Willie Loman - a portrait of a Salesman
Willy Loman is a salesman who cannot sell. For thirty four years he has been trapped in a web of self-deception, trying desperately to be successful: "I did five hundred gross in Providence and seven hundred gross in Boston", and falling short of the mark: "Well, no-it came to-roughly two hundred gross on the whole trip." (p.12) Willy advocates the American Dream to his sons: "even your grandfather was better than a carpenter. You never grew up", (p.21) even though it has never worked for him, as "Willy Loman never made a lot of money" (p.19) as "he's no hot-shot selling man" [p.23] He has high hopes and aspirations to someday "have [his] own business" where he "never [has] to leave home anymore" (p.11) but in reality, he is over sixty years of age and still on the road. Ben, Willy's brother, encapsulates the rewards and values of the American Dream as Willy views it: "[W]hen I walked into the jungle, I was seventeen, and when I walked out I was twenty-one. And, by God, I was rich!" To which Willy responds: ". . . was rich! That's just the spirit I want to imbue them [Biff and Happy] with!" (p.18)Willy values being "well liked" above all: "[b]e liked and you will never want", judging everything and everyone according to this c
I just wanted to take something, I don't know" (p. Willy lives in a fantasy world, woven of lies and delusions, and therefore feels the need to compensate for his perceived failure, and so alleviates his sense of failure by having extramarital affairs claiming he is "lonely . 47)An ironic contrast to the sentiments the boys express is the love they feel for their father-a residuum of their childhood adoration of him. You know, the trouble is, [Linda,] people don't seem to take to me. I don't know what gets into me, maybe I just have an overdeveloped sense competition or something. 36) which effectively bar him from returning to certain situations which deflect his dreams: "so I'm washed up with Oliver, you understand? . And the peonies would come out, and the daffodils.
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Acceptance Essays
