The American Dream Flashcards
What is the American dream?
• The American dream is an ideal that anyone can achieve financial success and material comfort through the process of hard work. the dream lies within the heart of death of a salesman and various secondary characters achieve the dream in different ways. However, lomans version of the dream, influenced by his brothers success in Alaska, is that any man who is manly, charismatic and good looking deserves success and will naturally achieve it.
How does Loman present the American dream?
• through the character of arc of Willy loman audiences determine the impossible standards of the dream and how although is a vehicle of aspiration, it can also turn a human being into a product or commodity whose sole value is his financial worth.
How does the American dream create the tragedy of the play?
• although that is commonly interpreted that the the real tragedy of the play is willy failing his success to financial freedom promised in his American dream. But rather that he buys into the dream so thoroughly that he ignore the tangible things around him, such as his family and the love they give him, whole pursuing the sucesss he hopes to bring his family security. By sacrificing himself at the end of the play in order to get his family the money from his life insurance, Willy literally kills himself for money. Perfectly portraying the truth of the promised ‘American dream’.
“I have such thoughts, such _______ thoughts.”
Strange
• Willy arrives at the house after a slow day as a salesman in America shortly after the Great Depression. He was distracted and had to consistently pull his car to the side of the road and to avoid the truth he tells Linda he has “such strange thoughts”. From the very exposition of the play we see the slow unravelling of Willy loman. The common man with an unrealistic view of the American dream. He measures the amount of money he has to the worth of his life, yet we will go to learn that he doesn’t ever attain what he dreams of. Willy loman perfectly portrays how the American dream can break people. Due to this Willy feels a sense of purposelessness that he can’t define, hence why he cannot pin down to the truth.
“work a ________ to pay off a house. You finally own it, and there’s ________ to ______ in it”
Lifetime
Nobody
Live
• again, willy has distilled one of the darkest aspects of the promised American dream and like many, he has worked his entire life to provide for his family. He perpetrates the saddening truth that the American dream makes people work their entire lives to have financial freedom. However, when that time arrives they are dead and there is no one to enjoy the financial freedom. Iterating how willy works and lives for the price of materialistic items which we learn is a common practice throughout the play due to fridge and pen which symbolise typical wealth. Though Willy does not understand until the climax that a person can be rich through love and sentiment.
“Manufactures offer me a _________ dollar bill now and then to throw an order their way… I don’t want the ______ and still, I take it - and I ______ it”
Hundred
Girl
Love
• happy in this passage admits he does not like his job in sales. He is constantly waiting for a higher up to quit or die and his life is incredibly lonely so he finds purpose through infidelity. However, happy does find the prospect of money an enticing one reflecting sentiments of his father. Happy lived in biffs shadow as a child and he has always tried to overcompensate for his father’s approval. It makes sense that he would then continue a similar career and reflect his father’s worst traits, such as infidelity as we learn willy has an affair. Happy revealing his slyness and manipulation he also attempts to prove his own manhood and pride to biff. In some ways this again is an example of that distorted American dream; to live the life of your father, no matter how much it costs you.
“The man knew what he wanted and went out and got it! ________ into a jungle and comes out and he’s rich! The world is ___ _______ but you don’t crack it open on a mattress!”
Walked
An oyster
• willy here discusses the jealousy he has for his brother Ben, whom found a diamond mine in a jungle and became rich off pure luck. Willy tells happy that dreams are created through perseverance, but also great luck. This moment, once again, plays on the idealised versus realised version of the AD and how it isn’t quintessentially promised as portrayed. However, willy lives the complete the opposite of this life and actually lives the Arthur miller concept of the AD: a middle class working man who feels aimless and hasn’t achieved any happiness or success for all his striving. The metaphor represents that ones world of opportunities is infinite, though one cannot success their dreams from the comfort of their own home and instead should venture into the world. Directly reflecting how his brother ben attained his success by “walking into a jungle”.
“Gotta break your _____ to see a star in this yard”
Neck
• ben is leaving willys imagination here and willy begs him to stay, asking to learn from him and how he can teach his boys about making something of themselves. Ben replies by telling him to simply “walk into the jungle”. The jungle is an elusive concept in the play. It was bens literal way towards fortune however for willy the jungle represents jumping into life and working at full force into an unknown world. Furthermore, miller makes a dark contrast between nature and city. For willy, the stars represent passion, fulfilment and success, yet he is stuck in a city life, where he must work tirelessly for no gain. As stars are impossible to see in the city. They are clouded by the industrialism and corporate buildings, much like the life of the loman men. The reference linking to him “breaking [his] neck” is directly foreshadowing his death and how any success is achieved due to working till death. Which willys death finally allows them to see this “star” in the yard as the loman family get willys life insurance.
Do you know? When he died, he died the death of a salesman, in his ______ _______ slippers in the smoker of New York. When he died hundreds of _________ were at his funeral.
