Death of a Salesman tells the story of a man confronting failure in the success-driven society of America and shows the tragic path, which eventually leads to Willy Loman’s suicide.
Death of a Salesman?is?a search for identity, [Willy?s] attempt to be a man according to the frontier tradition in which he was raised, and a failure to achieve that identity because in [1942] and in [Brooklyn] that identity cannot be achieved. (Gross 321)
Willy is a symbolic icon of the failing American; he represents those that have striven for success in society, but, in struggling to do so, have instead achieved failure in the most bitter form.
Perhaps what is wrong with the society is not that it has implanted the wrong values in [Willy], values which finally do not lead to success anyway, but that it has lost touch with values which should never be relegated only to the personal sphere or the family unit. (Lawrence 57)
In Arthur Miller?s Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman, the protagonist, pursues a false perception of the American Dream. Arthur Miller establishes Willy Loman as a traveling salesman in his sixties, a dreamer of success, and a troubled man. Willy is not a successful man, but clings to his dreams and ideals. ?[Arthur Miller] did not realize either how few would be impressed by the fact that [Willy] is actually a very brave spirit who cannot settle for half but must pursue his dream of himself to the end? (Hayman 55-56). Willy reminisces about the neighborhood years ago. His past recurs through the play in vivid scenes. Each time he returns from an episode in the past, Willy discovers new information that throws light on his troubled past. Willy portra…
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… of a Salesman. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 1988. 25-38.
Roudané, Matthew C. ?Death of a Salesman and the Poetics of Arthur Miller.? The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller. Ed. Christopher Bigsby. New York: Cambridge UP, 1997. 60-85.
Sister, M. Bettina. ?Willy Loman?s Brother Ben: Tragic Insight in Death of a Salesman.? Modern Drama. Feb. 1962: 409-412.
Spillane, Margaret. ?Life of a Salesman.? Nation 8 Mar. 1999: 7.
Steinberg, M. W. ?Arthur Miller and the Idea of Modern Tragedy.? Twentieth Century Views Arthur Miller. Ed. Robert W. Corrigan. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1969, 81-84.
Weales, Gerald. ?Arthur Miller?s Shifting Image of Man.? Twentieth Century Views Arthur Miller. Ed. Robert W. Corrigan. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1969. 131-142.
?Why Willy Loman Lives.? The Economist 19 June 1999: 19-21.
Abortion and the Media
On March 11, 1997, US Senate and House Committees met jointly to hear testimony on “Partial-Birth Abortion: The Truth.” The following testimony was presented by Helen Alvare, director of Planning and Information of the NCCB, specifying the lack of accuracy, if not purposeful lies, of the media regarding this abortion technique:
Another theme that featured prominently in our educational materials was the way that I proponents of partial-birth abortion were repeating false information — and getting away with it in the press. A few examples will illustrate.
I was interviewed last June by Eric Zorn, a columnist from the Chicago Tribune. Mr. Zorn’s “thesis,” as he explained it to me, was this: if any partial birth abortions were being performed for truly “elective” reasons, for reasons the public would consider nonserious, as the pro-life movement was claiming, the movement should produce the mothers involved. I explained at some length that it wasn’t “the movement” claiming that the majority of these procedures were “elective”, this fact was asserted by the partial-birth abortion providers themselves. I sent Zorn Dr. Haskell’s statements as quoted in the American Medical News. I also sent the charts Dr. McMahon had provided to the Subcommittee on the Constitution in which he had detailed the rationales for abortions he had performed. These documents showed the elective nature of the majority of these procedures — and in the words of the abortionists themselves. I asked Zorn to reconsider his own logic: aren’t patient records confidential and in the possession of the abortion providers themselves, I asked? And if you were a woman who had your healthy child aborted would you be eager to go public? Nothing, however, could shake Mr. Zorn’s tenacious grip on his thesis. He ended up writing- “That explanation won’t do. If these once callous, cruel, selfish women who drive this national debate truly exist, let’s hear from .” (June 6, 1996). In a follow-up column, he wrote: “Well, there are late-term abortions, there are “partial-birth” abortions and there are abortions performed for non-medical or elective reasons. We find very little overlap … because later-term abortions are very rare and almost always performed for serious medical reasons. . ..” (June 13, 1996).
Since Mr. Zorn’s column, regarding the reasons partial-birth abortions are performed, the Bergen Record quoted an abortionist whose clinic performs about 1500 of these per year stating-. “Most are for elective, not medical, reasons: people who didn’t realize, or didn’t care, how far along they were.