Willy Loman is a tragic hero in the drama by Arthur Miller's, Death of a Salesman. He has a problem differentiating reality from fantasy. No one has a perfect life; people deal with their personal conflicts differently. Some insist on ignoring the problem as long as possible, while some attack the problem directly. In Willy's case, he deals with his life as a general failure, which leads to his dismay, and relationship with everyone around him.
             Willy never really faced his problems; in fact instead of confronting them he just escapes into the past, whether intentionally or not, to those happier times. Willy is like an impetuous child who uses dilutions to escape his problems. The first time Willy is seen reminiscing is when he encounters Biff, his son, after arriving home from work. The conversation between Willy and his wife Linda reflects Willy's disappointment in Biff, and what he has become, which is for the most part a bum. , Willy ("Biff is a lazy bum" (act1,pg 1317, ln 37)). After failing to deal adequately with his feelings, he hallucinates into a time when things were better for his family. In his refusal to accept reality he is transported back in time to his happier days; where no one argued, when he and Linda were younger, and financially stable, and Biff and Happy enthusiastically welcomed him home from his road trips. Willy's need for his dilutions is satiated and he is reassured that everything will turn out okay, unfortunately for the Loman family things are not that simple. Another one of Willy's "trip" into the past is when he is fired from his job after requesting to be relocated. This is one of the most serious blows he takes in the entire play, because of his pride in his work. In fact this is such a big hit, that he is transported back to what was probably the happiest day of his life. When Biff was going to play in Ebbets Field in the All-Scholast
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