Death of a Salesman - Research Paper Example

Many critics have identified that the followers of American Dream gives due importance to their family, disregarding the society even forgetting the primary lesson that family is the miniature form of society. Miller’s protagonists, Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman and Joe Keller in All My Sons are the victims of such a dream that their failure was too much concern for their family. Willy Loman’s concept of American Dream was in a way different from that of his son Biff. Loman, as a salesman with many years of experience hopes to cherish his dream through his sons and he is sure that success can be accomplished through hard work, being attractive, and being well-liked.

He dreams of one day acquiring a large sum of money therefore he announces his motto "the man who creates personal interest is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want” (Miller). . rprets the American Dream in a special way: He believes in the wonder of quick wealth rather than in hard and constant work that finally leads to prosperity (GRIN Verlag, 7). Willy never supports “rags to riches” and proposes the view that personality is all that makes a great salesman. He stresses the same to both of his sons and adds that he is not ready to wait at the buyers but his personality will call out “Willy Loman is here” (Miller).

A closer analysis of Willy’s character reveals that Willy keeps his personality only in outward appearance, that is, he is not perfect in his relations. It is true that Biff has rejected Willy because of his discovery that Will is a “fake” –that is, an unfaithful husband—that is he has once seen Willy in hotel with prostitute. Biff’s flouting of his father is mainly due to this incident and the same is the cause Biff’s inability to attain his dream. Bilff’s idea of American Dream is somewhat different from his father.

Though he is also looking forward to make money like his father, Biff wants a more basic life. He wants love and consideration from his father. Biff wants to settle down and have a stable job but he proved himself to be failure because he does not want anybody to rule over him even his father. However, it will be improper to call Biff as a lazy fellow as his father says, “Biff is a lazy bum!” (Miller). But one can observe that he was victimized by his own father as the Americans are made victims for the success of their country.

As the poor and the exhausted are thrown into the darkness in the rat race of the capitalist society, Biff was totally ignored by his father who could not even understand or love his son. However, Willy insists Biff that he can also essentially successful without