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 code: "It's not what you do [Ben]. It's who you know and the smile on your face!" (p.30) and continues to hang on to that notion, even after Howard fires him: "I always felt that if a man was impressive, and well liked, that nothing-" (p.33) However, Willy is not even liked by his own children anymore as Biff mutters "that selfish, stupid . . . " (p.10) and later on is "unable to bear him" [p.23). Both his sons are embarrassed with him as Biff admonishes him: "Look at you! Look at what's become of you!" (p.38) and Happy re...