Paige Trutna
English 2
Death of a Salesman
I think that Death of a Salesman represented the American Dream very well. It really helped me understand the concepts involved with the Dream and how it may fail sometimes. Just like Willy and even Biff, we can work really hard, and it may not always pay off in the way we want it to. Willy worked his whole life to be a successful salesman because he thought it would be the best job ever, but when it came down to it, he didn’t get everything he wanted, and that might be the same for us.
I also think it illustrates the human need for acceptance very well. Because of our human nature and instinct, we feel a longing for acceptance. We think we are worthless if we don’t belong to a group or with other people. If we don’t fulfill this longing, then we feel a sense of emptiness in us. We want to be surrounded by others because it gives us a sense that we’ve accomplished enough to be liked by other people. Sometimes, we are confident that we have succeeded in acquiring this position, than other times we aren’t sure how people feel about us.
I think the ending of this book is predictable (given the title Death of a Salesman) but it is very well written. Even though we don’t get many details involving the car or what Willy exactly did with the car, but we know that he didn’t think he achieved what he should’ve. He wanted to die a salesman’s death, and maybe when he figured out that he could never have that, he just decided to give up. I think the author also made us feel for Willy, which just made his death 100x sadder.