Green velvet
Salesman
• after Howard refuses to give willy a position in New York, he tries to change his mind by referencing his passion for sales to the death of a salesman he met when he was young. Inspired by his stories of travel and fortune, Willy realised in that movement his passion was to be a salesman. In the present, Willy admires the way people respected Dave after his death, having died the death of a true travelling salesman. Always on the hunt for the American dream, Willy loman idealised the life of being a travelling salesman. He saw Dave’s fortune and fame as a direct result of his career, however Willy did not see everything in between and decided to follow in his footsteps. Just as society would, they see a promise of fame and fortune and instantly begin a voyage to an impending death if perseverance and hard work, though almost none had the great luck to be financially free. In terms of the plot, the description of the salesman Dave’s death is darkly contrasted to Willy own impending death. Willy does die the ‘death of a salesman’, however does not receive even the same gratitude and recognition from anyone besides his loving family.
“The only thing you got in this world is ______ ____ ____ _____.”
What you can sell
• willy enters into Charley’s office and asks him for a loan after being fired by Howard. However Charley had previously offered Willy a well paying job but Willy had proudly refused to take it - due to the competitiveness towards Charley. Here Charley tries to tell that things such as relationships, likability and success, don’t matter in the real world of capitalism. The AD is much harsher than willy anticipated of it. Once again, willy has spent so much of his life worrying about the image of his own success that he has lost the true meaning within his own life.
“”After all the highways, trains, __________, and the years, you end ___ worth more ______ than alive”
Appointments
Up
Dead
• in this passage willy verbally communicates the idea that he has been suggesting through the play; self worth is measured through wealth. Without wealth in life, he is likely to be worth more dead. In his mind, it is worth more than him to be dead than it is to live the aimless and mediocre life he is living. This directly reflects Willys impending death and how, financially, worth more dead than alive due to the money of the life insurance. Just another way miller is building up to the climax of Willys anagnorisis. Willy also refers to the city landscape and alludes it how the city and countryside are used to compare different qualities and ways of life.
“I’ve got some ______ right away. Nothings planted. I don’t have a thing in the ______”
Seeds
Ground
• seeds are a persistent symbol throughout the play and become a symbol of Willys desire to leave something, no matter how small. He has nothing to care for anymore. His sons don’t respect him, he has lost his job, he has just a vivid memory of the betrayal of his wife. Losing his own sense of self worth. The seeds allude to this repetitive idea of nature versus city once again. If the city represents the clouded capitalistic American dream then the simple planting and reaping of seeds represents the idea of finding the truth and connection as they are rooted and connect to the city. However, the seeds could also infer a sense of helplessness as planting seeds in a city would be extremely difficult due to the corporate buildings blocking the light for the seeds to grow. Additionally, unlike willy, the seeds are planted, they are rooted to the ground and do not travel or move. Willy is desperate for roots and desperate for growth and he believes the only way to plant these seeds is to die.
“Will you let me go for christs sake? Will you take that ______ ______ and burn it before something happens?”
Phony dream
• biff and happy return home and Linda is furious that they hate abandoned their father and asks they must leave the house to save their father. Biff approaches Willy outside and Willy is still in his fantasy world. Biff grabs the rubber hose which Willy attempted to kill himself earlier with in the play. He tells his father that killing himself wont make him a hero and that he has been living a fantasy. Him killing himself could mean both literally and metaphorically as his constant work rate will kill him, which it does. Due to his unrealistic ideas of success and fortune. He tells his father the thing he truly loves is being outdoors. He then begs his father to give up on his dreams and save his own life. In this moment, biff attempts to shatter his father’s dreams from a place of love. Biff knows that Willys delusions of what life should be are killing him.
“The jungle is dark ____ _____ of _________”
But full
Diamonds
• after what seems to have been a revelatory moment with his family. Willy sinks back into his delusions hearing the voice of his dead brother Ben telling him the “jungle is dark but full of diamonds”. Unbeknownst to his family, Willy turns and listens to this voice. In his delusional state, Ben tells Willy that with money, biff will be magnificent. Miller alludes the colour imagery of darkness and links it to death. Although the “jungle is dark” it will provide luxury and financial freedom for his family - exactly what Willy wanted, just now he wanted it. That same night, Willy takes the car and kills himself. His American dream has been realised, and at last he has reached the “dark jungle” of both money and death.
“I made the last payment on the ______ today, dear. And there’ll ___ ________ ______”.
House
Be nobody home
• within this passage of the requiem everyone has left the funeral and Linda is left alone to talk to Willys grave. In this private moment she speaks to her deceased husband, telling him she can’t cry. She feels like he is just on another trip and is bound to come home. Almost inferring that Willy, chasing this dream, has always been dead. She feels abandoned by him but also cannot yet accept the reality of his death. Linda tells Willy she made the last payment of the house but there’ll be nobody to live in it. Here Linda perfectly portrays the realism of the American dream as she was only able to have a sense of financial freedom after Willy dies, through the life insurance policy. His American dream has been realised, but he isn’t there to see it. It is just empty money, without life and meaning behind it.
