Death of a Salesman

The famous American rapper, Tupac Shakur, was once quoted as expressing the all too typical false hope many Americans possess: "Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real." Arthur Miller challenges his audience by strongly contradicting this statement through his play, Death of a Salesman. He uses models of success and failure, in his characters' lives, to show that though the American Dream is possible irregularly through luck and often though hard work, it is unrealistic, …

…the American Dream. In Death of a Salesman, Ben, Charlie, and Bernard have the American Dream become a dream come true. For Happy, Biff, and Willy, having faith in the American dream ends up in brutal disappointment. Miller shows America is sometimes indescribably cruel and at other times very compassionate. The American Dream is just a dream and not a reality. Nevertheless, it is up to the individual, whether to work for, or against society.