Death of a Salesman - Research Paper Example

 Death of a Salesman Introduction: The work culture, loyalty and integrity for the organization and the related virtues are slowly and steadily disappearing from the American way of life, due to the pressures of the materialistic civilization. Greed and envy rule the society today and have taken over the concepts of justice and fairness. The society adores the achievers, no matter what the process of achieving is—the non-achiever, the one who suffers losses, is being destroyed by the inner conviction of uselessness. In “The Death of a Salesman,” the issue is how personal tragedy clubbed with cultural crises, proves destructive from all ends of the life of an individual. The question is which is more important and rewarding, financial success or love of friends and family members? Without self-realization, emotional growth and inner fulfillment, frustration is bound to engulf the life of an individual. This moralistic play holds the barometer of genuine success in life that can be achieved through knowledge with humility, love for community and human values, eyes full of understanding and hearts full of love to find reconciliation for the possible conflicts. The materialistic approach of the American society, craze for aggrandizement of wealth, done at the cost of personal truth and moral vision, has caused irreparable damage to the citadel of American Dream. “The Death of a Salesman,” is an example how an imperfect family model can be the cause of miseries for all members of the family and their friends and well-wishers. The Death of a Salesman: Arthur Miller in “The Death of a Salesman,” articulates the problems related to American national values, by analyzing the conflicts within one family. All of them repose blind faith about the realization of the American Dream, but are unable to gauge the hurdles in the achieving process and the possible pitfalls. Miller, through the characterization of Willy Loman, highlights the basic differences between the original American Dream as visualized by the founders of the nation and the impact of ground realities of America on the post-war economy. By designation Willy Loman is a salesman but he is not cutout for the glib talk of salesmanship or for self-promotion. He has taken up to this assignment and theoretically he has acquired the virtues of the salesmanship by professional training and by adjusting his temperament to sales and bargaining, but he has no conviction about this profession. He is there due to the compulsion of circumstances. He is thus a failure in the professional life, unable to achieve the targets. His interactions do not create the magical effects, the hallmarks of a successful salesperson, and in view of this, at the end of the day, he feels physically tired and mentally exhausted. This reaction reveals his internal weakness. He tells his wife Linda, “I suddenly couldn’t drive any more. The car kept going off onto the shoulder, ‘know?”(p.13) “I’am tellin’ya, I absolutely forgot I was driving.”(p.14) But he has to exhibit his faith outwardly for his stunted vision of American Dream, for public consumption, to be in the mad race, the final outcome of which he does not know. That day he returns home and tells his wife, “I’m tired to the death. The flute has faded away. (He sits on the bed beside her, a little numb.) I couldn’t make it. I just couldn’t make it, Linda.” (13)He thinks about the disparity between the Dream and his own life. He is in conflict but does not know the solution. He faces challenge with his two worlds, one of reality and his present position of getting trapped into the world of disillusion. The world around him is totally materialistic and has lost human values, and the success of an individual is measured by one’s financial status. Willy Loman’s dream to amass wealth has ended in failure. His craze for achieving success in life goes totally haywire and finally he commits suicide, and even in that action his compulsive materialistic approach is seen; he hopes that without him, the living will be better off for members of his family with the insurance money that they are going to get. Linda Loman is the understanding wife of Willy. She provides the emotional strength to him, though on many occasions, she has the realization that he is hitting off the mark. One day, when Willy returns home, his will-power hitting the low, she shows great understanding of his plight and consoles him in soothing tone. “Well, you’ll just have to take a rest. Willy, you can’t continue this way.”(13)But Willy’s dreams overtake the ground realities and she is not in a position to oppose him stoutly. At times, his self-delusions are too much for her to bear. She takes care of the family responsibility well, gives him wholehearted support, until his final collapse. Throughout the play Linda and Charley act as the cementing forces that try to hold the status of the family. Charley is the next-door neighbor of the Loman family. He is a successful businessman and his son, Bernard is a famous lawyer. Willy is jealous of Charley’s success. When Charley offers monetary help to Willy to pay his bills, an emotional Willy, unable to control his tears, states that Charley is his only friend. Linda attaches lots of importance to material goods which she considers as the hallmark of success and stability. She is interested in living a debt-free life. She appreciates and supports the efforts of Willy in his pursuit of wealth, but is deeply worried about the mental strain that engulfs Willy. Linda is the emotional core of the drama, as she supports the ambitions of her husband, she has stood beside him through the long years of her married life, but she has realized that something is wrong with the pursuit of American Dream by Willy. She tries to keep her emotional life intact, but the internal conflicts have begun to sprout. Linda and Charley both recognize the declining trend in the fortunes of Willy. Yet she maintains her emotional equilibrium. Charley, the seasoned businessman is practical. Grasping the reality of Willy’s financial failure, he extends the job offer to Willy as a stop-gap arrangement to tide over his financial problems. Not that Charley likes Willy much, but he shows good understanding of his plight and comes to his rescue and saves him from blame. Source I--Mamet, David. Glengarry Glen Ross (A Play) Levene in the above play is an extraordinary salesman. His capacity to convince others and take them in the intended direction is above average. This man has the ability to sell the cold storage equipment to the Eskimos! His extra smartness lands him in jam, and he suffers losses. He wishes to make up the losses by quickest possible time, by any means. He sidetracks the business ethics and morals. He is egoistic, notwithstanding the loss, supremely confident about his abilities, and has