Death of a generation

Death of a generation

Death of a Salesman is a convincing demonstration of the lifestyle aims of the American society during the 1950’s. Willy Loman seems to be a tireless man pursuing his dreams. But these dreams did not see come from his real inner illusions. As we can appreciate, Loman has been molded according to what he has been told during his life. According to this, if he worked hard, he would be able to achieve the American Dream. These high expectations about how he should live, are grounded in fragile dreams, which lead him to a collapse.

Apart from that, but also as a consequence of this, Willy had to face situations in his life that would not help him to achieve his dream.  The fact that both of his children were 32 and 34 years old and still lived in his house, definitely was a product of what he did along his life, by overprotecting and always justifying them, even when he knew that both of them were not the successful men he would have expected.

All along, Death of a Salesmen represents the American society and its expectations, as much as at the family as at work level. Since it shows the life of a working class family during the 1950’s.

At the family level, we can recognize Willy’s desire’s for his children to be successful in life. However, due to his own actions they never grow up to be men, and stay living as children even during their adulthood. After the moment in which Biff faces his father and blames him for his lack of success in life (due to the incident with “the other woman”), he starts to raise awareness that he is the only one who should be in control of his life. That is why he, eventually, realizes that he must not pursue the American dream, but he must follow his owns.  Regarding Willy’s wife, she was always a great companion in this pursue for his husband’s dreams. However, she seemed to be a little bit more down-to-earth, despite her obvious lack emotional maturity, since she was too dependent on her husband and children.

In comparison to Death of a Salesman, which tries to exemplify the consequences of people pursuing someone else’s dreams, Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” is a complaint (no, it is actually MORE than a complaint, it is a howl, right from the guts) from someone who is witnessing that the people around him are being absorbed by this system of life in which no one pays attention to the things that can really make you happy, who do not enjoy the simple things that life gives your every day; he is immersed in a world where people are living a life in which everyone tries to be someone else to please everyone except themselves.

Regarding the hero of the play, I would dare to say that Biff, Willy’s son, is the one who is “howling” in his family, so he saves them. He was able to face his dad, face reality and help him and his family to wake up from this fairy tale his dad always kept around them, making them believe that that is the way they would achieve goals in their lives. His father, on the other hand, represents a regular person and does not fit in the hero idea of a person with admirable values.

Gingberg’s poem was also written during the 1950’s, but unlike Death of a Salesman, it uses more vulgar and explicit language. The type of language is also used to express the feelings of anger and disgust of the man who is witnessing this scene.  

To sum up, and despite the fact that this play and the poem were written during the 1950’s, and they were quite transgressive for the time, I would say that the theme is still in vogue. The fact that nowadays the family gathers to eat surrounded by electronic devices, the fact that people who travel just want to take a good picture instead of enjoying the experience, are a clear examples of the society of the Loman family.

Apparently, despite all the howls, it is too hard to save a society that has been molded to obey. In the play, the one who dies is the father of the family. However, I would dare to state that it was an announcement for the death of a whole generation and, maybe, a whole society. 

Regards,
Valentina