Death of a Salesman is a play by Arthur Miller. It takes place in New York. It is about a man named Willy Loman. He has been traveling salesman for the Wagner Company for 34 years. He has a wife named Linda, and two sons named Biff and Happy. Happy lives in New York, and works in a department store. After 14 years, Biff finally comes home, looking for a job in New York. Willy is so happy that his sons are with him, that he decides to ask his Boss if he can have a job in New York, rather than New England. Instead, Willy gets fired. Willy then asks his friend Charley for fifty dollars, and Charley offers Willy a good job in New York.
Willy refuses, and leaves to go meet his sons in a restaurant. Later on, after they have gone home, Willy commits suicide, because with the insurance money, he feels that Biff could be such a magnificent person. Willy Loman came back home after having left for New England one day. He is a traveling salesman for the Wagner Company. His wife Linda is at home, and he tells her how he hasnt been able to keep his mind on driving. He starts daydreaming, and his car just swerves off to the side of the road. He asks about their son Biff, who hasnt been home in over 14 years. He is visiting in New York, and is staying with them.
Willy starts daydreaming about when Biff was a senior in high school, and was in a big football game. People were coming from all over to offer him scholarships. But something happened that year, because Biff was never able to find himself. Now that Biff is in New York, him and his brother Happy are trying to think of a job that Biff could get in New York. They decide that he could ask Mr. Oliver, a man Biff used to work for. He wants to ask him for a loan of ten thousand dollars, so that Biff can start his own business. When they tell their father about their plans, Willy is ecstatic.
He thinks they could conquer the world. He reminds them that the most important thing in life is to be well-liked and to have personal attractiveness. Willy is so happy that his two sons are going to have a business together, that he decides to go ask his boss, Howard Wagner, for a job in New York. Howard tells him there is no room for Willy in New York, and then tells him that he can no longer work in New England because he is doing harm for the company. Willy goes to an old friend to borrow money. His name is Charley. Willy tells Charley that he has been fired, and Charley offers him a job in New York.
But Willy declines. Earlier, Biff had gone to see Oliver about the loan. He waited all day to speak to Oliver, and then when he finally got to see him, Oliver didnt even recognize Biff. Biff then realizes that his whole life has been a ridiculous lie. Later on, when Biff meets Happy in a restaurant, he tells Happy about what happened. Happy suggests that Biff not tell Willy about it, and instead tell him a nice story instead. When Willy gets to the restaurant, Biff tries to explain to him that he had never worked as a salesman with Oliver, and that he was only a shipping clerk.
But Willy tells his boys he wants to hear something good, because he just got fired. Biff cant believe that the company fired Willy. He keeps trying to tell Willy the truth about the interview, but Willy doesnt listen. He pretends that Oliver had remember Biff after all those years, and how Oliver threw his arm around Biff. Biff screams out that he cant talk to Willy. Willy leaves and goes to the bathroom. Biff asks Happy to stay and wait for him. Biff leaves, and Happy follows. He brings along two girls that he picked up earlier.
When Willy come out of the bathroom, he sees that his boys left. He leaves the restaurant, and goes to the store to look for seeds. Biff finds Willy in the garden planting the seeds. Biff explains to him that he has to leave, and he wont be coming back. Biff tells him that he has stolen himself out “of every good job since high school”. Biff starts crying, and then Willy sees that he was wrong when he thought that Biff had been intentionally hateful towards him. He then realizes that Biff loves him. Later that night, Willy kills himself in a car accident.
A few days later, at Willys funeral, no one came. Willy died a forgotten man. Death of a Salesman was a great book. It was a little hard to follow, because it had a lot of flashbacks, and sometimes it was difficult to figure out what time period it was in. At the end of the book, Willy kills himself, and no one but his family came to his funeral. All his dreams about being well-liked were phony, because the truth was that he wasnt very well-liked at all. It is a book about the “common man being defeated by a society which drains the common man of his energy, and then drops him”.
