How The American Dream Changed

Has the aspect of the American Dream changed ? The American Dream has come down to accommodations. In Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller; Willy Loman being a hard worker expected to give his children the best. Willy has high hopes on his son Biff to become an important and well known man. His death was his last attempt of achieving his American Dream. But was Willy able to achieve it? Arthur Miller has made an accurate book about a common man’s flaws.

Willy had his own decision to make. He struggled finding what he actually wanted to pursue. “Willy [angrily]: Business is definitely business, but just listen for a minute. You don’t understand this. When I was a boy—eighteen, nineteen—I was already on the road. And there was a question in

And I was almost decided to go, when I met a salesman in the Parker House. His name was Dave Singleman. And he was eighty-four years old, and he’d drummed merchandise in thirty-one states. And old Dave, he’d go up to his room, y’understand, put on his green velvet slippers—I’ll never forget—and pick up his phone and call the buyers, and without ever leaving his room, at the age of eighty-four, he made his living. And when I saw that, I realized that selling was the greatest career a man could want. ’Cause what could be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four, into twenty or thirty different cities, and pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people? Do you know? when he died—and by the way he died the death of a salesman, in his green velvet slippers in the smoker of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford, going into Boston —when he died, hundreds of salesmen and buyers were at his funeral. Things were sad on a lotta trains for months after that. [He stands up. howard has not looked at him.] In those days there was personality in it, Howard. There was respect, and comradeship, and gratitude in it. Today, it’s all cut and dried, and there’s no chance for bringing friendship to bear —or personality. You see what I mean? They don’t know me any more.” (Miller 60-1). Willy Loman’s American Dream was to

That’s why I thank Almighty God you’re both built like Adonises. Because the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want. You take me, for instance. I never have to wait in line to see a buyer. ‘‘Willy Loman is here!’’ That’s all they have to know, and I go right through.” (Miller 21). Everywhere Willy goes he has been respected because of his reputation as a salesman. He believes that as long as you are well known you are a successful person.

“Ben: Why boys, when I was seventeen I walked into the jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out. [He laughs.] And by God I was rich. willy [to the boys]: You see what I been talking about? The greatest things can happen” (Miller 33) “Willy: Sure, sure! If I’d gone with him to Alaska that time, everything would’ve been totally different.” (Miller 31). Willy would of been rich and had a more successful life if he would of taken the opportunity with his brother Ben. His biggest regret was not going to Alaska. His American Dream would of been more than accomplished if he would of taken the