Summary and Analysis of Death of a Salesman

This fantastic play relates to just about every topic that can come up in literature. In fact this is a personal favorite of mine to use for essays. Death Of a Salesman by Arthur Miller is essentially once again about the failure of the American Dream. This is the story of a salesman named Willy Loman who is in pursuit of the American dream. Perfect family, perfect house, great living. He wants it so bad, that he lives in the past, where everything was good and the hope of the American dream was live and very realistic. He cannot get over passed opportunities or missed chances such as when his brother Ben asks him to go to Africa with him. Willy says no and regrets this for the rest of his life wondering if he had gone to Africa, if he would have gotten rich. Additionally, his eldest son, Biff, who had so much potential to be greatly successful, at least in Willy eyes because he has all the attributes that Willy sees as essential for a great man fails miserably because of failing math and not going to summer school due to an unfortunate experience where he walks in on his idol, his father in the greatest act of betrayal, with another woman. Biff accepts that although his father was at wrong, ultimately his failure is not anyone's fault but that he simply was never meant to be successful and never had the skills to be successful.
"I saw the things that I love in this world. The work and the food and the time to sit and smoke. And I looked at the pen and I thought, what the hell am I grabbing this for? Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be . . . when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am." This is the part where Biff comes up with the revelation that what he has believed all his life is wrong.
This adds to the theme that the American dream is unachievable no matter how hard someone may try. Additionally Willy is fired but not after finding out that how successful he was in his head was never a reality. Willy constantly talks about his success in the good old days only to find out that he was never actually as successful as he thought.
"And when I saw that, I realized that selling was the greatest career a man could want. ’Cause what could be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four, into twenty or thirty different cities, and pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people?"
This shows Willy's false views and false ideas about the American dream that once again add to the fact that although the American dream may slightly differ from person to person, it is still generally the same and impossible to achieve.