The Collapse of the American Dream Prosperity, job security, hard work and family union are some of the concepts that involves the American Dream, generally speaking. Some people think this dream is something automatically granted; or in contrast, as in the story “Death of a Salesman” written by Arthur Miller, as something that has to be achieved in order to be successful in life. The play takes issues with those in America who place to much stress on material gain, instead of more admirable values. American society is exemplified with Miller’s work and demonstrates how a dream could turn into a nightmare.
Arthur Miller’s, “Death of a Salesman”, is a play that portrays the author’s life and the psychological problems that brings the collapse of the American Dream for this in a lower-middle family in an economical depression. The reader can see how Arthur Miller was inspired to write this play because of his family background using a biographical approach. Miller’s father “was a prosperous businessman until the Crash of 1929, after the family suffered through the Depression” (Rollyson) which had a significant influence on his life and works. As we see in the play, in a sense has two different realities. There is a Willy Loman — “the financially burdened and emotionally exhausted main character (Thompson) — is broken, an exhausted man in his sixties, near the end of his life.
And there is the more confident, vigorous Willy Loman of some fifteen years before, who appears in flashbacks in the story. If we make a parallel between the story and the author’s life, these two realities are the before and after of the great depression that Miller’s father suffered through when Miller was a child. His life served as the inspiration to create the characters of the story: “Miller drove trucks, unloaded cargoes, waited on tables, and worked as a clerk in a warehouse.” (Rollyson) Moreover, the psychological view of Willy Loman is shown as a person who works as a traveling salesman and decides to commit suicide because the “American Dream” overwhelms him. As Charley says in the story: “the only thing you got in this world is what you can sell.” He is a normal person “who embodies traditional American values of success.” (Hansberry) In fact, Willy Loman wants to a great extent believe that he is one of the finest salesmen, a winner in life and a great father. For Mr.
Loman, the accomplishment of the “American Dream” is so important that he is battling between life and death. In his last years of work, he notices how his presence in the business of selling goods is falling down. First, his body is not as young and energetic as it used to be. Second, he is no longer able to financially support his family.
For him, this is an humiliation because having a tumbling career was not seen as a successful life to others or, even worse, he is not giving the right image to his family as the producer of economic wealth. “A man’s descent to failure is horrendous to contemplate” (Kling hoffer); therefore, Willy Loman tries to hide the truth to his family for a while until it is obvious to them. Moreover, his life is surrounded by a self doubt of his identity, because he lives for what he was and not for who he is now. He does not accept that he is growing old fast. The dreams that he has in the car of the past represents the desire to be young and the reality of the unwanted present.
Loman thinks that killing himself is the only way left of showing his masculinity; but instead, it is a very coward way to escape from the family and economical problems he has. In a deeper view, what Willy Loman cannot accept is that when we “buy” the “American Dream” we usually don’t see the small print of the contract. We are born, we study, we work, we have a family, we raise our children, we get older and we eventually die. This is the cycle of life; but within this cycle of life there are more cycles. For example, when we get older new and younger people can do the same job faster and for less money. The pursuit of this dream forces Loman to try to act and do the same things as when he was twenty years younger, when he was a fuller man.
Willy Loman represents a man who does not have his “feet on the ground”; because he is blind to what is going on with his life [family]. For example, his wife Linda has to mend her stockings in order to save money and help Willy with the economical situation. But Willy is unwilling to see or accept the reality of why she is doing it. They do not have money not even for a pair of socks. But he is so proud that the reader is astonished when Willy says “you end up worth more dead than alive;” he knows committing suicide that was the only way that he had left to support his family and to be remembered as a man who did something for them. Some critics debate whether the play portrays a pathetic or tragic point of view.
The author’s “exhortation and distinction between the pathetic and tragic imply that he thinks Willy is a tragic figure.” (Hart) According to the American Heritage dictionary, tragedy is “a drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffer extreme sorrow.” (American Heritage) In other words, Willy Loman’s tragedy is that he committed suicide “in order to justify the waste of it.” (Hart) Therefore, the reader can understand this waste as something honorable from Willy Loman; he gave the last thing that he had — his life — in order to supply his family with the money from the insurance and to be remembered with dignity. Not only is Willy demanding with his life, but he also expects his two sons to become more successful than he is and to follow his beliefs. However, Biff and Happy do not accomplish Willy’s hopes to have very successful sons. Biff Loman is a thirty-four year old, rough, good-looking former star athlete. He is also a moody and troubled man. Like his father, he is worried both about the family tensions and about work.
