Willy Bestows His Sons example essay topic

An inheritance may consist of property, money, and securities to provide surety for its beneficiaries. The condition of the estate may be the product of birthright, hard work or even immoral acts. The deeds, beliefs and ethics of the best ower can have a deeper impact on the heirs than the estate itself. The scions' lives may be affected by the psychological, emotional or spiritual components of their inheritance. Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman undermines the belief that a legacy would benefit one's posterity, and demonstrates how heirs may be instead be afflicted by inheritance. What Willy bestows his sons is not affluence, but deeply rooted character flaws.

These deficits prevent their personal growth, and are barriers to self-fulfillment. Willy Loman, is a failure within the capitalist model, as he has struggled all of his life to earn a living as a salesman. "I get the feeling that I won't sell anything again, that I won't make a living for you, or a business for the boys" (38) he tells his wife Linda. In spite of his professional disappointments, he clings to his belief that likeability and attractiveness are the cornerstones of achievement. He preaches that a man's natural gifts are more valuable than his efforts or integrity.

"Because the man who makes an appearance in the business world, who creates persona interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want" (33). He dramatically overstates his appeal to his sons, and pretends to be a great man. This delusion creates the roost of dishonesty in which his sons are raised. Biff and Happy feed on falsehoods that deform their senses of identity, their perceptions of reality, and concepts of morality. Willy's lies ensure that distortions become their truth, dishonesty their trade, and unhappiness their harvest.

This web of deceit is the Loman legacy, and its destructive dividends are paid throughout the boys' lives. Willy's fabrications are rooted in abandonment, and he filled the void with a mythology of genealogical. His father is remembered as a great man: he, too, was a traveling salesman, and great inventor whose success was the stuff of folk tales. His brother A secondary father figure who appears to Willy in hallucinations is his brother Ben. We are to believe that Ben "walked into a jungle, and comes out, the age twenty-one, and he's rich" (25). There is no mention of what Ben did to achieve this success, nor is it ever clear whether he succeeded at all.

For Willy, this legend is proof enough that a man needs only to dream to succeed. Willy fantasizes that he possesses this rugged appeal, and believes that charisma provides access to the American Dream. He does not put value on true virtues like hard work, professionalism and business savvy. With neither appeal or diligence, his faces constant failure.

His fantasy is greatness; his reality is insignificance. Unable to accept his mediocrity, Willy creates a fictional depiction of his selling life. In this version he is a well-liked, welcomed hero throughout New England. "I never have to wait in line to see a buyer. ' Willy Loman is here!' That's all they have to know, and I go right through" (33).

He inflates his sales figures, fooling his sons, but not his wife. "Did you sell anything?" (34), she knowingly asks. He privately admits that he "talks too much" and is "foolish to look at" (37), but makes no effort to improve. Instead, he perpetuates his failed ideology by deluding his sons into believing that achievement is assured by being attractive, popular and virile. Since their father's simple prescription for success falls short, the boys are also doomed to a life of discontentment. Biff's identity is tied to his athletic prowess and favor with the ladies, while Happy struggles for his father's attention by extolling his weight loss.

The boys are lead to believe that success is style over substance and form over function. Willy directs them to ignore the need to work hard, as if it is beneath them and ridicules the studious neighbor Bernard. "Bernard can get the best marks in school, y'understand, but when he gets out in the business world, you " re going to be five times ahead of him. That's why I thank almighty God you " re both built like Adonises" (33).

The belief in the power of physical superiority becomes a handicap. Biff loses a college football scholarship because he ignores the need to perform in math. As an adult, he cannot keep a job because he sees working for others as below him. He recalls that " [Willy] blew me so full of hot air, I could never stand taking orders from anybody... I had to be boss big shot in two weeks" (131). Happy is equally damaged as he measures his success by his sexual conquests.

Although he believes he has "an overdeveloped sense of competition" (25), his victories in the bedroom prevent any progress in the boardroom. His sexual prowess sabotages his professional standing; he is relegated to being assistant to an assistant, a man-child in a business suit. Biff and Happy drift helplessly in a world that demands performance rather than promise. Neither is Hercules or Adonis, as Willy has assured them; this myth leaves them hamstrung, unable to lead adult lives. As paralyzing as the effects of this delusion are, Willy's most devastating legacy is willful dishonesty. The truth is a stranger to him; he fabricates his professional life, cheats on his wife, and explicitly encourages his sons' dishonesty.

He allows Biff to steal a football, building materials, and answers on a math exam. Willy couches these crimes in humor, and empowers the boys to believe they are above the law. Theft is simply another privilege reserved for the physically gifted. The effects of this corrupt lifestyle leaves the boys financially, emotionally and spiritually bankrupt. Biff's addiction to theft causes him to be repeatedly fired and even imprisoned. Happy's dishonesty has become pathological.

He deceives to seduce women, placate his parents and fool himself. Tired of living the lie, Biff struggles to address his father's delusions and break free. In the wake of his final dalliance with the business word, he finally accepts the truth. ."..

I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been! We have been talking in a dream for fifteen years" (104). Happy cannot accept this reality, as accepting it would force him to face his own self deception. He implores Biff to tell a different story to appease his father. No matter how direct Biff is, Willy will not face the truth about himself or his sons. "Will you let it go, for Christ's sake" Will you take that phony dream and burn it somewhere before something happens?

(133) Willy mistakes Biff's pathos for passion, and says, "That boy, that boy is going to be magnificent". (133) Willy becomes convinced that he can attain greatness through suicide, and leaving the twenty thousand dollar benefit will save his sons. Even in death, Willy is a liar; he commits insurance fraud to amass his small fortune. His true endowment is deception, and it was passed on long before his death. Biff is no longer be shackled by the delusion, and vows to return to the west where he is most at home. "I know who I am Kid" (138) he says to Happy at their father's funeral.

Willy's death finally frees Biff. Happy does not fare as well; he is entrenched in the Loman legend. "I'm going to show everyone that Willy Loman did not die in vain. He had a good dream, it is the only dream you can have to come out number-one man" (139). He stays mired in the lies, and is destined to the downfall that must follow.

Happy is the sole heir to a fortune of falsehoods, and that is the Loman Legacy.