Death of a Salesman and the American Dream Final Outline

Michael Standifer, Rahul Palamuttam, Trevor James, Joseph Meregillano, Nathan Kragas

Death of a Salesman and The American Dream

Thesis: In the play “Death of a Salesman”, playwright Arthur Miller conveys that one must achieve the “American Dream” by following your own goals/dreams through the Loman family and happiness

Arthur Miller

- October 17, 1915, born in Harlem, New York City (German Jewish family—father was a well to do but illiterate clothing manufacturer)

- After his father’s business ended after the Stock Market crash of 1929, the family moved to Brooklyn where he finished high school

- worked briefly with his father and in an auto parts warehouse to earn money to attend the University of Michigan

- known member of communist party and was heavily scrutinized by American government.

- Influenced by: up and down fortunes of him and his family, his communistic/socialistic views, and the work of Henrik Ibsen who portrays very similar themes in his works.

- graduated in 1938, having won several awards for playwriting

- All My Sons on Broadway in 1947

- Death of a Salesman (1949) brought Miller the Pulitzer Prize for drama, international fame, and an estimated income of two million dollars

- died February, 10, 2005

American Dream

The term was first used by James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America which was written in 1931.

o "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 or achievement. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."

In the United States’ Declaration of Independence, our founding fathers: "…held certain truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." This become the foundation to the American dream.

Transformed over time into the pursuit of material prosperity - that people work more hours to get bigger cars, fancier homes, the fruits of prosperity for their families - but have less time to enjoy their prosperity.

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trt001.html


o The American Dream is beyond the grasp of the working poor who must work

two jobs to insure their family’s survival.

MAIN CHARACTERS and PLOT

Biff Loman

- Willy’s oldest son (34 years old in play), his pride and joyo Personification of all Willy’s dreams

o Biff was everything his father wanted :star athlete, popular with girls, well liked all round

- Biff failed matho Biff’s discovery of Willy’s mistress strips him of his faith in Willy

- Biff feels compelled to seek the truth about himself, and break the lies surrounding the Loman family.

- acknowledges his failure and eventually manages to confront it, unlike Willy and Happy, this difference is evident in the characters names

o Willy and Happy willfully and happily delude themselves

o Biff bristles stiffly at self-deception.

- Adulthood: drifted from job to job, a failure in Willy's eyes;

- pulled by 3 versions of the American dream

o his fathers version: business/sales

o He is also pulled by Ben’s version of the dream, cheating to achieve it exemplified by

him stealing Oliver’s pen, and

o or what he likes to do : work with his hands in nature –

- In the end he realizes his father’s version was wrong, and it is through Biff, Miller says that the American dream is accomplishing what you wish to do.

o His fathers way of achieving the dream did not work because as mentioned by Biff, Willy

was good with his hands

Theme of Happiness –

- Biff is never truly happy, as he follows Ben’s and Willy’s version of the dream, throughout the lay.

o He is overcome with guilt when following Ben’s idea

o He himself states that the business world is not for him and will not make him happy

Happy Loman

-Willy’s thirty-two-year-old younger son.


-Happy has lived in Biff’s shadow all of his life, but he compensates by nurturing his relentless sex drive and professional ambition.

-Happy represents Willy’s sense of self-importance, ambition, and blind servitude to societal expectations.

- he works as an assistant to an assistant buyer in a department store

-he practices bad business ethics and sleeps with the girlfriends of his superiors.

- presents himself as supremely important.

- Happy believes in his fathers dream

-Like his father believes in being well liked, in order to achieve the American dream

Theme of Happiness

- Even though Happy seems to be always happy, and cheerful often saying “Sure”, he is never really liked by Willy as much as Biff is, exemplified by 1296

Ben Loman

-Willy's older brother

-Ben left the family to search for his father in Alaska when Willy was almost four. -got rich off of the diamond mines in Africa by the time he was twenty-one.

- Never fights fair – exemplified by his fight with Biff

-Linda is fearful of Ben

-encouraged Willy to teach the boys to steal and to be fearless,

- it is how he gained success

- He believes the American dream promotes the rags to riches idea

- BEN: William, when I walked into the jungle, I was seventeen. When I walked out I was twenty-one. And, by God, I was rich!

