The American Dream :(

Quarter 1 Final Post
Death of a Salesman

After having written that third blog post, I am starting to think that maybe I got the symbolism for the stockings wrong. The stockings are a physical manifestation of the reason why Biff didn't try again in math and didn't end up going college. That reason isn't infidelity, but rather betrayal. While infidelity certainly fits nicely under betrayal, it's Willy's betrayal to his family, especially Linda and Biff, that really sends all of them into a tailspin. Also, the progression of Willy's feelings towards the stockings isn't so much the increasing humiliation of being caught for infidelity, but the progress of betrayal itself. At first, Willy is so nonchalant about his affair because he doesn't quite see it as a betrayal yet, until he is confronted by Biff. It's not until he hurts someone that he realizes his affair is wrong. This then transitions from the theme I surmised.

While my initial thought was that the theme was going to have to do something with betrayal since it seemed like such a big factor in how Biff and Willy drifted apart, I actually ended up feeling that a more worthwhile theme to discuss would be on identity and the American Dream, and what it is exactly that Miller thinks about those. Let's look at the two character in which everything revolves around in the play: Willy and Biff. First, Willy: Willy has worked hard his entire life as a salesman in order to support his family and climb up the socioeconomic ladder. However, that isn't really where his passions lie. When talking to Howard about finding a position to stay in New York, Willy says, "Oh, yeah, my father lived many years in Alaska...I though I'd go out with my older brother and try to locate him, and maybe settle in the North with the old man. And I almost decided to go, when I met a salesman in the Parker House" (60). I think this quote is key in understanding why Willy is the man he is. He was all for the adventurous nature that ran in his family, and he wanted to go out to Alaska and blaze new trails for himself. However, then he meets this well-off salesman who seems to have the world wrapped around his finger. He holds this salesman that he met as the goal for himself, of where he wants to be at the end of his life. This salesman is the American Dream in Willy's eyes. But the problem is, Willy never gets there. He works hard hour for all of his life and can't even pay for his insurance when he starts to get older.

Biff, on the other hand, is the antithesis of Willy, but he starts off on the same track. He's a star athlete who's being recruited to college, and all Willy wants is for Biff to start his own business and make the money that Willy never did. When Biff finally decided to give in and go talk to Oliver about his business proposition, Willy is ecstatic, and says to him, "Because you got greatness in you, Biff, remember that. You got all kinds a greatness" (50). This is in direct contrast to Willy's thoughts on Biff at the beginning of the play, when he has just returned home from working on a farm out West; he says about Biff, "The trouble is he's lazy, godammmit!" (5). However, Biff knows he's not the type of person to settle down and make a career out of being a business man, and says to Happy, "Men built like we are should be working out in the open" (12). He has the same adventurous gene that Willy admitted to having, but Biff's actually acting on it. At the very end of the play, at Willy's funeral (which ironically has very little attendees, in direct contrast to the salesman who inspired him to follow in his footsteps) Biff even says, "He had all the wrong dreams. All, all wrong...He never knew who he was...I know who I am, kid" (111). After everything that happened in the play, after Willy was sure that he had convinced Biff to start a business, it turns out the Biff didn't budge, and he stayed true to himself. From this, my belief is that Arthur Miller was criticizing the American Dream, similarly to F. Scott Fitzgerald with The Great Gatsby.  Both feature a character reaching for that dream, falling short, and suffering a tragic end. Miller is trying to say that you should follow who you are, and not conform to some standard in place that is just an excuse to motivate a generation of hard-working Americans.

One way in which I practiced being a good reader was in reading with a dictionary, but that's a cheap one. I can't say that I practiced re-reading very much, due to time constrictions that come with being a high schooler, but I certainly went back to the text on multiple occasions to gleam more insight when writing these blogs. The play being short helped with being able to remember where to go to find certain information, which made re-reading much more reasonable than it has been for other works I've had to read. One thing I think I did well though was leave all notions from outside of the text outside of the text. I went into this book knowing very little about the plot, characters, or era, so it was easy to not take in outside information in drawing conclusions, or even just generally thinking about the text.

Once again, Arthur Miller did not fail in providing both a meaningful and entertaining read. If you haven't yet read this masterpiece from my favorite playwright, then I highly recommend it. If anything, you should read it just for the sake of a good, short read. I know that plays turn a lot of people off, especially when considering reading authors like Shakespeare, but Death of a Salesman is a very dynamic, exciting play that doesn't get caught up in overly convoluted language or plot. The action is fairly non-stop, and the stage directions are kept to a minimum so there is very little interruption in flow. Also, did I mention non-convoluted language? The language is mostly character dialogue taken straight out of the time period, so all of it is comprehensible and easy to understand. But, besides these somewhat shallow bases for recommendation, Death of a Salesman hosts an abundance of meaning that is interesting to unravel and understand.