Essay Ideas

Willy and Norma both had dreams.  Norma had the dream of being the most famous and best actress.  To be well known and loved.  Willy had the same but in the sales business.   He had the dream of dying the death of a salesman where people all around would come to his funeral.  In the poem that Langston Hughes wrote he talks about what happens to a dream that is shortened or stopped.  In my paper I plan to talk about how Willy and Norma's dreams did not come true and their american dream was stopped short.  I will connect it to Langston Hughes poem and how in his poem he talks about the different possibilities there are when a dream is faltered.  I also will talk about what Willy and Norma should have done to fix their failure.  They should have been more realistic with their dreams and not keep feeding themselves and people around them lies.  

Willy and Norma

Willy and Norma are similar because they both think they are bigger than what they really are.  Willy believed he was a much bigger salesman than what he really was.  He thought that he made a lot of money and was well known in his business.  Norma believed that she was still big even though her career was basically over.  She had kind of fallen off the map from acting.  The difference is, is that Norma had once been big and famous when Willy really had never been.  Another thing they have in common is that both of them hate change.  When new electronics such as an updated car or a recorder came out, Willy freaked out and didn't know what to do about it.  He hates new things and wishes that everything would stay the same, same goes for Norma.  She was a famous silent picture actress and when talking pictures came out she stopped and fell off the map.  She hated it and even in her house she doesn't have much newer technology and sticks to older ways.  They both have gone a little crazy too and they seem to be lost in their own world of how things should go.  The difference between them was that Norma was actually big and that she was rich unlike Willy.  

End of Book

Willy decided to take his life at the end of the book so that his son could have money.  Willy believed that this would make Biff happy and that Biff would think very highly of his father for doing this.  Willy believed that this was the only way to fix things and to make everything right.  It wasn’t though and he shouldn’t have just killed himself.  Willy had been offered a job by Charley and there were chances given to him to make things right and stay alive.  He didn’t need to kill himself at all to fix things.  Willy was not very noble to have done this.  He was taking the easy way out instead of finding a real job and bringing in money and actually fixing the problems between him and Biff.  He just took the easiest plan and killed himself so that his family would get his insurance policy from his death.  

Biff and Willy

Biff goes to the hotel to try and get his dad to talk to the school because Biff flunked math.  Biff goes and finds a women in the hotel room with his father.  He breaks down and sees that his father is nothing but a fake and cheating on Biff’s mom.  Biff hates seeing this and yells at his dad for doing this and for being a fake.  Biff also says his dad could never do anything.   Biff then says he is done and will not be going to college and is mad at his father for doing what he did.  This ruined their relationship because Biff saw that his dad was not a good man.  It shattered Biff to see his dad doing this because Biff always believed the best in his dad.  This is why today Biff and Willy don’t get along because Biff knows that his dad cheated on his mom and that his dad is a fake.  

Charley's offer

Charley offered Willy a job at his office because Willy was always coming in asking for money and Charley knew Willy wasn’t making any at his job he was at before.  Willy refused him and said that he couldn’t work for him.  Willy should have taken the job because it would have given him more stability and he could have actually been bringing money home.  Willy needed to swallow his pride and take the offer that Charley had offered.  Slowly Willy is losing everything about him and if he would have just taken the job he could have built himself back up and been supporting his family instead of trying to live through his sons.  Willy’s life is so messed up and he actually had an offer for a job where he would be making a decent amount of money and wouldn’t have to keep coming to Charley for loans.  It was wrong of him not to take the job. 

Ben and Willy

Ben seems to have been trying to get Willy out of the mess he was building for him in the cities and to be actually out there making money.  Ben  knew that Willy wasn’t ever going to make himself out of anything while staying in the city, he needed to get out and go work in another part of the world.  Ben could have opened up doors for Willy and actually got him making wages probably.  It sounded like Ben knew what he was talking about and Willy should have listened to Ben because now Willy is without a job and never got anywhere in his career.  It seemed that ever since Willy had been trying to prove Ben wrong and that is how he got himself so deep into something that wasn’t bringing him any pay at all.  Linda did not like the idea of Ben coming in and moving her family somewhere else.  She saw it that they were happy where they were at now and that Willy had a good job, they had a nice house and the kids were happy.  She didn’t want any of this changing.  

Happy and Biffs Plan

Biff and Happy’s plan is to go into their own business and sell sporting goods.  This way they can be in charge and Biff wouldn’t have to be exactly in the business world, he could take days off when he wanted.  They would call it the Loman Brothers and play sports and sell sporting goods.  I think that this idea probably will not work because Biff is somebody who cannot stay in one place.  Biff and Happy also don’t get along all the time and it seems that they will clash sometimes.  I also think that Willy will try to interfer and Biff and him will get into fights.  Willy will want things to go a certain way and try and make the business perfect.  The personality that Biff has it just seems that he will not want to do it long and end up going off somewhere.