The Loman Family's Inability to Face Reality.
Many people in America today cannot cope with the present so they tend to relic in the past. In Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman, the Loman family is incapable of facing reality. Willy, Linda, Happy and Biff do not succeed as much as they would like to in life. Their hopes and aspirations ultimately cause their downfall. .
Willy, an old, traveling salesman, is nostalgic for the past. He is not as successful in life as he wants to be and that hurts him. When he his having trouble facing reality, his imagination kicks in. Willy does not realize that he is aging and that he is not as good of a salesman as he used to be. He honestly believes that the only way to be successful in life is by looking attractive and being popular. Willy tries to make Biff believe this when Willy lectures, "The man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates a personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want" (33). Willy is depressed because his family is only average. There is nothing wrong with being average, but Willy wants to be looked up upon. Willy says, "After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead then alive" (98). Willy thinks that the only way people will take interest in him is if he does something shocking. However, since he could not surprise people with living a lavish lifestyle, Willy chose to kill himself to make himself noticed. .
Linda is corrupted by Willy's desire to obtain success commonly described by the American Dream. She is taken in by her husband's hopes. She knows that her husband is suicidal, but she cannot motivate herself enough to do something about it. Linda finds a rubber hose behind the fuse box and a new nipple on a gas pipe. Willy is trying to suffocate himself with that. Biff asks Linda if she took the nipple off the gas pipe at the end of Act 1, and Linda says, "I"m - I"m ashamed to.
