Essay/Term paper: Death of a salesman: willy's life is an illusion

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman: Willy's Life Is An Illusion


Charley says something in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman that sums
up Willy's whole life. He asks him, "When the hell are you going to grow up?"
Willy's spends his entire life in an illusion. He sees himself as a great man
that is popular and successful. Willy exhibits many childlike qualities. Many
of these qualities have an impact on Willy's family. His two sons Biff and
Happy pick up this behavior from their father. He is idealistic, stubborn, and
he has a false sense of his importance in the world.

Willy is like an impetuous youngster with high ideals and high hopes.
Children always have high hopes for their future. They all want to be
astronauts or millionaires. Willy always believes he can achieve that kind of
success. He never lets go of his wasted life. He dreams of being the man who
does all of his business out of his house and dying a rich and successful man.
Furthermore, Willy also dreams of moving to Alaska where he could work with his
hands and be a real man. Biff and Happy follow in their father's footsteps in
their lofty dreams and unrealistic goals. Biff wastes his life being a thief
and a loner; furthermore, Biff, along with happy try to conjure up a crazy idea
of putting on a sporting goods exhibition. The problem with Willy is that he
never grows up and deals with his obstacles.
Willy is also a very stubborn man. He is like a little child that wants
to do something their way even though they know that another option would be the
wiser choice. Charley practically sets a potential job into Willy's lap and he
refuses it. Willy just was fired and needed a job. He refuses one. Willy is
too stubborn to let go of his old job and take a new one. He still believes
that he is at the top of his profession. When Willy does not get his way he
acts just as a child would. He has tantrums such as when he basically
challenged Charley to a fight after he told him to grow up. Biff is also
stubborn like his father. He never gives up being a child. He steals and lies.
Biff cannot handle being ignored, so he steals a pen. Willy's childlike
stubbornness hampers him throughout his life.
Willy, like most children thinks that he is more important than he
actually is. During the whole story, he brags himself up, calling himself a
great salesman. He says that he is known everywhere. When his funeral is to
occur, Willy believed that it will be a major event. Many will come to pay
their respects to New England's greatest salesman. He is just an old broken
down man who never was good at his job. Willy is not well known. Few attend his
funeral. When one is a child, they believe that they are more important than
they really are. As people grow older they realize that they are just one of
many in the world. Willy Loman never does realize this fact. Biff and Happy
never realize it either. They continue to believe that the Lomans are an
extraordinary family above all others. After Willy dies, Happy proclaims that
he will continue his fathers quest as the great salesman. Biff believes that
the Lomans are not liked because they are rough and tough men who use their
hands. Willy goes
through his entire life believing that is a great, well known, and well-liked
salesman.
Willy Loman is a child trapped in a man's body. He never lets go of his
dreams. He does not come to grips with his failure as a salesman, father, and
husband. Willy runs away from responsibility, and he asks others for handouts
when in need. These traits have a negative impact Biff and Happy throughout
their lives. At the end of his life he lives with delusions of what his life
was and is. Willy never does grow up.