Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" is about a traveling salesman named Willy Loman who has hit a rough patch in his life. Willy seems to have a normal family, with a wife and two boys. His sons, Happy and Biff, while different, represent Willy in many ways. Willy always strived to be successful and struggled for acceptance, which also represents his sons personalities and outlooks. As Pamela Loos says, "Willy Loman fails to understand himself and esteems a career path that goes against who he truly is" (19), which keeps him from ever being happy with himself. It is easy to see that these problems hurt his personal relationships with Biff and Happy, and keep them from having a stable family. As the story unfolds, the flaws that each character possesses begin to all come back to Willy, and the way that he not only thought, but lived.
Early in the story, it is clear that the brothers are very different, but each of them shares something with Willy. Biff is the all-american boy, and seems to have everything going for him. He is well-liked, handsome, and has a full athletic scholarship waiting on him. He, in some ways, is what Willy never could be. Willy always thought his inability to be successful was because he was not good looking or a likable person. He criticizes himself constantly for these things, and even calls himself "fat"" and "very foolish to look at"" (Miller 2123). Willy instilled these values into Biff, because he thought they would guarantee success. Never wanting to accept his failure and trying to not disappoint his family, ".Willy fashions the ideological armor he uses to disguise and deny his true psychological state, and that of his family, in order to escape what such a self-awareness would force upon him"" (Tyson 215). Biff, however, realizes that he has caused his own problems, and does not try to put them on other things, and "He makes sense of his guilt by confronting the shame buried deep in his sense of identity"" (Ribkoff 50).