Life is full of drama which has good or bad endings. Unfortunately, life is not about fairy tales and happy endings but about real life situations. Although a person wants to encounter such drama of having a happily ever after life, often times, it has a darker side to it. Instead, people often encounter tragedy, misfortune, failure, turmoil, temptation, death, and you name it. The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature readings is full with many real life situations. The Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, is a drama which demonstrates how distorted life can be. The main character, Willy Loman wanted a fairy tale life on his terms but his fate proved otherwise. Looking at his childhood to the end of his life, the drama, the melancholy, and fate, leads one to think.

Willy Loman, like every American, wants a successful life. Americans define this dream as signifying what one could consider as success… having lots of money, owning a home, having lavish jewelry and etc. Loman’s American dream is his belief that success is acquired only by being well liked and personally attractive rather than by hard work. This is an unrealistic perspective (perception) of the American dream, as many feel that through hard work, determination, and perseverance, one will become humble and successful by going through tougher aspects of working one’s way towards the goal(s). However, he failed to realize that his own success-his house, wife and kids meant enough to his family. Instead, he wanted more, he wanted a materialistic lifestyle… he felt he wasn’t even close enough.

Loman’s dream was unrealistic. First of all, he did not appreciate his position in life at any stage. He seemed to be very discontent. It did not matter to him that his rationality may have seemed harsh to others. Instead, he insists on more while simultaneously at risk of losing it all – his wife, his children, and his house. As one approaches success, one must sit back and appreciate it. Such is what the American dream is all about but Loman’s misconception leads him into un-welcomed behavior.

Miller makes good sense with the title “Death of …” which signifies Loman’s life. He was dead to the real world and to his family. The author structures the play around the ill life of the main character not so much of his death but the dead world Loman lives in before his last life drama. The first act tells us quickly the failure of him being a salesman yet he believes he was successful. Even his children’s unsuccessfulness is much to be blamed on him of being a poor father. He felt his sons’ lack of success wasn’t good enough.

Lomen’s delusion does not work for his family due to Willy’s odd fixation with superficial qualities of attractiveness and likeability. He felt these two qualities determined whether one will become successful or not. He wanted his children to live up to that belief, but he failed at teaching them acceptable ways to go after their dreams. Instead he tried to instill his values of success onto them without giving them the benefit of the doubt of going after their own goals in their own manner. For instance in Act II Biff explains “I saw things that I loved in this world, the work, 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.” (Miller p. 1435) with that statement, he was trying to show Willy that he has his own aspirations that he would like to pursue and that it really doesn’t matter to him whether he’s “liked” or not. Unfortunately, Willy was not able to think out side of his “delusional box”. He is not able to comprehend any other aspect of success without relating it to a materialistic, lavish and admirable lifestyle. His delusion forces his family to work against him while he pursues a false life.

Unfortunately, Willy is wise, foolish and delusional, all at the same time because he has wisdom in knowing that he has a family to provide for, and he wants the best form them, however it is his delusion that causes an uncompromising way of determining what is considered to be success for him and his family and how to actually obtain the American dream.

Arthur Miller did a very well in this piece, especially when using the term “…salesman” in the title. That terminology played a major role at understanding the points and themes being pointed out. In all actuality sales people are very persuasive, and in this story Willy tried his best to show that there is more to live for even in times when the persuasion is not beneficial to you.

On a final note, many of the readings in this section are more close to real life than the other works read in past, due to the realism of the situations being written about. In more times than not people prefer to live life as if it were a fairy tale to escape from dealing with the pain that life in its real sense may bring. Life is hard, it can also be dark. In Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find (Literature p. 361) a typical family on a trip is unexpectedly murdered. This is a very unfortunate experience for that family as no one lives looking forward to death, especially not in that manner. I was really bothered by what happened to them, however it’s something that I know does happen all over the world. While the other readings in this section did not have such a gruesome ending, like O’Connor’s short story, I can definitely say that our love for fairy tale endings have permeated our society because happy ending are much more pleasant. Happy endings provide you with more of an appreciation of life. It allows living to be more worthwhile.