- Through Ben, Miller says that people can achieve the “rags to riches” version of the American dream, but they must be ruthless in order to achieve it

Willy Loman

- main character of the play

- Wishes he went to Alaska- His goal as a Salesman is to be like Dave Singlemen, a man who was well liked for the money he

earnedo Like singlemen he wants to be well liked and respected by his friends, through his

business success.- Believes that the American Dream is the ability to become prosperous by mere Charisma

o he wants to make sure his boys are well-liked and popular

Miller proves Willy’s conformity to the stereotypical American Dream is wrongo Portraying Biff as a ranch hand/drifter in other words a failure, even though he was well

likedo Willy get’s fired when he asks his boss Howard for a raise


- In the end he commits suicide, so that his sons gain his insurance money to continue to achieve his dream.

-An example of both the American Dream, and False Pride, Willy ends his life to support his dream and false claims through his sons.

Theme of Happiness

Never really happy, he ends up killing himself.

Linda Loman

- Wife of Willy Loman- She is realistic and level-headed- She realizes that Willy is trying to commit suicide\- She views freedom as an escape from debt which she achieves in the end- She shuns the goals of Willy Loman, but she accepts the means of reaching the goals

o She does not wan’t to be wealthy so that others will like her, but so she can pay of the

debts and be free from financial restraints- To her the American dream is paying of all the loans, financial freedomTheme of Happiness

She becomes happy once she pays off the house loan yet, as Willy dies she becomes saddened again.

Romanticism

Miller relates to Romanticism through his portrayals of Biff and Linda.

I. –Biff, realizes he should follow his own dreams in life and not conform to his father’s.II. – Biff is in love with nature, farming, working his hands etc.

a.“ There’s nothing more inspiring ore – beautiful than the sight of a mare and a new colt”(1292)

- to Biff the Colt and mare represents himself ( nature as a reflection of self)

- he is inspired because just as the Colt receives a new beginning, he too realizes he has a new beginning each time he begins to work on a farm

- Biff’s reflection upon nature clearly

b. “No with a ranch I could do the work I like and still be something”

- Biff is the Loman brother that does not conform to Willy’s expectations

- he wants to work in a ranch, because he enjoys working with animals

- Unlike Willy who conforms to the expectations of society, Biff wants to do something entirely different


- He also wants to be self reliant, and not depend on his father for success, this idea of self-reliance and belief is portrayed in Thoreau’s works

- Thus by following his own goals and not that of others, Biff does not end up like Willy Loman, or Happy Loman trapped by their goals of success defined by others

c. Biff is one of the few characters in the book that seeks to communicate with everyone including Ben.

- This represents both Thoreau’s and Emerson’s idea of connectedness.

- Biff is the most connected with his mother, father, and happy

- in contrast Willy is not, often ignoring his wife, Biff in the beginning and has always disregarded Happy rarely communicating with him

- Willy also has been lonely for large amounts of time during his journey.

- In the end it is the individual who is connected to his surroundings that realized the truth while Willy, who is disconnected dies clearly an Emersonian/ Thoreau idea.

Linda’s nonconformist attitude

Naturalism

Miller relates to naturalism through life constantly putting down the Loman family through the overpowering force of Howard.

Willy’s Boss

a. Howard being Willy’s boss has a similar relationship to that off Biff and Oliver.

- because he pays Willy, he hold’s Willy’s future and life in his hands- Willy is thus controlled by the huge force of his boss, who then dictates much of his life for the

past 20-30 years sending him on long journeys- The loneliness he experiences on these Journey’s is what causes him to have a mistress ( Not just

his genetics that are forcing him to flirt with the woman, its also the forces (his boss) of the environment he works in)

- When Howard fires Willy it further deteriorates his mental condition as his fear of relying on his sons becomes realized

- Ben is able to survive because he has experience working in “the Jungle”- Willy is not because the over powering force of “the Jungle” or the business world constantly

saps his energy and mental health, leading him to commit suicide- Willy throughout his business journey’s becomes mentally unstable as he is no longer able to

make deals- The “system” rejects the products that Willy offers ( the system is the people Willy sell it to, who

than give his income.


Of Mice and Men

- Both have the American Dream as their central theme.o George and Lenny want to earn enough to live in a small farm, live “off the fat of the

land”o Biff wants to make an honest living for his family.

- Linda=George Biff=Lennyo Both Linda and George constantly look out for and try to save their counterpart (Linda-

Willy & George- Lenny)o Both are the sense of reason in the story.

o Biff and Lenny just want to be happy.

Lenny does whatever makes him feel good despite George’s warnings because he doesn’t know better

Biff thinks that his life is meaningless and realizes that he should do things that make him happy, not anybody else.

Lenny doesn’t care about money, or where he and George live. As long as they are together.

Biff also doesn’t care about money, all he truly wants is to do what he wants and have his father accept him for what he truly is.

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Death of a Salesman and the American Dream Final Outline