The American Dream states that basically anyone can achieve anything if they work hard enough, thus obtaining freedom and ensuring upward mobility for the next generation. Every person who is thinking about America has the American Dream stamped in their minds, thanks to mainstream media and pop culture. But, is the American Dream just a fantasy, an unfulfillable promise, a utopia for those who have lost hope and are wanting a better life for themselves?
Arthur Miller, in his 1949 play "Death of a Salesman", portrays an average American, a man called Willy Loman. Willy is depressed, recently suffered a car accident and wants to switch jobs, and he tries to do so unsuccesfully, leading him to lose his job. His sons, Biff and Happy, even as they showed promise, never fully fulfilled their potentials. Willy eventually commits suicide, seeing himself as a failure, someone unworthy of living because he couldn't live up to what he expected his life to be.
Even though Arthur Miller doesn't explicitly claim that the play is about the American Dream, the undertone of the piece suggests it, since one of the main issues covered is failure and the illusion of higher standards. Willy really didn't even want to be a salesman. He knew that beneath all the smiley faces, the kind words, the facade of equilibrium, there was a pool of regret and broken hopes. His sons were not the ones he hoped for, his marriage had been a sham, and the only thing that finally gave him the freedom he was looking for was crashing the car and killing himself, in order for his son to claim the insurance money. A meaningless death to a petty life. Charley, Willy's neighbour and constant voice of reason, usually felt sympathetic towards the poignant character. He said one of the truest phrases of all the play, wher he revealed the true nature of Willy:
CHARLEY: Nobody dast blame this man. You don’t understand: Willy was a salesman. And for a salesman, there’s no rock bottom to the life. He don’t put a bolt to a nut, he don’t tell you the law or give you medicine. He’s a man way out there in the blue riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back—that’s an earthquake. And then you get yourself a couple spots on your hat and your finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream boy, it comes with the territory.
The American Dream is usually sold as a smiling, kind-hearted victory against repression, without taking notice that perhaps that same search for the unattainable goal was killing internally -and externally- thousands of souls. The dream is something that is expected to achieve, even if a person comes from a non-English speaking immigrant family from Vietnam. The pressures individuals go through just to fit in the picture-perfect mold are far too great, far too farfetched. It crushes other dreams. For example, Biff -Willy's son- says something rather interesting about that. His father expected him to become a salesman like himself, to which he says:
BIFF: 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.
Where is the individual dream? Is it really OK that a nation's ethos is based on a utopia?
Willy's sense of despair comes from a crushed dream: He was a moderately successful salesman, but not enough. He was a good man, but not enough. He was an Average Joe and when he was too old to notice, it all became too much for him to bear. On the other hand, Happy, his other son, tried to honor his father's memory by becoming a salesman with the insurance money that was supposed to go to Biff:
HAPPY: All right, boy. I'm gonna show you and everybody else that Willy Loman did not die in vain. He had a good dream. It's the only dream you can have-- to come out number-one man.
Miller stated that no matter if you are a Mr. Nobody, your dreams were as valid as the collective's. America is filled with anxious, depressed, prescription pill dependant people that are trying each and every single day to become a better version of themselves, even though they are a trainwreck within. All picture perfect, all buttoned-up, all lonely and crushed inside. Maybe the American Dream should change its direction, maybe the idea of success should move somewhere else, for example, that an individual should be happy when it feels like it, not every single day, not putting up a mask that is actually pretty see-through.
Works cited
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. New York: Penguin Books, 1986.
Goff, Keli. "The American Dream Is Dead, and Good Riddance." The Daily Beast. Newsweek/Daily Beast, 7 July 2014. Web. 15 Dec. 2014.
Oates, Joyce C. "Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman: A Celebration." University of San Francisco (USF). University of San Francisco (USF), n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2014.
