American Dream or American Nightmare?
The American dream can be seen in many different ways, but they all revolve around the pursuit of prosperity and success. An American can achieve prosperity from a variety of jobs, hard work, and simple acts to achieve connections in society. The concept of the American dream commonly discusses how a man in the lowest walks of society can work his way up to a higher social class. This is possible in America but the way to achieve this is controversial. Americans believe that a person’s charisma, education, happiness, or hard work can help them achieve a more prosperous life. In Death of a Salesman Arthur Miller treats the idea of the American dream in a variety of ways through Willy, Biff, Happy, Bernard, …show more content…
Happy’s path to achieve the American dream is to be happy in what he does. He achieves this in the play by having sex and being content with his assistant job. While at the restaurant Happy tells biff that he can’t get married because “there’s not a good woman in a thousand. New York is loaded with them” (Miller 2157). What Happy is saying to Biff is all the women around him aren’t wife material, but that they are one night stand material. Happy maintains his positive nature because he is content. He sleeps with all sorts of women and is floating through life. He isn’t successful in his parent’s eyes but in his own view he is successful …show more content…
The American dream “is the notion that, unlike in other places, we can start from nothing and through hard work have everything. That nothing we can imagine is beyond our reach. That we will pull up stakes, go anywhere, [and] do anything to make our dreams come true” (Reeves 1). This idea is very reassuring, and is also the reason many people move to America. However, there is no single path to success in this country. In Death of a Salesman The only person that starts with nothing and builds up to success is Bernard. He gains this by working hard and getting an education. This worked for him because he is an intelligent man. This path would not work for the other characters because they don’t possess the proper traits to thrive in college. The paths to the American dream such as charisma, being happy, getting by, and working in a store or with your hands all have the possibility of success, but only if the person taking the path has the traits that correspond with it. The American dream is very real, but it is much harder to obtain than people
The American dream can be seen in many different ways, but they all revolve around the pursuit of prosperity and success. An American can achieve prosperity from a variety of jobs, hard work, and simple acts to achieve connections in society. The concept of the American dream commonly discusses how a man in the lowest walks of society can work his way up to a higher social class. This is possible in America but the way to achieve this is controversial. Americans believe that a person’s charisma, education, happiness, or hard work can help them achieve a more prosperous life. In Death of a Salesman Arthur Miller treats the idea of the American dream in a variety of ways through Willy, Biff, Happy, Bernard, …show more content…
Happy’s path to achieve the American dream is to be happy in what he does. He achieves this in the play by having sex and being content with his assistant job. While at the restaurant Happy tells biff that he can’t get married because “there’s not a good woman in a thousand. New York is loaded with them” (Miller 2157). What Happy is saying to Biff is all the women around him aren’t wife material, but that they are one night stand material. Happy maintains his positive nature because he is content. He sleeps with all sorts of women and is floating through life. He isn’t successful in his parent’s eyes but in his own view he is successful …show more content…
The American dream “is the notion that, unlike in other places, we can start from nothing and through hard work have everything. That nothing we can imagine is beyond our reach. That we will pull up stakes, go anywhere, [and] do anything to make our dreams come true” (Reeves 1). This idea is very reassuring, and is also the reason many people move to America. However, there is no single path to success in this country. In Death of a Salesman The only person that starts with nothing and builds up to success is Bernard. He gains this by working hard and getting an education. This worked for him because he is an intelligent man. This path would not work for the other characters because they don’t possess the proper traits to thrive in college. The paths to the American dream such as charisma, being happy, getting by, and working in a store or with your hands all have the possibility of success, but only if the person taking the path has the traits that correspond with it. The American dream is very real, but it is much harder to obtain than people