Miller’s Critique of the American Dream in Death of a Salesman

Isaac Newton’s third law of thermodynamics states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. By use of logic and metaphorical value one might argue that this could be transposed to the basic concept of the American Dream. Therefore for every American Dream there is also an American Nightmare. However Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is in no way, shape or form such a thing. Miller is meeting us halfway and describes the life of a man who is unconsciously disillusioned and who lives in denial, nurturing the wounds society has inflicted upon him with the memories of better times and who is, in the end, driven to suicide in what he considers to be his way of making up for all the wrongs that had plagued him. The final moments before chooses to opt out he justifies himself by saying that “he’ll worship me for it!”… Imagine? When the mail comes he’ll be ahead of Bernard again! … Oh, Ben, I always knew one way or another we were gonna make it, Biff and I! (Death of a Salesman 100-101) Willy does not achieve his version of the American Dream, but he dies hoping that his sons will, with his life insurance as collateral. Willy becomes a sacrifice and also a martyr; his death becomes a symbol for Miller’s views on the American Dream. Throughout the play Willy becomes somewhat of a mystery to the audience. His mannerisms are weird and he also shows a great deal of bipolar behavior. In Bloom 's Modern Critical Interpretations, Bloom argues that “You cannot know a man half lost in the American dream, a man who is unable to tell past from present … self-slain, not by the salesman’s dream of America, but by the universal desire to be loved by one’s own, and to be loved beyond what one believes one deserves.” (4-5)
Willy is in a state where he is increasingly distancing himself from his loved ones while paradoxically wanting to be loved and respected. He does not want to be read, analyzed or judged. He is not the kind of man who would stop at nothing to achieve his goals. Miller wants to show that not quite everyone has what it takes to make it big. Willy is more of a dreamer caught in the illusion that all 's well that ends well. He creates a hyperbolized version of himself which he “sells” to his children and even to himself. He does not see himself as old, washed-up and self-alienating but instead he sees himself as Willy Loman – salesman extraordinaire. While Willy wants everything from life he is really just a faulty cog in the capitalist machine. “Willy is part of Marx’s proletariat classes and lies to cheat himself into believing he is of higher class. By accepting the materialistic ideals of Marxism, Willy Loman and his son Biff, both struggle to make ends meet and find themselves stuck in the working class.” (Cutsforth) In this respect Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman may be in addition to a critique of the American Dream also a Marxist declaration of American capitalist failure.
Miller bestows upon Willy three important role models which have an immense effect on his character: his older brother, his father and Dave Singleman. These three characters have all but achieved their own version of a dream life, and they possess a secret which is remains elusive to Willy. He keeps his father in high regard, despite remembering very little about him, such as his travelling salesman career. Willy’s father is Miller’s way of proving that most people do not understand the American Dream at all. Although being a simple flute salesman, Willy’s considers his father to have been successfull.
Paradoxically, all that Willy was fighting for could have been easily attainable, but greed and confusion took their toll. The flute that is heard at the beginning of the play may be Willy’s memory of his father, although he seems to remain ignorant of this. ”The play romanticizes the rural-agrarian dream but does not make it genuinely available to Willy. Miller seems to use this dream merely to give himself an opportunity for sentimentality.” (Garrison) Biff and Happy seem to have figured out the secret of a happy life by longing to buy a ranch in Texas but Willy denies this, instead wishing for Biff to follow in his footsteps. Then comes Dave Singleman, who is a hero of sorts for Willy. He is the ultimate salesman, a man who made it big even in his later years. While Willy looks up to Dave it seems that it is not his success as a salesman which he longs for the most. Instead, he thinks about all the people who attended Dave’s funeral; all those people for whom Dave meant something is what Willy wants for himself, but again considers that the only way to achieve this is by making it big in the business world. What we learn from Willy’s speach to Howard is that ”Willy chooses to be a salesman because he wants to sell himself, more than any specific product, to others—a point underscored by the obvious omission in the play of any reference to the specific products that Willy carries around in his valises.” (Centola 28) Willy’s longing for human attention could spawn from the fact that his father died when he was young but yet again, he cannot see the forest for the trees since he has plenty of people who care for him; yet he feels alone. The result of his loneliness lead to his affair with The Woman, whose memory keeps taunting him throughout the play.
Willy’s final model who possessed the secret to a successfull life is none other than his brother Ben. According to Willy ”The man knew what he wanted and went out and got it! Walked into a jungle, and comes out, the age of twenty-one, and he’s rich!” (28) Willy strives to have his brother’s approval, in the way he always asks him whether he’s doing a good job raising his kids. He respects Ben however he cannot help from feeling regretful of missing out on an opportunity for success. ”Ben embodies more than just the image of success in Willy’s mind; he also represents the road not taken. In other words, he is, in many ways, Willy’s alter ego.” (Centola 29)
The society in which Willy lives is a place where people are expendable. ”You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away — a man is not a piece of fruit!” (58) They only matter as long as they are productive and add something to the table. Willy learns this the hard way when confronting his boss Howard about receiving a raise and a job in New York; his history with the firm and his friendship with Howard’s father become obsolete. Arthur Miller states the following with regard to the cruelty of the business world: “what we have is the story of a vanished era, part real, part imaginary, the disappearing American dream of mutuality and in its place the terrible industrial process that discards people like used up objects." (qtd in Bigsby 68)
The result of Miller’s literary effort leaves us longing for the past, dissilusioned about the present and apprehensive about the future. Ultimately, Willy’s life mattered notwithstanding his failure to achieve the American dream. He is a victim of society, whose emphasis on the American dream destroys those who are unable to achieve it.

Works Cited
"Introduction." Introduction. Arthur Miller 's Death of a Salesman. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 2007. 1-6. Print.
Bigsby, Christopher. "Arhur Miller: Poet." Arthur Miller 's Death of a Salesman. New York: Chelsea House, 2007. 57-66. Print.
Centola, Steven R. "Family Values in Death of a Salesman." Arthur Miller 's Death of a Salesman. New York: Chelsea House, 2007. 25-34. Print.
Cutsforth, Liza. "Death of a Salesman Marxist Critique." Death of a Salesman Marxist Critique. 15 Nov. 2011. Web. 30 Apr. 2012. .
Garrison, Craig M. "The System and the American Dream." Arthur Miller 's Death of a Salesman/Craig Garrison..page1. Web. 30 April 2012. .

Cited: "Introduction." Introduction. Arthur Miller 's Death of a Salesman. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 2007. 1-6. Print. Bigsby, Christopher. "Arhur Miller: Poet." Arthur Miller 's Death of a Salesman. New York: Chelsea House, 2007. 57-66. Print. Centola, Steven R. "Family Values in Death of a Salesman." Arthur Miller 's Death of a Salesman. New York: Chelsea House, 2007. 25-34. Print. Cutsforth, Liza. "Death of a Salesman Marxist Critique." Death of a Salesman Marxist Critique. 15 Nov. 2011. Web. 30 Apr. 2012. . Garrison, Craig M. "The System and the American Dream." Arthur Miller 's Death of a Salesman/Craig Garrison..page1. Web. 30 April 2012. .