He was a very promising football athlete, but his life changed completely when he discovered that his father was cheating with another woman. Biff drifted and left home and traveled around seven states to get a better job but could not. He also went to jail for stealing a suit. In fact, Biff “utterly failed to live up his father’s expectations.” He has an internal struggle trying to know what to do with his future. The main conflict between them is that Willy sees Biff as a person with a lot of possibilities for his life, but the truth is that he sees himself as a “nobody.” On one side, he feels the pressure that he has to please his father’s wishes; and on the other hand, Biff wants to do what he thinks it is right for his life, his own dreams. But Willy does not want to believe that a member of the Loman family could be or is a “nobody” or a “loser” in life.
However, this illusion is gone at the end of the story for both. And Willy is not open to listen to his sons and to realize, as Biff says, that “he never knew who he was.” Biff’s brother, Happy Loman, who is the elegant “assistant to the assistant” buyer, shares with Biff an affection for a rough outdoor living but has a stronger desire for material success. He has his own car and his own apartment. He is also an accomplished liar who has all but convinced himself that he is slated to become the store’s next merchandise manager. He has always felt to be the “second son” in the family. Happy always tries to do things to be noticed with his father when he was younger saying: ‘I’m los in’ weight pop, you notice?’ and now saying ‘I’m going to get married, just you wait and see.’ Happy, as his father are similar, both live in a dream world.
When Willy dies, Happy cannot see reality as it is because he thinks that ‘Willy Loman did not die in vain.’ Biff and Happy feel as though their father is only going to be happy if they have achieved a materialistic life and accomplished the American Dream. Willy does not pay a lot of attention about what kind of person they are, just to what they have achieved. Biff at the end of the story realizes that he will do what he wants to do when he says “I looked up and I saw the sky… and I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been.’ On the other hand, Happy continues with his father dream, exemplified when he expresses: ‘My own apartment, a car, and plenty of women, and still, goddam it, I’m lonely.’ The idea of the dream by itself is empty if the reader understand that “things” can only make us happy for a short period of time and they usually come and go. Willy’s wife, Linda, plays the role of peacekeeper between her sons and Willy.
In order to relieve the strain between them, she takes care of Willy accepting what he does and not trying to interfere with his wishes and beliefs. Moreover, she knows that her husband is at the end of his life. Linda knows that Willy is willing to commit suicide, even though it is not the first time, but she loves him so much that she cannot put him in an embarrassing situation in front of anybody. She understand that the Loman name represents so much for him that she is unwilling to hurt his dignity. When Willy was very young, his father left him and his brother Ben alone in the world without any money nor any family background; an event that marked Willy till his death.
Moreover, Willy is left again but now by his older brother Ben when he goes to Alaska for a better future. One could see how Willy is marked psychologically when is completely alone because he therefore thinks about the “American Dream” as the golden goal to accomplish, the ideal of a perfect family and a secure future. The “American Dream” for Willy is something that could only be achieved if you are “well liked” and if you are “personally attractive.” Therefore, a person who works for a business and has such physical traits will achieve a life full of luxuries and will belong to the “American style” of life. Obviously, Willy thinks that he has it and his sons also; that is why he is so obsessed with trying to attain it. He is the product of his own illusions and of a society that believe that with hard work everything is possible. The reader can understand that Willy’s skewed perspective of the “American Dream” is due to his distortion of his life and the dream that he thinks he lives in everyday.
In conclusion, the play represents the collapse of the “American Dream” for a typical lower-middle class family in Brooklyn during an economic depression. The story represents “the brutality of the system toward man” (Kroll). Willy, with his illusions of living the present with the mementos of the past represents the unwanted desire to accept reality. Therefore, he decides to commit suicide in a coward way and leave the insurance money to the family.
Moreover, his wife sees the whole process of Willy’s death without interference in order to not hurt his pride. His sons, Biff and Happy, always had a constant pressure to achieve luxuries and comforts of the American Dream and due to that pressure they were unable to attain it. Willy dies believing in a dream that his family did not believe because they were seeing reality a little bite closer than him.