Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman

¶ … American Explored Depicted in Death of a Salesman

Nothing epitomizes the failed pursuit of the American Dream than Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman. Willy Lowman embodies all of the characteristics of someone committed to achieving the American Dream but he also has a problem with reality, a nasty habit that clouds his perspective and his thinking. Willy not only has difficulty separating fiction from reality, he also has the additional problem of putting all of his proverbial eggs into one basket. He is not proactive when he could be and he is not honest when he could be. Willy is a failure and all of his good intensions make his story more tragic because he is not what we could consider an evil or bad person. If Willy teaches us anything, it is how not to go after the American Dream.

Willy's primary character flaw is his inability to accept reality. He is blind because he cannot see that his life has taken a turn for the worse. Willy has a dream and, while this is not a bad thing, at some point, Willy must realize hat his dream is leading him nowhere. This is something that is too difficult for him to accept, so he avoids thinking about it. This compounds his problem and, as a result, Willy's career goes downhill year after year. For Willy, life is easier living in denial. He believes that one day, he will be a success. He still thinks that he will "knock Howard for a loop, kid. I'll get an advance, and I'll come home with a New York job" (Miller II.1070-1). After he becomes a success, he thinks he will never have to "get behind another wheel" (II.1071) again. While we can admire Willy for never giving up on his dream, we must also feel pity for him because he never saw the truth of his life.

Another character flaw that leads to Willy's being the epitome of a failure is his failure to do anything proactive in his life. Willy is victim of his dreams and they hold him captive because he has lived the dream for so long, he cannot imagine doing anything other than selling cars. However, Willy does not see that he has a chance to be successful at something else if we would only do it. We never know why Willy does not accept the job offer from Charley and we can only assume that Willy believes that he cannot do anything as "well" as he sells cars. Here, Willy's assumption is doubly dangerous because he refuses to think he is a bad salesman. He blames his lack of success on everyone else. To make matters worse, he never even considers that he might not be as good as he thinks so he never seriously considers doing anything else. Willy does not know when to cut his losses and let go. Charley gives us an accurate description of Willy when he says, "For a salesman, there's no rock bottom to the life. He don't put a bolt to a nut, he don't tell you the law or give you medicine. He's a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back -- that's an earthquake" (1113). Charley's words capture the dreamy Willy. He understood Willy's blind nature and though he tried to help him, he knew it was worthless.

Willy is also an example of what not to do when pursuing the American Dream because he cannot accept responsibility for his life and, therefore, cannot take his life in a new direction. He has a problem with lying not only to himself but lying to everyone else as well. He looked for excuses that gave him a way out. For example, to explain why things are not going well for him, he tells Linda, "The trouble was that three of the stores were half-closed for inventory in Boston. Otherwise, I woulda broke records" (1046). In addition, he tells her the people he works with "don't seem to take to me" (1047). People laugh at him and he is not clear why. He tells Linda his co-workers "just pass me by. I'm not noticed" (1047). Here we see that Willy has moments of enlightenment - if he would only take them one step further and think about the rest of his life. Instead, he only mumbles about it and carries on with life as usual.