouble of working for it.

Society is a reflection of this book for many reasons. Both contain a lust for success through money. Society involves failures just as Death of a Salesman did unlike most books of the time. A lot of Americans lives end in sadness, and Death of a Salesman ends in sadness too with Willy Loman dieing in a car accident. Overall, the American dream falls away from individuals in both society and in Death of a Salesman.

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