Death of a Salesman

"The Great Gatsby" and "Death of a Salesman" are common in their approach to the time period of the 1920s. Gatsby and Willy Loman both had the idea of money and power. Gatsby got his money by doing illegal things whereas Willy was the average salesman. Willy relied on his personality, being well liked, good looking, and smart to be the best salesman he could be. Although this novel did not take place during the 1920s, Willy Loman believed in many of the same ideas of that period. The American dream of wealth and what you can become and the dreams you can achieve with the money you have. Willy is struggling to regain his old self. He begins to find it hard to return to the power he once had as a salesman that everyone came to, but more important to him, the salesman that everyone loved.

Willy begins to feel afraid and trapped so he turns to things such as cheating on his wife, contemplating suicide, and turning on his children, in particular Biff. The reason for these drastic actions is hard to explain, and I think that there is no real answer. The reason for him cheating on his wife in my opinion is that he feels insecure that he can not support her anymore. So, he goes off and cheats on her out of his insecurity. The suicide attempts I think are Willy coming to the fact that in his eyes he is done. There is nothing more for him to accomplish in his life, he has hit his highs and his lows just like everyone else and he can't put up with it anymore. So he turns the his last option, death. The children problems are just the typical father son dillemas of the father not wanting his sons to end up like him. He wants the best for them and them to be better than he is and he doesn't want them to end up to what he has fallen into.

Willy has his problems just like anyone else, but in my opinion his biggest problem his not being able to realize that the past is the past and that times have changed, he isn't the same salesman he once was. That is the problem that leads him to take the actions that I have previously stated. He has it stuck in his head that he is the same salesman he once was and that he can still be that same salesman that everyone fell in love with.

Focus: I would like whoever comments to look at my second paragraph and the questions and answers I give.