Trash the Cash

In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, it displays an important world issue that the majority of the world is ‘suffering’ which is expecting life to be better than what it can be regarding financial needs. In the past society and at times, society today, there has been a separation between the upper, middle and the lower class people. Like the poor, financially unstable Willy Loman, the majority of us desire the central theme in Death of a Salesman: the American Dream.

The American Dream is a dream in which an individual achieves a high status of financial success. Willy Loman constantly compares himself to his brother, Ben Loman who is successful in his own way in which he discovered diamonds in Africa and Alaska. On the other hand, Howard Wagner’s son completes this dream through the family’s company, then becomes a successful lawyer. However, Willy simply thinks that being popular and good-looking is enough to achieve this dream rather than pure hard-work. He eventually realizes that he was wrong when he stabs his family in the back and commits suicide due to the disappointing life he endured. He sacrificed the love of his family for potential financial success which has affected his family’s views of him forever. Willy literally kills himself for money in the end in hopes of his family carrying on a different perspective of the American Dream.

This particular theme is as relevant in the world today as it was for Willy Loman. The American Dream has been instilled in everyone’s mind from a young age, if not later. It creates a mindset and eventual goal for the future to work hard to be successful. However, there are some individuals like Willy who believe that there is an ‘easy way out’ when in reality, there isn’t. A person can be naturally smart but they cannot be naturally hard-working. It is a skill that many successful people in society have developed today which perfectly compliments their trait of being smart which creates more job opportunities; thus, making them financially stable.

Society has mainly influenced us that money equals happiness. In Death of a Salesman, Willy sacrifices his family love in order to meet his financial expectations. However, this is not the right thing to do as money is only temporary compared to love. For example, you must get a job that suits your interests and not your needs because you will be doing that job for the rest of your life. Money is a mortal, it comes and goes. Many people today want a certain job because it pays six figures when in reality, that money will mean nothing if you are not happy.