Comparing Death of a Salesman and The American Dream Essay -- comparis

Comparing Death of a Salesman and The American ambition In Arthur Millers Death of A Salesman and Edward Albees The American Dream, Willy Lowman and Mommy possess the trait of superficiality. Their priorities are to look good and be liked, and this contributes to their misguided paths to reach success. This attribute is one of many societal criticisms pointed out by both authors. Arthur Miller criticizes society for perceiving success as be liked and having good looks. He illustrates societys perception by Willy, who thinks the keys to success are being popular and attractive. Willy transmits this philosophy to his sons by ignoring their rearing and personal growth and setting an physical exercise that popularity is most important. Edward Albee criticizes society for the resembling thing. He points out the wrong priorities in life such as emphasizing good looks and the wish to be liked at the put down of deeper ethics and morals. Through Mommys incident with the hat, which showed she wanted to be liked, and her problems with her own sons physical and mental faults, which showed she cared too such(prenominal) for good looks, Albee shows how society is misguided in its methods to achieve success. Millers Willy shows many times that his idea of success goes no deeper than the superficial by teaching his sons the wrong path to a successful life. When Biff was in high school, Willy had already started to teach his son the false values in which he believed. When Willy found out Biff had stolen a football and was caught by his coach, who did not get angry, Willy responded by using the incident as an example of the importance of his philosophy. Thats because he likes you. If somebody else took that ball thered bean uproar. (... ...ve path in the form of Bernard, who unlike Biff and Happy, does tumesce in school, is not well liked by others, and is a comparatively unattractive man. However, his goals are more within reach because he is watchful to work har d and is less concerned with the opinions of others. Works Cited and Consulted Albee, Edward. The American Dream. Toronto Plume, 1997 Baym, Franklin, Gottesman, Holland, et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 4th ed. New York Norton, 1994. Costello, Donald P. Arthur Millers Circles of Responsibility A facet From a Bridge and Beyond. Modern Drama. 36 (1993) 443-453. Hayashi, Tetsumaro. Arthur Miller Criticism. Metuchen, NJ scarer Press, 1969. Martin, Robert A., ed. Arthur Miller. Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall, 1982. Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. New York Viking, 1965.