Question

Let's discuss the idea of the American hero regarding Death of a Salesman. The American idea of a tragic hero differs substantially from the Ancient Greek idea of the tragic hero and one's tragic flaw. How do you find value in reading about such American tragic heroes such as Willy Loman? Be sure to support your ideas with details from the play as well as quoted passages. As always, make sure you use in-text citations and an end reference. What did you personally learn about human behavior from the historical aspects of the play and does this play's commentary on American consumerism resonate with what we see and experience in our society today?

Answer 1

• Willy Loman fails to see that he is an unsuccessful salesman and to escape that reality, he constantly revisits his past. He is blinded by the greed and want to achieve the American Dream and so, he forces that onto his son, Biff.
• Willy could not realize that true happiness comes with emotional attachments and not materialistic possessions. He could not appreciate his son for who he actually is.
• Willy's death is not necessarily the tradegy of this play. It is the fact that he could not recognize what made him or his family happy. And that he died chasing a materialistic possession which is temporary. And his death is permanent.
• To read about him is valuable,since we all are going for that struggle to achieve the big dreams we have for ourselves and our families,we all trying hard to lead a good life and our parents are doing the same for us.Struggle,pitfalls,not giving up,losing out on some family relations etc. all show the reality of our lives today.Running behind material possessions and money,leaving behind relations has becom overpowering for a lot of us. And,yes when you cannot strike a balance,failure happens some or the other way.
• And yes, when our parents dont achieve their achieves,they want us to achieve them,they set their expectation son us and dont want us to fail.Willy never really knew how to go about achieving success,which made him a failure,and a lot of us today are like that. When you dont have the necessary resource,it seems the world is ending and some people like Willy lose the hope and take the drastic step of dying,which has become a sad reality of today.
• I learned from Willy that even though some of his dreams are rambling and out-of-place, he showed true courage in struggling and working toward those dreams for so long and not losing faith. Although, as he aged and the buyers either retired, died, or got fired Willy’s position as the thriving salesman started to drop with new buyers coming in that did not know him. With him losing his reputation and friends he began to lose his identity also.