![]() ![]() He admits that he himself was put in jail in Kansas City for stealing a suit, presumably to try his hand at business to please his father. He reveals that his seemingly successful brother, Happy, is not really an assistant buyer like he tells people, but rather he is an assistant to the assistant. Toward the end of the story, Biff proceeds to tell the family off in saying “We never told the truth for ten minutes in this house!” In the scene below we see Biff finally speaking out against Willy.ĭeath of a Salesman, scene from the 1949 play As someone who does not believe education alone does not determine one’s ultimate happiness, I put off my undergraduate studies for the Air Force in 1998 and did not think much of schooling. I am that “brightest kid” who has not done the right things in life, according to my father, and my grandma because I am not married, but that will be addressed in another section with Project Playhouse.Īnother tragedy, like The Great Gatsby that embodies what goes wrong when people chase unrealistic dreams with untruthful actions. Almost 35 years of age, like Biff, I chose years ago to happily hike down an unbeaten path, and found myself more satisfied when I was not trying to be someone. This story was especially meaningful to me for this anthology because of how much it resonates in my own life. Set in Brooklyn and wrought with dialogue of tension and arguing all throughout, there is hardly a scene where Willy Loman is not disagreeing with someone, anyone – his wife, his sons, his neighbors. He was well-liked and going places, or so Willy had hoped of him. ![]() Willy frequently reminisces about his earlier days, when Biff was a star football player in high school and made him proud, because then he was someone. He resents one of his sons, Biff, for not having it together at age 35 and for not wanting to make something of himself, a businessman. It is the story of the Loman family, more specifically Willy Loman, the salesman who cannot effectively do his job anymore, and cannot cope with the reasons for his failures in business. Such is the tragedy that unfolds throughout Death of a Salesman, a 1949 play written by Arthur Miller, an American playwright. Obsessed with our exteriors and what others think of us often becomes more important than how we think of ourselves. In life some people believe appearance, good behaviors and decent manners should lead to success. A father once said to his daughter after berating her lack of direction in life, “Sorry if I pick on you so much, but it’s really hard to watch your brightest kid do the least with her life.” As if the father here did not realize his daughter was quite happily uneducated, he measured his own success as a parent against her failures to conform to the American Dream, which nowadays includes education. ![]()
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