Hum2020 How Has the Social Order Failed Willy Loman in His Search for the American Dream?

Reading Quiz 8

How has the social order failed Willy Loman in his search for the American Dream?

Willy Loman is a salesman in Death of a Salesman. Social class is a major fact in Death of a Salesman, and Willy believes that success come from being well liked and popular. His goal was though out life was to climb out of his social class. He tries desperately to instill his desires and his biggest aspirations in life in his two sons. His wife is the only connection that he has to reality. Willy was trying to instill his “American dream’ on to his sons but fails to teach them basic life ethics and as expected, leads them down the wrong path. The social order failed Willy because it gave a him false goals to achieve that was out of his means of achieving.  This resulted in him not being able to grasp the true emotional, spiritual and personal understanding of himself as a “low man”. He is driven by these goals of being popular and “well liked” to recognize the illusion that his desperate mind has forged. The social order is unspoken rules that people need to achieve in order to progress, but it is through the realization of being proud of your achievements and being comfortable and satisfied with yourself is where the true progress comes from. Willy was caught up in the unspoken rules and it resulted in him failing to find the true purpose.

How has Willy Loman failed in his search for the American Dream?

 Willy Loman has failed in his search for the American Dream because he never really grasps his purpose and job. He thought that personality alone would cheat his way up to the American Dream that he envisioned, but instead it kept him in the same position. In Willy’s perspective, being popular would get you further than working hard and that is not the case. The American Dream also requires you to have your family as a support system and backing you up. Willy turned his back on his own family. Willy cheats on his wife Linda and caught by his son Biff. When Biff finds out that his das has been cheating on his mom, he is devastated and never really lived up to his full potential. If this hadn’t happened, Biff would’ve possibly had been able to talk about the math grade with his teacher and maybe Biff would had been able to go off to Virginia to play football. Through Willy’s selfish desires of cheating on his wife, he ruined his family and threatening the progress of the American Dream. He does in fact experience a sort of revelation, as he finally comes to understand that his job was working on himself. Willy committed suicide but in this the able to achieve this tangible result. Willy ends up fully believing his earlier assertion to Charley that “after all the highways, and trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive.”