Death of a Dream: Individualism and Success

In a way, the classic play Death of a Salesman exemplifies the concepts of success, the American Dream, and individualistic qualities that make Americans "Americans". I can remember reading Arthur Miller's Magnum opus my sophomore year of high school and thinking "is this really the bleak portrait we paint ourselves when believing in the American Dream?". My answer to that after enrolling in a couple sociology classes at Lawrence: yes. The so-called plan for success in today's society is the concept of pulling one's self up by the bootstraps, engaging in hard and purposeful work, and living the American Dream by rising through the socioeconomic ranks via individualistic qualities and perseverance. Death of a Salesman, and specific studies such as this published in the Washington Post suggest otherwise.

The individualistic qualities shown by Willy and Biff in Death can be directly attributed to Bellah's idea of individualism in America: they are outgoing, proud of their accomplishments, and wish for a better life by way of providing for their family in order to attain happiness and "make it". Both of these characters, however, fail at their goals due to various circumstances involving their practices used to achieve success. Biff initially steals to make it look as if he has accomplished something, and Willy constantly refers back to a nostalgic period of his life, imagining success but never quite tasting the actual experience. The lives of these two characters resonate in today's society because they share the same belief system of modern Americans: success via individuality. "Making it" in today's society doesn't seem any easier than it was 60+ years ago, and surprisingly, the ideology behind this goal has remained the same.