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Posted on 05/03/2026 3:36:41 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Death of a Salesman follows two days in the life of the Loman family, who live in Brooklyn and have, at long last, very nearly paid off their mortgage. But they have perhaps never felt more insecure. Bills are piling up. Willy’s job as a traveling salesman has stopped paying him a salary. In his 60s, he is beginning to feel his age, and as he works for scant commissions, he’s started to exhibit a faltering grasp on reality, and an increasingly vigorous drive toward self-destruction. His wife Linda — senses terrible possibilities just around the corner.
Meanwhile, adult sons Biff and Happy are in the midst of the sort of drawn-out coming-of-age crisis that each generation seems to invent anew. They don’t know who they are. They can’t see a way toward making enough money. They’re unwilling to commit to anything or anyone. They yearn for big American lives — cattle ranches, an endless stream of available women, the dream of finally pulling one over on the boss — and are only just beginning to question whether that yearning has anything to do with the big American emptiness they feel.
The pressure created by the family’s unfulfilled dreams — of financial security, a sense of purpose, a bit of rest — turns most explosive between Willy and Biff. Willy yearns for his eldest son, once a promising boy who idolized his father, to become the business bigshot he never quite managed to become himself.
But, at 34, Biff no longer seems able to stand anything about his father — up to and including the flashy American brilliance Willy sees himself as bequeathing. The tension between the father with a dream, and the son who refuses to fulfill it, comes to tragedy…
(Excerpt) Read more at forward.com ...
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Liberty is something you need to be trained into. And you can't be raised or trained by cowards for it.
Depressing, but true, I am sorry to say. Started out in sales but switched to analysis, support, and finance. Always observing from the sidelines. Different companies, but I have seen a lot of Willy Lomans in my life. As you say, not entertainment.
> he pursued and bedded Marilyn Monroe.
And cheated on her within the marriage.
That’s hard to comprehend. You would have to be very screwed up to not be content sleeping with MM. wow.
Arthur Miller was an untalented POS who skewered the American Dream and capitalism so of course he was elevated and made famous way beyond his station,
Soon he will be completely forgotten.
What is DOAS?
The heroes of Death of Salesman are not Willy or Biff but rather the neighbor Charlie and his son, Bernard. Charlie has a basic, ordinary business (notice he doesn’t move away to the suburbs). Charlie doesn’t have huge dreams or pressures that he puts on his son, Bernard. Bernard rather ordinarily goes on and we see he he has become a successful attorney just by old fashioned studying and grit. Through Charlie and Bernard we do actually see the American dream is possible, just not in the “Smile and shoeshine” that Willy thinks will come. Willy had all the wrong dreams, Charlie had all the right ones.
He also abandoned his infant son with Downs Syndrome to Dicken’s like institutional care, even though Miller was rich enough to provide in home care for his son during his lifetime.
He never acknowledged the child or went to visit him. Only his wife did, occasionally.
The writer of the piece can’t stop herself from giving us leftist, anti-Trump drivel….
“What is DOAS?”
Death of a Salesman
Awesome.
👏
Maybe she wasn’t very good in bed.
Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis did spot-on iimpersonations of Bob Hope and Woody Allen.
He is also a fictional character, created by a Jewish communist who saw nothing but emptiness in America.
LINK TO FR THREAD: "The American dream is dying. Good"
Too many people have no appreciation for the incredible gift bequeathed to us by our Founders.
As T.B. Yoits accurately said upthread: "...Liberty is something you need to be trained into. And you can't be raised or trained by cowards for it..."
I've always believed the American Dream is what an individual can achieve. If your dream is to open up a little mom and pop grocery store, than if you work hard you can achieve that dream. If your dream is to open up a little store and eventually have it become a national superstore - Wal Mart - than you can achieve that in the United States.
The freedom and liberty in this nation allowed each individual to achieve their dream and be content with it.
It is the concept of the United States - which is actually an anomaly in the history of the world - that has spurred innovation, industry, and technology in the last 250 years. If you take a look at the world in 1776, just take a look at transportation. People got around by walking, horseback, wagons. The came across the ocean by sail. If you look at 1526, it was the same. The same in 1276.
Now we get around in motorized vehicles, airplanes, fuel-powered ships, travelling into space. The United States did not invent all these methods but it was the freedom this nation provided and poured out into the world which allowed this to happen.
> Maybe she wasn’t very good in bed.
I suppose that’s possible, but what a terrible waste of great potential.
How we get around-—I just passed an anachronism on the freeway tonight—A Smart Car, with a small trailer—on the trailer I expected some kind of motorcycle—but wait—it was a Tote Goat! I hadn’t seen one in at least 50 years!
I had to read that in high school. To me, it was the literary equivalent of nails on a chalkboard.
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