Elements of Literature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Elements of Literature - Essay Example The conflict between rationality and a deliberate slipping into the dream world and the character of Willy who simply refuses to see reality make the story realistic and one with which one identifies. Willy Loman’s character is said to be trapped in adolescence. Though he has reached the ripe age of sixty and is the father of two grown up sons he still idolizes the romantic concept of the rags to riches story. To him his uncle Benjamin represented ideal manhood. He is still mesmerized by the aura of his uncle who used to say on his accumulating huge wealth â€Å"Why, boys, when I was seventeen I walked into the jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out. [...] And by God I was rich" (Miller 48). His obsession with virility and machismo might be understood as his failure to live up to society’s expectation of a successful male. He would boast about his being a successful salesman in his youth and tried to take refuge in an imaginative past. He wanted his sons to be what he could not. Willy wanted his sons to be popular, famous and well-established but failed to incorporate in them the tenacity and diligence required to be an achiever. Like a child Willy would go by apparent and temporary moments of joy and victory but did not have the far-sight to chalk out the right directions for his sons. He lived in an illusion that his sons were the best and the brightest among all the other kids in the vicinity. But when he came to realize the truth it was too late. He has become an old man and both of his sons were men in their thirties and yet not settled with a job and a wife. He was all the more depressed when he found that the others have gone way ahead of him in terms of money, social status and established children with secure future. Charley whom he used to pity is father of a successful and renowned son. Willy’s disillusionment is complete when he understands that he had over estimated