March to the Beat of Your Own Funeral

Christina Bonvicin
April 10, 2009
The Death of a Salesman

In Act II of The Death of a Salesman, Charley says “The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell” (p.97). I don’t quite believe this to be true. People have a lot of things in the world: for example, his or her dignity. No one can take away a person’s dignity unless that person lets them. You can’t very well sell your dignity either, which obviously chops the truthfulness of the quote to pieces. If all someone had in the world was what they could sell, there would be a lot of limitations in the world. Cars would have never been invented, because no one would think they would sell. This small thing in itself would completely alter the world as we know it. Not even thinking of the past, but thinking strictly of today’s world and economy. If I was a grocery store clerk, does that mean that all I have are the things that the store has? Of course not, that would be ridiculous. These examples go to show that Charley wasn’t thinking of the future when he said what he did, he was only thinking of how poor a salesman Willy had ended up in the late stages of his life.

Willy had the classic “American Dream.” He wanted to be successful and liked, to own his own house. To live comfortably and be able to support his family, that is what Willy wanted. And he wanted to do it the easiest way possible. To him, that was being a salesman. His hopes and dreams didn’t work out the way he wanted them to. He slowly lost touch with the world he lived in until he was part of two worlds, that he flitted between on a whim: the real world and the world of his past, when Biff and Happy were still young. The stress of his un-paying job and the bills that continued to pile up were the reasons behind the split in Willy’s reality. Though, like Alexis pointed out, Willy could possibly have a mental illness, though at the time was most likely unable to be identified. In either case, Willy is still a victim of his mind, where it be his fault or not.

Willy went about his hopes and dreams the wrong way. He wanted the easy way out. He didn’t want to go hard manual labor. He wanted to sell. This was his mistake. Maybe if he had become a carpenter, like Biff wanted to be a carpenter so he could whistle without being stared at, maybe he would have had a better life. He wouldn’t live in the city so much, but in the suburbs, having his own house and a good life. But Willy took the easy way out. And with that he took away his hopes and dreams himself. I can’t blame Willy for wanting to be respected. It’s in human nature to want to be respected and accepted by everyone. It’s just not logical though. Yes, Willy could have been respected, if he had gone about it the right way. Everyone has different paths that they can take in life. Willy took the one that he thought was right, but it wasn’t right for him or his family.

Many people still die the death of a salesman. It doesn’t take much to die the death of a salesman. Not in my eyes. Gatsby from The Great Gatsby died the death of a salesman too. When you die the death of a salesman, you die alone. Gatsby was shot when he was alone in his house. Willy died in a car accident he caused himself. Hardly anyone showed up to either of their funerals. As Linda says in the requiem “Why didn’t anyone come? … But where are all the people he knew?” When you die the death of a salesman, you die alone. The only people who care, who are touched by the loss, are the friends and family of the deceased. Gatsby and Willy are marching to the fictional beat of the dying salesman tune, as are many people who were very much alive and very much alone.

Focus On:
--- my ideas vs. your ideas.
--- grammar and structure.
--- ramble-ness vs. not rambly enough.