Madeline Washburn Garland English 1302 – Period 1 March 3, 15 Death of a Salesman Symbolism Rhetorical devices are used by authors in order to help their readers fully understand the story being told. He or she may decide on certain objects to use that serve to represent certain ideas important to the overall meaning or message of their work. Symbolism helps the reader gain a deeper understanding of the emotional aspects being portrayed by the author. Arthur Miller, author of Death of a Salesman
If one were to ask, “define the ‘American Dream’ ”, not one definition can sum up this traditionalistic belief. Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”, depicts conflicts within the Loman family, while addressing larger affairs regarding American culture, more specifically Willy Loman’s blind view of the American Dream. Miller not only broadcasts the cost of blind belief in the American Dream but places ‘charges’ on America with a false advertisement to its people, that which is constructed around
sense that Willy never would get the chance to truly realize his potential beyond improperly fitting the bill as a salesman. Unfortunately for him, the grueling commercial-sales industry that employed him would also turn out to be the prime adversary of the American dream -- the misuse of the ideology known as capitalism. In the strictest sense of the purpose of Death of a Salesman, it was originally known as The Inside of His Head. Perhaps this was alluding to the fact that Willy Loman frequently