The American Dream is the belief that with hard work a person will succeed. The American dream is something that every American family makes great efforts to achieve. Some families go too far to get to where they feel they have achieved the American dream; this is the case of the Loman family. Willy Loman plays a man in his sixties who gave his all for his American dream for the last 30 years of his life but in reality failed his goal miserably. His goal? Be a rich salesman like his icon Dave Singleman. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Willy goes to extreme measures, causing himself to become deeply depressed. The dream that Willy wants to realize is a dream made only of flaw after flaw. For starters, Willy dreamed all the wrong things for the wrong reasons. Not to mention, Willy gives himself way too much credit in the play. Furthermore, Willy believed that the only important things in his life were his successes and the number of friends he had made. In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, the character Biff says, "He had all the wrong dreams." Everything, everything wrong, he never knew who he was.' Willy is a confused man dealing with pain. Instead of wanting things like money and a certain number of friends, he should want things like love and companionship. Unfortunately, Willy has created a meaningless life for himself. His wife Linda was rather a part of the problem than a part of the solution. His constant love and loyalty only fueled a bigger fire instead of solving it. Linda will always support Willy and be his number one fan, but she had no control over herself when it came to encouraging Willy's lies. Another problem with Willy's dream is that he gives himself much more credit than he deserves. In the play he continually said that he was well known throughout New England as a great salesman. You can see this when Willy says, “I'm the New England man. I'm vital in New England. However, he is actually a normal aged slacker. Willy retreats to put on a mask for the most harmful person he knows who he himself is. Willy constantly lying to himself is what kills his soul. His constant determination towards a goal that a man with his mentality could never achieve is very dangerous to his sanity. This can be seen when Biff says, "Pop!" I'm worth a dozen dollars, and so are you!' Willy replies, "I'm not a dime!" Willy Loman's dream is actually the opposite of the American dream. Willy believed that his successes and the number of friends he had made were more important than anything else. This can be seen when Willy says "It's who you know and the smile on your face!" And this is the wonder, the wonder of this country, that a man can end up with diamonds just because he likes it!”. In Willy's mind, success is the most important thing in the American dream. However, this led Willy to pay too much attention to the need to achieve great success. He ends up not paying attention to his family or their needs. Instead of his family, Willy chooses to continue his mindset that as long as he is well-liked he will be successful. Even though he no longer has the sales skills he once had, Willy continues to believe that if he works hard enough, good things will magically appear to him and his family. Linda finally sees him. This can be seen in the play when he turns his thoughts to Biff and Happy and says, "He travels seven hundred miles and when he gets there no one knows him anymore." What goes through the mind of a man who drives for.
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