Willy Loman Death Of A Salesman Essay

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Willy Loman is an ordinary man who epitomized the traditional value of success. Loman had finally reached an age where he cannot compete with those that are just beginning in his field. He cannot compete with a young traveling salesman. Faced with the termination of his career, Loman begins to question his past to determine his values. In this critical point of his life, Biff, his oldest son returns home, and Willy's desire for his son to have a traditional successful life is rekindled. The “American Dream” is “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability and achievement” (The American Dream What Is The American Dream). Everyone wants the American Dream.…show more content…
When he decided to go look for his father, he met Dave Signleman. Signleman was an “eighty four year old salesman who had drummed merchandise in thirty-one states and who could now simply go into his hotel room, call the buyers, and make his living in his green velvet slippers” (Stanton 131). This view of undisturbed and successful career makes him reconsider his decision of going to Alaska. Upon his decision to become a salesman, Willy replicates Dave’s action. Deeming Dave as a father figure, Loman follows the same path, in hopes that he will also achieve the same success as Dave has (Stanton 133). Without luck, after thirty-five years of his career, Willy realizes that he hadn't accomplished the success that he really wanted. Loman devotes his life to sales, despite knowing that he is good with his hand. Losing his own strategy, although brave, made Loman realize that ¨he possessed too much snobbery to admit that his own destiny was in a simple career as a carpenter¨ (“Death of a Salesman”). The distinction between the traditional American Dream and the business American Dream became a big deal for Willy; he understood the dichotomy among the two ideas, but still attempted to follow them both, admittedly recognizing his

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