Death Of A Salesman American Dream

“For many, the American dream has become a nightmare” (Bernie Sanders). Senator and Presidential frontrunner Bernie Sanders quote on the American dream could not be any more fitting. Arthur Miller redefined the genre of tragedy as well as brought light to the modern man and their quest for the American dream. This is visible in Arthur Miller’s 1949 play Death of a Salesman. In the play, there are four significant characters; Willy, Linda, Biff and Happy, the average American family. Death of a Salesman is told through Willy’s memory, mind and past events. In the play we see an aging Willy struggling to make ends meet through a commission based job. His life is a tragic one. Willy seems to not be able to communicate with his son Biff; which

Biff and Happy (his younger brother) have the idea to start a sports business, all they need is a loan from Happy’s former employer. After telling their father he is ecstatic about the whole situation, he give tips to his boys but often contradicts himself. This is recurring throughout most of the dialogue in the story. After a failed attempt at getting a loan, Biff has an epiphany. He realizes he does not wanna be a salesman like his father keeps trying to pressure him, he wants to do his own thing. Over dinner Biff tries to tell Willy what happened and he does not want to be a salesman but Willy keeps interrupting and neglects to hear what Biff is trying to say. As the play starts to come to an end, Willy and Biff have one last confrontation. Here Biff tells Willy they should not meet again or ever come in contact with each other. Biff expresses to Willy that he is “no leader of men” but just a common man. Willy refuses to believe this and tells Biff he could have been such a great person. The play ends with Willy having a revelation on Biff’s love towards him. Happily, he gets into his car and commits suicide, thus giving the family more specifically Biff insurance money to make something of

Death of a Salesman shows us that in a perfect way. After a final confrontation between Biff and Willy, it all concludes with Biff telling his father he does not want to be a salesman just like his father, he wants to follow his own path. The play concludes with Willy realizing that Biff has always loved him regardless of their fights. Soon after, Willy leaves and commits suicide by driving off of a bridge. When at Willy’s funeral, Biff says, “He had the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong” (Miller 198). In this quote Miller is referring to the outstanding amount of greatness he had set for his sons, in specific, Biff. Willy’s American dream was too big for him to achieve, his whole life he was chasing a dream he could never have. As the novel comes to an end, Happy says one of the most meaningful quotes of the entire novel, “...Willy loman did not die in vain. He had a good dream… the only dream…”(Miller 139). Willy’s death is not meaningless. He has been purposely attempting to commit suicide to leave his sons and wife with the insurance money he has been struggling to pay for. The insurance money is meant for Biff and Happy’s company idea to be started. Through his death we see the extremes Willy has to go to have Biff and Happy carry on his