On the surface, the plot of Death of a Salesman seems rather simple. In reality this is not the case, when you delve deeper into the themes and motivations of the novel. It deals with the core value of modern American society, The American Dream. This is related to the painful conflicts of a working class family in New York, who have struggled all their lives to earn a decent living and realize the American dream. The story revolves around the protagonist Willy Loman, a traveling salesman, and the rest of his family. It consists of his wife Linda and his two sons Happy and Biff. After a long life on the road, Willy is exhausted and has begun to hallucinate the past. This makes the novel rather difficult to read, as there are very few distinctions between when Willy is hallucinating and when it is reality. The main theme of Death of a Salesman is undoubtedly the American dream. This dream has been the basis of Willy's life, and he has a fundamental belief in it, reaching almost religious proportions. He passed this belief in the American dream on to his two sons, which has dramatic consequences for both of them. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayFor Biff, his father's faith in him led him to become a womanizing bum, unable to hold down a regular job and satisfy his parents and his ambitions. Furthermore, he also became a kleptomaniac due to Willy's poor fathering skills and his inability to set boundaries during his childhood. Happy, on the other hand, shares his father's belief in the American dream, and this led him to conceive of himself, just like Willy. He doesn't want to face the miserable reality of his life, and instead lies and cheats in his life. He inherited all of Willy's worst traits and doesn't even share his noble dream of doing something for himself and his family. Instead he just wants to get rich, to be able to prove to his superiors that he is actually worth something. The tragedy in all of this is that Willy has misunderstood the basic concept of the American dream. He believes that if you are simply well-liked and are served some help of luck by fate, you will become great in life. This is wrong, because the essential message of the American dream is that if you, and only you, work hard enough to achieve your dreams, only then will they come true. This means you can count on someone else's help if you want to make it. This misunderstanding is what leads to suicide by Willy, who thinks he can give his boys a head start in life by granting them his death and the $20,000 that goes with it. This might be fair of him, but it would require the kids to actually have the skills and ambition to pull it off, which neither of them have. While Death of a Salesman probably wasn't intended to be a commentary on social legacy, it is. It is obvious throughout the story that Willy, Biff, and Happy were greatly affected by their childhoods: Willy was abandoned by his father and brother, and he therefore tried to be well-liked all his life. Biff was over-encouraged by his father who believed in him a lot, and therefore is unable to hold down a job at the moment. Happy has not received enough attention, he has always remained in the shadow of his older brother and therefore seeks attention from women and his superiors, even if this forces him to lie and cheat. Freedom from Want, by Norman Rockwell is painted in the same period as Death of a Salesman. It expresses, as Death of a Salesman does, the American dream. Remember: this is just an example. Get a document now.