Ethan Lang's blog

      In the Death of a Salesman the two brothers Happy and Biff, can be seen as two almost polar opposites in some cases. Biff has voiced his distaste for sales jobs and can prove it as he quits his previous salesman job and tries to branch out into a different path to success. Happy has stated towards the beginning of the play about how he is also not content with his current job and even agrees with Biff's ideas of working on a ranch. However despite this discontent Happy still remains dedicated to the salesman life pledging to even carry out his father's dreams. Why is that? What has possibly influenced Happy to still stay committed to Willy's delusional dreams and arrogant ideas. It seems that the sort of neglect that Happy could have felt growing up has led him to idolize his father more. With Willy paying more attention to Biff, it leads to Happy becoming more dedicated to try and impress Willy. Ironically this is also the same thing that had ha...

    When reading "Death of a Salesman", it is no secret that Willy is a big dreamer. He constantly talks about being the best salesman in the world, making lots of money and being well respected by all. These dreams control his life to the point where it's the only thing he ever thinks about. However as Willy is getting older, he doesn't seem to necessarily accomplish the success he had ever so dreamed of. As a result, he lives a life of delusion and lies, refusing to accept failure. The stress and despair that Willy faces for not living the ideal image of a successful life does really seem to take its toll on him. He is pushed not only to the point where he becomes out of touch of reality, but also to the point where his relationship with Biff becomes shaky. Willy tries to put Biff on this certain path and idea of what success is, similarly to Richard and Olive in Little Miss Sunshine. But unlike Olive, Biff is old enough to know that he does not like this rout...