Death Of A Salesman :: essays research papers

1. The book Death of a Salesman is a play about a salesman who wants to be well liked by everyone. The title of this book fits the book because there are two salesmen who die in the book. The two salesmen who die in the book are Dave Singleman, who was well liked by everyone, and Willy Loman who was the main character. The book is about a traveling salesman named Willy Loman who has a wife named Linda and two kids named Biff and Happy. The theme of the book is that the most important thing in the world is to have personal attractiveness and to be well liked. 2. Willy Loman is a sixty-one year old man who is a traveling salesman for the Wagner Company. He had worked for the same company for thirty-four years. Willy’s last name is a pun on the word low-man which is symbolic of the kind of person he is and the things he has accomplished. He has nothing and owns nothing and he would be considered a low man in the world status. Willy develops a maxim that states the most important thing in the world is to be well liked. Willy is not well liked so he often lies to his family telling them that he is very important to the New England area. He also pushes his kids very hard to be well liked so he can live vicariously through them. 3. Biff Loman his Willy’s oldest son. Biff is thirty-four years old and was once a high school football star. He spent fourteen years of his life presumably somewhere out west trying to “find himself.'; Willy caught his father having an affair with Miss Frances and quickly developed a lack of trust for his father. Willy throughout the play seems to be opposed to his father, but there are many similarities between the two. There views on life tend to be the same and also their values are the same. This is found out when Willy sends his son to steal wood from a construction site to prove to Ben that he is a fearless character. Biff’s willingness to perform the task shows that their values are the same. Happy Loman is the youngest son and was often overshadowed by his brother. Happy works at a department store and has his own apartment. Happy was deprived of attention as a kid because his brother got all the attention.