Achieving The American Dream
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller shows symbolic meaning of the American Dream. In the book being well liked being in contrast to hard work, Willys American dream, and Biffs American dream being in contrast to Willys dream are all important qualities of the book that need to be understood. Everybody wants to achieve the American Dream in life. After WW2, living in New York City the main character, Willy Loman, also wanted to achieve the American Dream. He pushed his sons, Happy and Biff, to strive for the American Dream as well. The way Willy acts from pushing his sons to strive for something his sons dont want shows you who Willy really is.
Willy believes entirely that being well liked and personally attractive will get you far in America and help you achieve the American Dream. Thats what Willy makes his sons strive for in life, being well liked, instead of being a hard worker. He especially makes Biff strive for this goal. Willy doesnt believe that hard work will get where you want to be in life. For example, when Willy has a flashback about his sons childhood Charleys son, Bernard, comes over to tell Biff he has to study for school. When Bernard leaves, Willy asks if Bernard is liked. The sons answer by saying Bernard is liked, but not well liked. Willy says that he might get good grades but because he is not well liked he will not be as successful as Biff and Happy. But in the end Bernard is the successful one because of hard work and determination not because of being well liked. Happy and Biff are not successful because they are very lazy and that is why they never accomplish anything meaningful in life.
After the depression and WW2 the American Dream became a very popular idea in America. Willys idea of the American Dream was to become a great salesman, having successful children, and to have his name remembered as a salesman. Willy thinks he can achieve these things by not putting in any effort and being well liked. Willy is unable to see through these delusions, which messed him up, and also puts the wrong information in his sons heads, which ultimately screw up them too. Willy also believes that he is well liked but in reality no one really likes him. For example in the middle of the book Willy brings up a story about the salesman who everybody liked and everybody went to his funeral. When Willy died no one showed up for his funeral, but his family and his neighbors. Willy never saw through his delusions or saw the real meaning of the salesman who everybody liked. He didnt see that it was hard work that made people like and respect the salesman from his story.
From the beginning, Biff wanted no part of Willys American Dream. He had an American Dream of his own. Biffs idea had no aspect of Willys dream. It was an idea that purely had to do with being free and open. Willys idea and Biffs idea of the American Dream were totally different. Willys was to be in the economic system and having a family. While Biffs dream was to be out there, working with his hands, to just be by himself. Willy couldnt accept Biffs dream of happiness and tried to force him to get into the economic system American Dream. Thats why Biff and Willy got into so many fights. Biff feels compelled to seek the truth about him, while Willy wants no part of the truth. Willy cant accept the failure of his life, but Biff can acknowledge his failure in life. Biff tries to break away from Willys disillusionment of his son and what he wants Biff to be in life but instead to reclaim his own identity to live freely in the west.
Being well liked, Willies American Dream, and the contrast of Biffs and Willys American Dream are all important concepts of the American dream. But in the end it doesnt really matter what your American Dream is as long as you have one and you strive for it. Willys dream ended in vain because he didnt work hard enough to get to his and was in disillusionment about how to achieve the American Dream.
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