Realism in Death of a Salesman

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Realism in Death of a Salesman Realism is defined as the author of a play trying to portray life as it is actually lived. The way people act, speak, dress in real life. Within the play Death of a Salesman, we see many episodes of realism. The play takes place during the mid-1900’s at Willy Loman’s home in Brooklyn, NY. It is a typical home in New York just as any other. The home slowly begins to be boxed in by apartment buildings. Naturally, this can happen to anyone’s home in reality just as in the story. Some of the play also takes place in Willy Loman’s head. The author allows us to see what the protagonist is thinking. The dialogue presented in this play also plays a big role in realism. The characters’ dialogue in the play sounds much like that of ordinary people dealing with family issues and feelings that family members would have towards one another. In the play, Willy expresses great pride in his two sons. He wanted them to be terrific salesmen just like he was. He showed great excitement at the thought of his sons following in his footsteps. Just as any father would be. As the play progresses he finds out that one of his sons, Biff, never graduated high school. He expresses great anger with his son. At first, he is in denial but then comes to the realization that this situation was sadly true. Willy in many parts of the play is angry with himself because he views himself as a failure. His life, as we see it, is filled with unfulfilled dreams and self-deceptions. He tends to live too much in his past and let his failures creep up on him and make a mess of him. He feels as though he has not provided for his family as he should’ve, being the man of the house hold. Many men in our modern-day society are in fact the “bread winners” of their households. If they have a wife and kids, it is coded in their DNA to provide food, shelter, clothing and
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