Money and the American Dream in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller Essay Example

In the early 20th century, the idea of the American Dream plagued Americans who were looking for a way to have a better life through gaining extravagant wealth. The American Dream is understood as a family who begins poor and gains wealth in order to provide for their family. In Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman, the father of two boys and husband to Linda Loman, is portrayed as a someone who believes that if you look successful then you are successful. However, one must be able to work vigorously to obtain the American Dream and not merely just believing they are destined to be rich. Although in Death of a Salesman Willy believes that both he and his sons are going to be successful and wealthy, his obsession with wealth, the ignorance for his family, and his mental health problems that cloud his judgement, display how Willy Loman is not a successful man and will never be one and is consumed by his false pretenses that both he and his children will be wealthy.

Willy is consumed by the idea that he and his family are supposed to be wealthy, however, this just drives his motive even more that he is going to be wealthy no matter the costs. Willy prioritizes money over family in Death of a Salesman, and only cares about making money and not spending time with his family. When Biff and Happy mention to him the idea of how they’re going to open a sporting goods store, and immediately Willy becomes obsessed with how much money they could make saying “That’s a million-dollar idea (Miller 65).” This illustrates how Willy cannot even be happy for his kids coming up with their sporting goods store idea, and instead he begins to fantasize about how much money they will make of their idea. In order to ignore his true problems of loneliness and depression, Willy pretends that he is actually happy and how he is well-liked by the community and wealthy. He describes how he works “a lifetime to pay off a house” and when “you finally own it and there’s nobody to live in it (15).” Willy feels as though his family has given up on him, because he is such a disappointment, so he tries to become wealthy. 

As a result of Willy’s infatuation of the American Dream, Willy ignores the wants and needs of his family and he completely blocks them out of his life and his decisions. Greed has corrupted Willy’s morals and has made him blind to the family values that he once possessed. When on a business trip, Willy is so lonely that he has an affair with a random woman. The woman sees how corrupted his morals are when she says, “You are the saddest, self-centeredest soul I ever de see-saw (116)”, illustrating how even a random stranger realizes how corrupted the morals of Willy are. Willy portrays to the audience how all he wants to be is successful and fulfill the American Dream while completely annoying his family. An example of this is when Willy sells to his clients, he only talks of Biff’s accomplishments to become personal with clients, but even his clients feel as though he is just bragging about his kids to get their money. Another example of Willy’s ignorance is when he refuses to accept the truth, that he was not a good father and only sees what he wants to see. The readers see this when Biff tells Willy that he was just a shipping clerk, he was never a salesman for Bill Oliver. However Willy made Biff believe he was, so Willy could be proud of him. These acts demonstrate how Willy is trying to fulfill the American Dream of gaining wealth and providing for his family, but he fails to succeed causing him to lose all care for his family.