Loman Versus Society

The Society Caused the Death of the Salesman Willy

As an essential element of any kinds of literature, conflict, which represents what the protagonist fights against, contributes to the plot development. The social conflict (Man Versus Society) which is regarded as a conflict struggling against a particular social value, atmosphere, idea, or custom, is frequently used by many authors in literature. Death of a Salesman, as a widely known play written by the American author Arthur Miller, describes the miserable life of Willy Loman and his family via comparing Willy’s fantasy and the realistic situation. The whole play happened in the period that everyone is chasing the American Dream. Even though each of them had different goals, they believed

In the late 1940s which was the period right after the end of the Second World War, the soldiers returned to the U.S. However, their needs of job positions for the sake of raising their families triggered the unemployment threat. As a consequence, in the America’s macroeconomic, a significant rise in price was witnessed, which disturbed the market order and economy. As one of those who could not afford the high price of commodities, Willy with his low salary made his family confront a low-level life. As said by Linda in Act I, the cost of hot water maintenance was 97.50 dollars, which was incompatible with Willy’s commission. (Miller XX) Even though it was during the Christmas time, the high expenditure still could drive Willy crazy compared with Willy’s low income, as mentioned before that he earned a commission which was approximately two hundred dollars - half of Willy’s weekly income just equalled the hot water maintenance fee. Thus, it can be inducted that Willy’s earning was not able to provide his family with a good life. The lack of money lowered the level of their life quality, which was attributed to the misery of the family as long as the price did not go

Even though the tension between Willy and Biff had eased off and everything seemed to be normal, life then played a joke on Willy. People at that time recognised that in terms of work, those who were not young anymore were not competent. After going through two decades’ selling, Willy, with the ambition of becoming the best salesman, suddenly was told by Howard, “I don’t want you to represent us. I’ve been meaning to tell you for a long time now.” (Miller, XX). Due to the age, old Willy lost his job. Unfortunately, Willy was not supposed to blame the society that urged him to do anything he could for the American Dream that he was seeking for. Howard once mentioned “business is business” (Miller, XX) during the dispute with Willy. In their thoughts, the age was much more important than anything else including the experience, business knowledge, persuading strategies, emotional quotient (EQ), and deligence, since that the youth was regarded as the most prominent capital of being a successful salesman. This biasmeans that his family would obtain no more money to go on. The burden of raising the family used to be on Willy’s shoulder. The discrimination towards the elderly then drastically destroyed his mind and killed him