Suicide in Brooklyn

By Iza Mikolajczyk
A middle-aged man was found dead today on the road in Brooklyn. Sources

explain that it was a car crash which was the cause of death. However there was no other car involved in the
accident, which suggests a suicide. The car crashed into a tree on the side of the road just outside New York
City.
The autopsy confirmed that the man had received harsh brain damage,

which no man could survive. Several anonymous sources suggested that the man was delusional, these rumors
were later confirmed by a family member of the man. The brain damage could have also already been there
partly, because like the sources tell us. The man used to speak to himself. Apparently he spoke of memories
involving his two sons, his work, and love life. It is unknown why the man committed suicide, however we’re
told that the man had a lot of debts. Perhaps this was a reason for suicide.
It has been concluded that the man’s name is Willy Loman, is sixty-three

years old. He has been a salesman for The Wagner Company, owned by Mr. Wagner’s son Howard Wagner
since Mr. Wagner’s death. However Mr. Loman did not sell in Brooklyn, he sold in Boston, and just outside of
New York.
It is unknown as to why he did not sell in New York. The owner of The

Wagner Company suggested that the competition in Brooklyn was too big to be selling here. But citizens tell us
that Mr. Loman became too old for the company and did not sell enough products. Mr. Loman has been loyal
for over thirty-four years for The Wagner Company, but Mr. Wagner fired the man not long ago. Mr Wagner
did not want to explain why, but the rumors say it all.
The family members and friends of Mr. Loman are devastated, and are

preparing themselves for the funeral which is taking place in a few days. Digging deeper into the Loman family
information about Mr. Loman’s brother Ben Loman has been found. Ben Loman being the man who’s story all
of Brooklyn has heard, ‘’he walked into a jungle, and comes out, the age of twenty-one, and he’s rich!’’, Willy
Loman, was not a known man in Brooklyn and did not share the same past as his brother. Unfortunately Ben
Loman has died years ago.
Mr. Loman’s family speaks highly of him, his wife Mrs. Loman says ‘Willy

was a stubborn man, but a good husband and even a better father.’ His two sons ages thirty-four and thirty-two
were at home with their mother, Mrs. Loman, when their father committed suicide. One of the sons admits to
having heard his father talk to himself late at night when no one was around, however not acting up on it. He
also admitted to knowing Mr. Loman trying to commit suicide before, also with the car, which resulted in the
car being broken before.
An anonymous source revealed that Mr. Loman could have had an affair with

a young woman, her name remains unknown. Perhaps his guilt made him suffer more than he expected and
decided to end it all. Maybe his life at home was not as pleasant as it seemed to be, why otherwise would he
have an affair? His friends say that he seemed like a good man, but was actually selfish and an unpleasant
person to be around, but they respected him because he wanted what’s best for his sons. They also say that he
owed them money, which they lend him because they found him pitiful.
There was no sign of a suicide note, so this may have been a suicide which

was planned to look like an accident. However Mr. Loman may had given up on that idea and just stopped
thinking about it. Mr. Loman was becoming old and his delusions may have had a great impact on his actions,
not alone on his suicide but also on what he said to his family and friends. He may have led a life which he was
not meant to be leading, but those are just speculations which can not be confirmed.
No one knows what was going on through Mr. Loman’s mind at the moment
he decided that he is going to end it all, which makes it even harder for his family as they do not have a clue
what went wrong. They too, can only speculate so much, they will never receive answers to their questions. The
worst about Mr. Loman’s suicide is that his family was sure that he was a happy man, just having the wrong
dreams about his life. Going through thug times like it was nothing, his friends do not blame him for what he
did or who he was, they just want him to be at peace with himself.
Condolences to his family and friends, may he be at peace now.
Rationale
For my first writing task I wrote about ‘’The Death of a Salesman’’ a book written by Arthur
Miller in 1949. During our first year of the real IB course we discussed this book thoroughly
as well as this is a part of the IB exam, oral section. I think the main idea of discussing the
book in class is to make us aware of purposes a book can have or what hidden meaning it
might have. As well as maybe a slight history lesson into the difficulties people had to face
years ago.

This writing task consists of nine paragraphs in which I discuss the suicide of our main
character, Willy Loman. I described the suicide of Willy in detail, I pictured myself as the
detective present at the scene, describing and also speculating what might have happened,
but at the same time being a journalist or reporter who is really present during the whole
process. A thorough description, just as much as ours during our course about ‘’The Death
of a Salesman’’.

The type of text may not be very clear from the start, I tried to recreate 1950’s newspapers
style, in which the first sentence of a new paragraph is slightly more to the right than the rest
of the text. To keep the attention of the reader intact I decided to use elements of
speculation which journalists from the 1950’s newspaper articles about suicide, which I have
studied, also have used, I do have to include that most of them are subtle, whereas mine are
bold and easy to spot.They are factual to the book, however in a newspaper article they
would be seen as bold, but in my opinion would be included anyway. I searched mostly on:
newspapers.com, on this website I was able to find examples of suicides written down.