Biff and Cory get different vibes as Willy gives support where Troy does everything to put it in a negative light. Willy believes Biff can have a future as a successful athlete but his aspirations of his son’s success becomes destroyed as Cory because of the fact that Biff becomes consumed of his father’s cheating (Casper1010,
* Willy’s contrasting statements on Biff ’s work ethic show how his hopes for Biff have been dashed, but also his capacity for self-delusion. He can’t accept that Biff has turned out to be something other than a great man of the world because he can’t let go of his American Dream of huge success for himself and his sons. * Willy’s car accidents, at this stage of the play, seem to point to his increasing age and physical fragility. As the play progresses, they will come to mean more. * The original American Dream involved proving and making a life for yourself by heading out into the wilds of nature, as Willy’s father and older brother Ben did, and as Willy himself sometimes wishes he did.
He builds up his son’s ego by telling them that all you need to be is well-liked. Theses false values shown by Willy makes Biff become overwhelmed with confidence that all he needs is to be attractive in order to be successful and makes him think of why should he have to try hard in school when his appealing personality will make up for poor grades. Willy’s flawed view of success, where being well-liked is more important than being the best at whatever job you pursue, leads to failure and unhappiness in both his life and his sons life’s in the business world. Although Happy has a job that would be more acceptable by his father than Biff’s, but Willy doesn’t admire Happy like he does Biff. Happy has lived in the shadow of Biff his whole life, he feels that to get the attention he deserves he must strive to be more successful than his brother.
To begin with, his relationship with his sons, Biff and Happy, is nonetheless strained, especially after not being able to achieve the success that he told them was so easy to take hold of. Willy’s sons received different traits from their old man, and as such, can be seen by the reader as two separate personifications of his fragile psyche. Biff, for starters, represents Willy’s acknowledgment of his failure. In the altercation with his dad near the conclusion of the story, Biff tells
Not only is Finny a very admirable people person, he is also the most talented athlete in the school. As Finny and Gene grow closer, so does Gene’s envy for Finny. Gene begins to believe that Finny is trying to pull him away from his studies to lower his grades, due to the fact that the fact that Gene gets good marks. Gene’s envy grows so deep, that he actually causes Finny to shatter his leg, thus ending his athletic career. Gene learns shortly after that Finny never was trying to bring him down, rather he thought that his academic success came naturally to him.
These attributes are seen as the keys to happiness and bypassing hard work. He impresses this shallow dream onto his son, Biff. Although Biff is both well liked and attractive, he cannot achieve Willy’s dream and, therefore, becomes disillusioned. This discrepancy between Willy’s dream and reality manifested through Biff enables readers to see its dangerous futility. Although the dream results in Willy’s demise, Biff is able to escape and develop his own dream that is realistically based on true individual happiness instead of superficial qualities.
“That's just the way I'm bringing them up, Ben – rugged, well liked, all around.” Willy is loyal to Ben, he tries show off and show how well his little brother has gotten along. “I gave them hell, understand. But I've got a couple of fearless characters there.” Ben responds to his brother in a lack of interest. Ben is disloyal to his family,
Therefore, Willy and Biff have different aspirations. Their goals affect how they see each other, thus resulting in various conflicts. In saying this, Willy and Biff have a weak relationship. Their relationship is quite fragile because at the start of the play Willy shows signs of disappointment, "Not finding yourself at the age of thirty four is a disgrace" (16). As well as signs of hope for Biff, "I'll get him a job selling.
Both protagonists are blinded by their illusions of success, and both of their experiences are akin to one another. Willy's experience with achieving the American Dream is similar to Troy's will to survive because Troy tries to be on the same level as Whites by overcoming racial barriers. Willy Loman, a traveling salesman, believes that one must be well-liked in order to achieve the American dream. However, Willy does not realize that the value of hard work and devotion plays the most important role in achieving success. Willy tries to teach his falsified ideology of the American dream to his sons, Biff and Happy.
Willy knows deep down that he is overall a pretty unsuccessful man but he continues to tell his two sons that he is successful and that all they need in life is to be well liked in order to be like him. Although this is very untrue and Willy is not very well liked and is certainly not successful he puts on a front like its all one needs in life. Willy thinks that his attempts to kill himself are secret but all along Linda knows what he is doing