Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman - Book Report/Review Example

Like any other work of art, Death of a Salesman has a reason for being. It will not be a worthwhile reading/viewing material if it has not achieved a certain degree of magnitude and unique features. The work is not at all about death. It is more of the values that a person has that would either make or destroy him. Looking at the protagonist along with the other major characters would reveal the values that would raise or bring down a person, not only a businessman. In this characterization, positive and negative values are contrasted such as: honesty versus dishonesty, transparency versus deceit, happiness versus living up to others' expectations, acceptance versus ignorance, materialism versus real fulfillment, and success versus failure.

The characterization will cover Willy Loman, Linda Loman, Biff Loman, Happy Loman, Charley, and Ben Loman. The story centers on Willy, the protagonist, who is suffering from diminishing self-esteem and an increasing awareness of his failure. He is actually in the stage of senility where he tends to confuse reality with the memory of the past. As a father, he tries to maintain his authority and demands that his son, Biff would also be like him, a "successful businessman." His dreams focus on Biff that even in his death, he has to do it for his son.

He commits suicide so that Biff could benefit from his insurance and have a better life than what Biff has. Willy shows an unwillingness to accept that he actually fails in the end.Linda Loman, the wife of Willy, is his opposite for she sees life as it is yet she supports her husband and does not let her husband realize that she knows the real happenings in the life of Willy. When her husband and her son would quarrel as they usually do, she becomes the middle man trying to keep them from destroying each other.

She is a typical wife and mother who puts things in place in the home. Her selflessness and patience has kept her home intact even until the end.The man with whom Willy always confronts is Biff, his eldest son. By being so obsessed about his son becoming a replica of himself, Willy consented of Biff's wasteful and careless life as a teen-ager and as a young man. With this he is instrumental in allowing Biff to become a wayward person with improper practices and habits. At past thirty, he remains unstable and unreliable as well as irresponsible.

Willy has failed in instilling in his son's mind the true and lasting values of life. Biff remains unstable and unreliable as well as irresponsible. Willy has failed in instilling in his young mind the true values of integrity and accountability.The other son, who is often ignored by both parents and marginalized in his own family, is Happy. He is the more successful financially but he remains unhappy, the opposite of his name. At age thirty, he remains dependent to his parents and is as irresponsible as his brother Biff.

Ben Loman, the ideal person of Willy, is his older brother who left home when Willy was young. Instead of finding their father, he ended up in Africa and became rich through the diamond mines. He is as corrupt as Willy and as permissive and consenting to Biff in wrongdoings such as cheating and stealing. He became successful because he is "worldly-wise."Charley is the other person next to Willy's wife who really helps him.