Imperfect Society Depicted in Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman :: Death of a Salesman

Imperfect Society Depicted in Arthur Millers Death of a Sales macrocosmAdvancements in knowledge throughout this century have led to tremendous advancements in industry. Advancements in industry, however, have not always led to advancements in living. For some, society has created mass wealthiness and enabled a standard of living unparalleled throughout history. For Willy Loman, society has created only tremendous grief and hardship, aggravated by the endless promise of the good propagation to come. For these reasons, Willys tragedy is due more to societies disfigurements than to the numerous flaws in his own character. Willy Loman was host to many flaws and deficiencies ranging form suicidal tendencies to psychotic disorders. However, these shortcomings did not account for his tragic end, not by themselves anyway. Society is to blame. It was society who stripped him of his dignity, piece by piece. It was society who stripped him of his lifestyle, and his own sons who stripped him of hope. The most obvious flaw in society is greed, the desire to get ahead of the next guy. This malady is present on a national level. It is the philosophy of business and comprises the dreams of man. Sometimes, this can drive man to great things, sometimes it can drive a man to ruin. Willy was driven to the latter. (Not his own greed for he was a simple man with simple dreams, still by the greed of others.) The developers who took away the sun and gave birth to shadows, his boss who reduced him to commission and his sons which reduced him to a failure. The next largest flaw in society is a want of compassion. This could be as a result of almost overwhelming greed, the main culprit being big business. Im always in a hunt down with the junkyard I just finished paying for the car and its on it last legs. The refrigerator consumes belts like a goddam maniac. They time those things.(Act 2, page 73, lines 16-19) Willys belief in this statement drew him to believe that big business lacked compassion. It is because of this that he is abandoned by Biff and disowned by Happy, left babbling in a toilet. It is this flaw that allowed him to die a slow death and played the greatest role in his eventual downfall. The third largest flaw in society (particularly American society) is the lack of a social safety net.