At one point in the play, Willy is sitting in the kitchen playing cards with his only friend in the world and former neighbor Charley. It is at this time that Willy receives a flashback of his brother Ben before he went off and suddenly became rich in Africa. Willy believes that he is sitting in his kitchen with the whole family his brother Ben, Biff and Happy, along with Linda. He gets Ben to tell the story of his successful trek and business trip to Alaska but instead of going up he was heading due south and straight for Africa. That was during his younger years, which was basically a one time shot. This is where the reality comes in to play with the contrast and wonderful fantasy that Willy is dreaming of. He thinks that by telling his kids that his brother struck it rich in Africa by hardly doing a thing, just looking for his dad. .
Having Ben tell this to Willy's kids, it symbolizes that Willy is giving them some incentive to go out and do something with their life's, and maybe become as rich as Ben. He shouldn't have talked to his kids about what they never did, or what other men did, he should've focused on training his children for the real world at hand. Show them that you have to work for everything in life, nothing come's for free. Another way that fantasy vs. reality is shown in this story is through Willy's wife, Linda. Linda, finally realizes that Willy is trying to kill himself, has lost his job, also having a mental breakdown, while cheating on her. He doesn't say a word about it and lets everything remain the same. She never sticks up for herself , but always for Willy when the boys would make fun of , calling him crazy. Willy, is always yelling at her if its to stop interrupting him when most of the time she's saying word's of encouragement. During the play Linda is mending her stockings when Willy walks in the room she's in, he yells at her, tells to stop mending the stockings in his house because it makes him nervous.