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Biff deliberately gives up all chances of graduating from high school, and leaves his college dreams behind.
For a long time, Biff feels some anxiety about his chosen lifestyle out West. He enjoys the freedom of his rootless life, but feels somewhat guilty that he has given up so much, after so much was expected of the early promise he showed. His cousin Bernard, less athletic but more studious, has distinguished himself as a lawyer. His Uncle Ben, Willy's idol, found diamonds while wandering in the wilderness, while Biff has only, in his view, wasted his time doing very little, and making very little money.
When he comes back to see his parents, Biff contemplates going into business with his unethical brother Happy, who is very much like a younger version of Willy. But after a certain point, Biff realizes that this would simply be, in his words, "trying to become what I don't want to be." (Miller, p.125) Unlike Willy, forever trying to please others and make a show of his status, Biff refuses to lie. "Pop," he says to his father, who has falsely indulged him, idolized him, and despised him all of his life, "I'm nothing....
I'm nothing, Pop. Can't you understand that? There's no spite in it any more I'm just what I am that's all." (Miller, p.125) Biff sees that, although he originally took to the open road to spite his adulterous father, he is not wasting his life -- rather he has found himself. He is not an academic type of person, striving to please the world like Bernard, nor does he care if he is rich or well liked. Biff simply wishes to be himself.
Willy cannot understand this. "Biff -- He likes me!" says Willy, making sense of Biff's profound revelation about being true to one's self at all costs, no matter what society might say, in the only way Willy knows how. The repetition of this favorite phrase shows how little Willy has changed over the course of the play that bears his name, and why Biff is the true hero of the play. Biff makes a choice of how to live his life, while Willy merely reiterates his old ideas, however false, and passively makes his exit from existence, towards the end of Miller's drama.
Works Cited
Miller, Arthur. "Death of a Salesman." The Portable Arthur Miller. New York, Penguin, 1995.
Works Cited
Miller, Arthur. "Death of a Salesman." The Portable Arthur Miller. New York, Penguin, 1995.
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