Willy Loman's Perception Of The American Dream

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Most of us wish to inhabit the American dream, nonetheless we all possess different views and concepts of it. The main character, Willy Loman from the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller was a man who dreamt of living the American Dream just like everyone else in modern America. His dreams of materialistic possessions, and popularity has dwarfed his mentality so much that Willy could not distinguish between his crazy hopes from realities in the present. Arthur Miller utilizes symbols within the play such as the diamonds, stockings, and seeds to display the theme and to show how Willy’s perception of the American Dream contains many defects and becomes an imminent failure rather than a success for him. One of the many symbols mentioned in this novel was of the silk…show more content…
Willy admired his brother Ben because he had lived such a very successful life, something that Willy strives to have. When his brother was still alive he made a fortune by going to Africa and coming back home with abundant amounts of diamonds. Willy has a flashback of a conversation that his brother Ben had with his two sons explaining to them how he became rich and successful in the play Death of a Salesman: Willy: No! Boys! Boys! (young biff and happy appear.) Listen to this. This is your Uncle Ben, a great man! Tell my boys, Ben! Ben: Why, boys, when I was seventeen I walked into jungle and when I was twenty-one I walked out. [He laughs] and by God I was rich! Willy: “You see what I been talking about? The greatest things can happen!”(505) Willy shares that moment with his sons hoping that they will learn from their uncle Ben to find ways that will help them become successful too. For Willy, The diamonds have become symbolic of wealth, happiness, and success but unfortunately it was a missed opportunity on his

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