The most common character that carries that trait is of course Willy. Willy shows betrayal from the very beginning, when the author told us about Willys’ affair. By having an affair, Willy not only betrayed Linda but he also betrayed Biff as he lost his trust. The reason why he might betray a lot is because he is afraid of betrayal and so in order to overcome it and not feel like he was ever betrayed, he goes and betrays. As mentioned above, Willy reflects Biffs’ failure in business as a reflection of his own dreams of succeeding although he only succeeded for a short while in his life.
Willy has a dream that he refuses to give up even when it becomes clear that his dream is shallow, unrealistic and unattainable. The American Dream, a belief that any man can achieve material greatness and subsequent happiness if he works hard enough, if he fights for it, had a personal connotation for Miller, whose uncle was a travelling salesman, and whose father was a wealthy manufacturer before losing his wealth in the Great Depression. His family’s ongoing struggle with poverty certainly influenced this particular work, and others. Willy genuinely believes that that personal attractiveness (constant references to the importance of being “Well liked”) and hard work is enough to guarantee success. His view of success was inspired by Dave Singleman, who at the age of 84 could sell anything to anyone from his hotel room and whose funeral was attended by hundreds of people.
In both plays Death of a Salesman and True West can be both in contrast to the conditions of their visions of the American dream. Both of these plays focus on characters that spend their lives pursuing this dream while they fail at happiness as a result. In Death of a Salesman Willy Loman is a unfortunate, man who is so obsessed with trying to live up to an ideal that he has become disillusioned and has developed a loose sense of reality. Willy, spends his lifetime attempting to become a salesman, only to find in the end that he had failed. True West also focuses on the dysfunction of the American Dream.
Even though Dave does earn money from plowing fields he never sees any of it because his parents demand that the money is given to them. This starts to show how Dave’s parents deprive him of love and nurturing and why he needs to break away from his current life to grow into an adult. His parents not only demand all of his wages but also not once do they comfort Dave in any way or tell him that they love him. On the contrary, there is textual detail that shows that Dave has been physically abused by his father and is afraid of it happening again. His father screams, “Yuh wan me t take a tree n beat yuh till yuh talk!” (172).
Parents owe their children the duty to encourage them to perform well in their areas of interest or in their pursuits. I can relate the article by Amy Chua to the “Death of a Salesman”. In the book, Willy wants his son Biff to be a successful salesman. He wants him to get a well-paying job and he nags at him all day to find a steady job. As Biff’s abilities do not match his father's expectations, he is unable to fulfill his father’s high hopes of a brilliant career in sales.
Death of a Salesman written in 1949, is a moving destruction of the whole myth. To be hard working, honest and have ambition were the ways of the American Dream. This lead to success, wealth and in due time - power. But this dream for everyone developed, and encouraged greed, selfish behavior, pride and rivalry between one another. Willy Loman was 'caught-up' in this American Dream.
More than anyone, a boy needs his father to approve of him and teach him how to be a man. Well, his father did not show him the love he required growing up. In all of Paul’s efforts to please his father, he was ignored and inadequate to his father’s expectations. In fact, his father praised a young man that worked as a clerk and insisted that Paul ought to be more like that gentleman. His father refused to give Paul money and argued that he has a job, so he can pay his own expenses.
Be liked and you will never want.” (Miller 1777; act I). By this statement, Miller is conveying the very essence to the downfall of Willy Loman. Just the idea itself of never wanting anything besides to be liked is the epitome of destruction to a man’s heart and ambitions. The ambition of working to get ahead drives Willy wanting to be more and more ahead to the point of unattainable measures causing a breakdown. The next dominate theme is the complex relationship between Biff and Willy; the passive aggressive fighting and the love that resides underneath the surface of the pair’s relationship plays an imperative role in Willy’s life.
Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” is a tragic story of Willy Loman, the father of what can be considered a typical American family. Willy’s father was never there to teach him the importance of tradition, values, or healthy opinions. Willy has spent his whole life chasing the American dream of wealth and posterity working as a salesman. Now in his sixty’s he is suffering from memory loss, he has lost his job, and has no financial security. He never knew his father so he doesn’t have a good sense of his own identity, he makes poor decisions in raising his son’s by instilling a false sense of what it takes to be successful, and allows them to steal and cheat.
When Farmer got married to his wife Didi and then had a kid I thought he would maybe change his ways and become a family man. Paul never becomes a family man because he was in such a habit to go to Haiti and not staying in one place, such as his home with his family that he never changed. Paul always had to be helping somebody. Even though Paul is away from his family for a good cause, I think it isn’t right to start a family but never be around to see them. The third thing that I saw is wrong with Paul Farmer’s lifestyle was that Paul is risking his life, to save others, and if Paul is to get sick or die, his family would have no way to support themselves.