Leon Petrulio

Ms. Miskinis
CP American Literature
23 May 2016
Literature Artifact
The 1949 play titled, Death of a Salesman, was written by playwright Arthur Miller. The
audience for the play was the American public, as this play challenged the typical American
Dream, it was seen as an eye opener for many. The purpose of the play, is to show that
happiness is not to be found within a well paying job, or a nice house, or any aspect of an
artificial life. Its also to show that happiness can only be found when one chooses to accept
their life for what it is and be grateful for it. The subject of the play is the main character, Willy
Loman.
The playwright of the film, Arthur Miller, was quite familiar with challenging typical
American ideals prior to writing the play. With many of his past works relating to this topic, its
no surprise that this legendary piece of literature came from him. The pathos used in the play are
all byproducts of the script and events that take place within the play. However, some emotions
that may arise while consuming the film are sad, depressing, lifeless, or even confused. Arthur
achieves this roller coaster of emotions by producing a very realistic world with believable
characters.
Death of a Salesman has a very strong connection with my position statement, which
states that true and lasting happiness cant be found within materialistic things, but rather can
only be found within ones self, when one learns to accept their situation and be grateful for what
they already have. Death of a salesman, proves my position statement, because according to the

late 1940s American ideal life, Willy Loman was well off, and had the life people during the time
strived to have. Consisting of a nice house, a car, a well paying job, a wife, and two kids, one of
which was a football star in high school. However, why is it that Willy ends up committing
suicide? Well, he commits suicide for a couple of reasons. First, hes no longer effective
regarding his job, younger, more profitable salesman began taking his place. Secondly, he was in
debt over his head, his strong desire to achieve the American Dream left him with many things
he simply couldnt pay for and with his job disappearing, it creating an even deeper hole he
couldnt climb out of. So even, though on paper, it looked like he had it all, he lost his sanity,
between his unsuccessful kids (at least in his mind) and his quality of life rapidly declining, he
didnt, it was clear, he was missing happiness.