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                      WILLY LOMAN & HIS "AMERICAN DREAM"
            
       Miller's American masterpiece Death of a Salesman,  first presented on
            
 the stage in New York City in 1949, represents a successful attempt to
            
 blend the themes of social and personal tragedy within the same dramatic
            
 framework. Yet the story of Willy Loman is also one of false values
            
 sustained by almost every publicity agency in the national life of the U.S.
            
 Willy Loman accepts at face value the over-publicized ideals of material
            
 success and blatant optimism, and therein lies his own personal tragedy.
            
 defeat illustrate not only the failure of a man but also the failure of a
            
 door-to-door salesman. Miller's ability to project this story of his
            
 class hero into the common experience of so many Americans who sustain
            
 themselves and their families with ignorance and unrealistic goals, makes
            
 Death of a Salesman one of the most significant in American theater within
            
       For Willy Loman, life's accomplishments and sources of pleasure are
            
 simple. This statement provides an excellent judgment on his life, due to
            
 "leading a very average existence as a traveling salesman which he believes
            
 will enable himself and his family to
            
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 attain the "American dream" (Jacobson, 250).  For twenty-five years, Willy
            
 has been working to pay off the mortgage on his modest home, and once that
            
 is accomplished, he will attain a sense of freedom or the "American Dream".
            
 This goal, in light of the economic/social conditions that existed at the
            
 time in which the play is set, presents a perfect picture of  his ultimate
            
 aim in life, clearly outlined by dollar signs and a sense of ownership, two
            
 key points to personal success as far as Willy is concerned.
            
           The key thing which leads to Willy's depression, however, is his
            
 inabili...