Death of the Salesman by Arthur Miller - Essay Example

The paper "Death of the Salesman by Arthur Miller" is an outstanding example of an essay on literature. I suppose I can identify myself with Happy Loman. He is the youngest son in the family, raised in the shadow of more attractive and more perspective Bill. He is the one who tries to create a positive and friendly atmosphere in the family since he does not like any conflicts. Happy`s name is the worst joke made up by his parents. Happy is not happy at all since he perceives life in a simplistic way, I do not share this view of life but creating an illusionary world in which his family lives seems even more unreasonable to me. He obviously has fewer illusions and dreams of success than all the other members of his family. It seems that Happy does not understand how the world works as he perceives it from a kind of animalistic perspective so that it reminds jungles were the faster and the stronger always wins:

“That’s what I dream about Biff. Sometimes I wanna just rip my clothes off in the middle of the store and outbox that goddamned merchandise manager. I mean I can outbox, outlift and outrun anybody in that store, and I have to take orders from those petty, common sons of bitches till I can’t stand it anymore”.
Happy is still a bit infantile since he cannot figure out why the world does not work according to his perception. His success with women only proves his burning desire to suppress his frustration of success and substitute it with at least some achievements. It seems to me that then the death of his father could influence Happy in a positive way as he can grow up, though it may sound ironical. Since the whole play Death of the Salesman is about the painful world of illusions I believe that Happy is the only one from the family who has a chance to stop fooling himself and start living. Read More