as personal status, but does so by entering the 'jungle', where he has a diamond mine and becomes rich. This dream rolls into one the dreams of both the Great Outdoors and the American Dream.
             Willy Loman, in Death of a Salesman, has lived his life in pursuit of the American dream. Traditionally the American dream meant opportunity and freedom for all, and Willy believed that. However, hard work could not earn him everything that he wanted or thought he deserved. Willy judged himself and those around him by their material accumulation, as is demanded by capitalism and the protestant work ethic. The ethic demands material accumulation and work as signs of favour in the eyes of God. Thus in order to please God and himself he felt he had to accumulate wealth and substance. The consumer-oriented society in which Willy lives will not allow him to live the American Dream. Willy is fascinated with accumulating material objects. His desire for goods makes him want objects that he neither needed nor could afford. Willy thinks that he needs to buy his wife a new refrigerator and new stockings even though she is content with what they have. Also we see him insist to Howard that he too will buy one of the tape recorders that Howard owns, though it is a blatant lie, as he cannot even afford to run his household with his own wages. As he tries to live the American dream he venerates those who have been successful at doing so, like Thomas Edison, B.F. Goodrich, and Ben, his successful brother. Furthermore he punished those who did not work towards that ideal or accomplish it, such as Biff, his son, and most importantly himself. The extreme to which he followed the dream brought him to disillusionment and lost sense of reality. Willy created a reality for himself where he "knocked 'em cold in Providence," and "slaughtered 'em in Boston."(p.33) The ultimate result of his disillusionment is his suicide. It is ironic that he dies for his idea...