Themes in Death of a Salesman

          Within the story, "Death of a Salesman", two major themes are visibly shown multiple times. One of the major themes is individual vs society. Willy does not approve of himself or anything he has done in his life time because he is always comparing his achievements to others. He is making a bare minimum amount of money to support his family and he is discouraged about this because he wishes he could have done more. Because he is so disapproving of himself, he tries to live his life through his two sons, persuading them to do certain things he did not do or could not do. He compares himself to his brother who constantly tells the story that he "walked into the jungle, I was seventeen. When I walked out I was twenty-one. And by God, I was rich!"(37). Willy knows he can never top that success story so he battles the idea of disappointing the people around him every day.
    The second major theme in the "Death of a Salesman" is individual vs. self. Not only is Willy battling the idea of disappointing society but he is also battling this idea of disappointment within himself. He could never live up to his brothers standards or success so he ends up being depressed and angry with him. He is always trying to pretend like he is achieving great success when reality it is just the opposite. For example, how he drives to California and only brings back around fifty dollars, he lies to his family about how much he is making and where he had to put the rest of the missing money towards to make it seem like he is doing well when he is really failing miserably.

Death of a Salesman Responses

           As boys, Happy and Biff are taught the values of certain things in life by Willy. He tells them about how their Uncle Ben "walked into the jungle" and when he walked out, he was rich. He is trying to teach his kids to be upfront in life and understand the worth of money so that when they get older they can also succeed like their Uncle Ben. I believe these are worthwhile concepts for any father to teach his sons so they can learn how to be successful and responsible when they grow up. He is showing them that if they try hard in life, it will pay off in the end.
           These inconsistenet statements Willy is saying tells the reader that he is slowly going senile and has been for quite some time. When he describes Biff as lazy he was really describing himself and then he quickly contradicts himself by saying Biff is not lazy. Willy can no longer make up his mind about things anymore. Linda plays along with what Willy says to keep him happy. Biff and Happy notice he is going crazy but they do not confront him. I think Linda is helping him because he can not except he is going crazy so instead she chooses to keep him happy rather than making him suffer.