The Fallacy of the American Dream
...ve version of the American dream leads him down the wrong path. In reality he should have been working with his hands. Willy built many things around the home and was truly happy while doing so: BIFF: There were a lot of nice days. When he’d come home from a trip; or on Sundays, making the stoop; finishing the cellar; putting on the new porch; when he built the extra bathroom; and put up the garage. You know something, Charley, there’s more of him in that front stoop than in all the sales he ever made. CHARLEY: Yeah. He was a happy man with a batch of cement. LINDA: He was so wonderful with his heands. BIFF: He had the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong. The American dream is the dominating theme over performance because Willy has to put on an act for his family because he is not successful with his work. If Willy had not chased the idea of quick and easy wealth and did something he enjoyed for a living he would not have had to come home and create storys of success, he would have achieved them. The main focus of the protagonist in the play, Death of a Salesman, was the belief that a man who is well liked and personally striking with the aim to work in business will unquestionably acquire the material comforts that are presented and offered by a modern American way of living. Willy’s focus was always to achieve the American dream and whether he was honest in doing so was not an issue. There is a lot of dishonesty throughout the play; Willy continually has to lie to keep the fantasy alive. This shows that Willy would not have to be dishonest if the desire of the American dream did not exist. The play ends with Willy’s illusions failing when they are put under the pressing realities of his life. The overwhelming tensions caused by this gap between life and dream, as well as failure in the career that drives Willy, form the crucial conflict of the play, Willy killing himself. Regardless of what he believed, Willy Loman achieved simply nothing. Consequently, Willy’s dream of simple, easy and quick accusation of wealth by way of popularity and self-confidence in the business world in order to receive the material rewards of modern American lifestyle w...