What Does Willy Achieve The American Dream

According to Oxford Dictionary, the American Dream is “the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.” In Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Willy imagines himself achieving the American Dream as a salesman. He believes that he can achieve this dream by being a successful salesman and by being well-liked. In order to maintain his appearances and his reputation, Willy deceives everyone around him including his family, which leads him to be unable to grasp the reality of his situation. After Willy’s many failed attempts at achieving his American Dream, he tries to live through his son by going to any length to help him achieve Willy’s idea

While Willy is sitting with Linda, he states “Oh, I’ll knock ‘em dead next week. I’ll go to Hartford. You know, the trouble is, Linda, people don’t seem to take to me” (Miller 23). In this single statement, Willy’s contradictions show that although he tells people one thing, he realizes it may not be the truth. In this case, he says he is well-liked underneath it all but knows that he is disliked. This proves that his lies continue to his family and that even though he lies to them, he also indirectly tells them the truth. These lie-truth pairs indicate that he is aware that he is not being completely truthful. In a way, Willy is convinced that if he metaphorically paints a picture of him being a successful and liked salesman, then he has achieved part of his purpose and is one step closer to attaining his American Dream. Willy admits to his brother Ben that “business is bad, it’s murderous. But not for me, of course” (35). Willy tells Ben that the sales market is doing bad but his sales are going great. Willy continuously lies to his brother to try to impress him. This is due to his desire to be seen equally and prove to his brother that he can be as successful. However, Ben is not the only one Willy tries to impress; he is willing to lie to impress anyone who is successful. Willy’s lies are his fantasy and what he believes will put him on the right path, where in reality, he is just a salesman who is not very good at selling things. Willy was so used to lie about every aspect of his life that he was not able to stop and accept reality and caused him to slowly be consumed by his