In his two plays of the late 1940s, Death of a Salesman and All my Sons, Arthur Miller criticizes the ideal of the American Dream of the past World War II era. The family fathers, Willy Loman and Joe Keller, chase after the fulfillment of this dream so desperately that they commit suicide after they had to learn that they failed to realize the dream for their families.
             Both are influenced by the values of the capitalist US society. Willy Loman, the lower middle class salesman, wants to provide a better future for his sons, Biff and Happy. But he fails in the achievement-oriented US society, and the only way to make the dream come true is to commit suicide and thereby help his sons to start a business of their own with the life insurance money.
             Joe Keller, the upper middle class business owner, thinks that he cannot maintain his family without money and property, i.e. the fulfillment of the American Dream. So during World War II he sells defect airplane engine heads that cause the crash of twenty-one American airplanes. In fear of losing his family he blames his partner for the shipment and gets away with it. But after he learns that his son Larry killed himself because of his scrupulousness, he cannot live with his guilt and commits suicide.
             The American Dream of the late 1940s, early 1950s, was to have a family, two children and a nice house in the suburbs with a small garden and a white picket fence around it. The idyll of this dream included a happy family life and for the man, the breadwinner of the family, professional success.
             This American Dream which is dreamt by Willy Loman has its roots in early American capitalism. William Heyen states:
             Intellectual history in America went in two major directions during the eighteenth century. There was Jonathan Edwards, who wanted souls at white heat, who wanted a great and continuing awakening, who was driven to assimilate a new science into orthodox Puritan doctrine. A...