Live in Hope

The book, “Death of a Salesman”, deeply talks about how a salesman pushes himself to the extreme and ends his life, and leaves his wife and his two sons with a large fortune. The leading role of this book is a salesman, Willy Loman, who is 63 years old and very unstable. Willy believes that personality, not hard work and innovation, is the key to success. So at the end of the story, he does an incredible thing. What does he do? He kills himself so that his family can use the life insurance money. But why does he choose to die? They almost pay off the house mortgage and money is not more important than life, so why does he intend to commit suicide? I myself desire to know the answer.

There is no denying that the image of Willy in this story doesn’t have an obvious change. Not long after the beginning, most of the time he sinks into his dream world or recollections of the past, he doesn’t sense everything surrounding him. Because of this, he had a lot of car accidents. However, we can find, by following the trails which the story gives us, that Willy Loman is the person who is not only living in the memories, but also easily encounter misfortunes at any time. He is easily to make himself in jeopardy when he is in a trance. It seems that Willy Loman just like he is dead in this story. He persists in his “American Dream” and the value of one's observation. Also, his death shows that he has never changed his hope to exchange his life for a great deal of premium, so that one of his sons, Biff, can make his “American Dream” come true in this way. Willy thinks that it will be highly significant if he dies in this way.

If we suppose that the role, Willy, is a dead person in the story, then we can easily understand that there is a power which makes Willy feel weak endlessly. And the power is formed by Willy’s angst of being a loser for life. No matter how the story stresses Willy's desire for making his home better or to have the satisfaction of material, “American Dream” is the competitive essentials which have been mainly contained in the story. And in his opinion, there is no any reason why loser will never be cared forever. Unfortunately, Willy understands very clearly that he is always a loser. He fails his job, to bring up his sons, his interpersonal relationship, a chance to make him rich with Ben, and even his marriage. Actually, Willy is not killed by the disappointment with the American Dream. It is his guilt that kills him.

There is a proverb coming into my mind right after reading this book- “While there is life there is hope.” Actually, it is apparent that Willy sells himself as a salesman with his dream from the beginning to the end. The most ironic thing is that everyone sells themselves in life. When we boast how high our level of education is, how much money we can make, how great our spouse’s achievements are, or even how outstanding our children’s performances are, then we are just doing what Willy always does; talks about what kind of conditions are worthy to ourselves. As far as I know, not only is Willy’s life dead, but also our lives.