Expectations Vs. Reality In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman
592 Words3 Pages
Everyday, all kinds of people go into the day with some kind of expectation, whether it'd be
about the day that has yet to come, or about other people, such as their children, students,
or spouses. Television often portray these "happy go lucky" families and kids through
commercials about the newest convenient kitchen utensil or the next hit game, not to
mention expectations are also prominent in certain shows, movies, and even books, both
through the audiences and characters. As a result, people tend to set their expectations at
a certain level, hoping to get to some level of joy or accomplishment. For the character
Willy Loman from the book Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, life is all about the
'American Dream' and high…show more content… Author Laura Scott of ancientstardust.com, explains this
topic in her article, Expectations vs. Reality: A New Perspective, and this ties to a theme
in Death of a Salesman, as Willy Loman is a key example of this.
In the book, Willy is a deluded, insecure, and selfish salesman who firmly believes in the
dream of easy success and wealth, but that dream is never fulfilled as he had trouble
economically. Throughout the story, he hoped to have his dream fulfilled through his sons
Biff and Happy Loman, but in the end, the dream was a lost cause. Truth be told, Biff and
Happy aren't really suited for business, as Biff has been fired from many jobs and Happy
has bad business ethics. Due to such a dream and attempting to shove it down
everyone's throats, Willy suffers many internal and external conflict that slowly tears him
and his family apart. Many people in real life also speak of all kinds of dreams but some
never tend to see the reality of whether the dream can actually be accomplished or not.
It's the same case for Willy, sadly.
In the article Expectations vs. Reality: A New Perspective, the author talks about the
issue of high expectations. Throughout the article, she basically says that life isn't