1. Arthur Miller
Willy Loman seemed to be somewhat a man of importance for a small period of time, unfortunately because of his irresponsible actions and high expectations of fulfilling the "American Dream", he had to spend most of his life struggling through feelings of guilt and failure. Willy's obsession with his own personal tribulations and lack of insight destroyed all his relationships and caused him to betray his own set of values, proving to be a failure of societies "American Dream". He is simply an ordinary man, whose dreams and expectations have been shattered by the false values of the society in which he has put his faith. Throughout Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, the flashback narrative technique was used to help illustrate Willy's loss of reality from the world, the drastic change within Willy and his son Biff's relationship, and most evidently the causes that ultimately led to the destruction of Willy and his inner conscience. The present lifestyle of an individual is always a representation of their past. In order for the reader to truly understand the life of Willy Loman the "flashback narrative technique" was necessary.
Throughout the play there are numerous times when Willy lapses back in time, to a point in his life when things were extremely different. Willy becomes engulfed in the past and can no longer distinguish between visions of illusion and reality. He can be speaking to an individual in the present time and for no apparent reason he would fade away into a conversation with an individual from his past.
Ben: "Is mother living with you?" - Willy: "No, she died a long time ago" -.
Charley: " who" - Ben: "That's too bad. Fine specimen of a lady, mother." - Willy to Charley: "Heh?" - Ben: "I'd hoped to see the old girl." - Charley: "Who died?" .
(Miller, 46).
In this conversation it is clearly evident that Willy has begun to converse between two different people, one of them reality and the other an illusion of his mind.