People prefer to have an ideal to guide their lives, but sometimes an obsession with their ideal may take place. Soon the ideal and the dream will begin to fade. This is especially true for a character in Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman. In this play Miller portrays a lower-middle class man, Willie Loman, who lives by an ideal that eventually is self-defeating. Willie lives his life pursuing the American Dream instead of living it.
             Traditionally the American Dream means opportunity and freedom, and Willie believes that. He is searching for that dream. Even with all his hard work and sacrifices, however, he still can not earn everything he wants or all the things he thinks he deserves. Willy judges each person by their wealth and their properties. Capitalism and the protestant work ethic demand accumulations and work as signs of favor in the eyes of god. Thus in order to please god and himself Willie has to achieve wealth and objects.
             Willy will not be able to live the American Dream through the consumer oriented society he lives in. Possessing many objects fascinates him. His desire for goods makes him want objects that he does not need or can not afford. He believes that he needs to buy his wife a new refrigerator and new stockings even though she is content with what they have. He worships those who have been successful in his failures, like Thomas Edison, B.F. Goodrich, and Ben, his successful brother. Furthermore, he punishes those who do not work towards that ideal, such as Biff, his son, and most importantly himself. The extreme to which he follows the dream brings him to disappointment and a loss in sense of reality. Willy created a reality for himself where he "knocked 'em cold in Providence," and "slaughtered 'em in Boston" (Arthur Miller 33). The ultimate result of his disillusionment is his suicide.
             The problem with Willy's ideals which ultimately kills him is that he has lost sight of achieving the tru...