poor estimate about the talents of his colleagues and thinks that they are worthless. Even from his difficult position, he has an argument with Williamson, a fellow-official in another department and boasts about his contribution to the success of the company in the past. Though in a difficult position, he often argues with Williamson, his colleague in another department of the firm and gloats over his past contribution to the success of the company. Williamson is working in such a department, where he is free from the pressure of handling sales and dealing with customers. He is in the know of certain vital secrets of the company and enjoys the key position. Levene succeeds in tackling Williamson to part with two leads of the company for 100 dollars; in addition to 20% of the commission earned .Williamson succumbs to the pressure and temptation of making quick money, trades his honesty and integrity and gets a dubious deal finalized. This is the conversation that seals the deal and contributes to the ethical fall of Williamson. Mamet writes, “Levene: John (Pause) Listen. I want to talk to you. Permit me to do this a second. I'm older than you. A man acquires a reputation. On the street. What he does when he's up, what he does otherwise...I said "ten," you said "no." You said "twenty." I said "fine," I'm not going to fuck with you, how can I beat that, you tell me? Okay. Okay. We'll...Okay. Fine. We'll...Alright, twenty percent, and fifty bucks a lead. That's fine. For now.” (24)Mamet depicts how certain employees work for the organization not with a mission but for commission! For the fructification of the American Dream, and for the sake of self-aggrandizement, some people are willing to destroy the illustrious careers of others. Source II: Campbell Jones. Business Ethics: A Critical Approach. Trends taking place in global markets are also the contributory factors for the inner world of happiness of an individual. With the fall of ethical standards in an effort to seize the initiative in international business, corporate scandals are on the rise, political lobbying has crept into the business world. Due to the faulty and corrupt practices of the top management, the entire organizations have been destroyed, jeopardizing the dreams and happiness of thousands of families overnight. To tackle this serious malady, the business schools, have begun to realize the importance of including ethics in the curriculum. Whether in production units of the goods or at the consumer level at the market or in the distribution network, there are human beings. Catalogues, product brochures and imaginative advertising campaigns will not contribute to ethical development. Business activities are part of the life of an individual. Ethical theories clubbed with practical experience enable an individual to face the critical situations in personal life and business situations. In the volatile business situation, that is part of the materialistic civilization, morals and ethics could be the lifesaving components. In “The Death of a Salesman,” the collapse of morals led to the suicidal tendencies in Willy Loman. He knew only the procedure of climbing up the business ladder and he was prepared that there could be sudden a downfall as well. He was not strengthened with the moral base that life has to be lived in its trials and tribulations and loss and gain are part of life, and they are alternative bests of the same heart. Accountability and ethical principles need to go in tandem and they will contribute to overall welfare of the global business community and to humankind as a whole. Cambell has the measure for the contributing factors that result in the ethical fall. He quotes the Friedman Doctrine thus: “First, Friedman explicitly recognizes that capitalism is marked by conflict of interest…this conflict of interest is clearly expressed between business and labor….increasing profit is the responsibility of business, and protecting the interests of labor is the responsibility of labor leaders. Between these two groups, there is an unassailable conflict of interest which is a matter of politics and this cannot be wished away by economists or business ethicists.”(98) Arguing for maintaining the ethical standards in business, he states that business has to stay within the rules of the game, confirm to the societal standards, both as per law, customs and traditions. Source III--Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered Being seized with the negativities of the materialistic civilization, the economist, sociologists, politicians have begun to rethink what constitutes real progress that goes to contribute to the improvement of standard of life and standard of living of an individual. Standard of life is judged from the ethical perspective and standard of living is calculated from the economic perspective. Fritz Schumacher argues, “…the need for humanization of work, as a form of self-fulfillment rather than a solution for the problem of production…” (xiii) We have earned to interpret the world, the success of an individual through his economic prosperity. This has resulted in the destruction of the inner world of an individual. The author further argues about “….the importance of recapturing a set of convictions about the good life and the good society, in a world where the pursuit of production, efficiency, and short-run profit are dominant.”(xiii) What is needed is the deeper understanding about the world around us, and the constant awareness where the present circumstances are leading one to. The gap is widening in the business world as for what people actually do and what they should do from the moral standards. The author states, “…we need a nobler economics that is not afraid to discuss spirit and conscience, moral purpose and the meaning of life, an economics hat aims to educate and elevate people.”(10) Human beings are creatures of free will and they need to be respected as such, whether they are salesmen, production managers, advertising executives or any other types of professionals. Conclusion and the summing up of the three sources: Willy is idealistic, will not choose the wrong path. Frustrated, he commits suicide, that too thinking about the welfare of his family. Success and failure in life are beside the point; the process of living it alone is the truth! The above mentioned three sources reveal the contributory factors that result in the loss of happiness and inner peace of an individual. Levene in “Glengarry Glen Ross,” is crazy to achieve success, no matter what the process of achieving it. This is the brazen influence of the materialistic civilization eulogized by the votaries of American Dream. In his arguments Campbell Jones in “Business Ethics: A Critical Approach,” he takes a critical approach to the issue, and views the constraints in the relationships between the capitalists and the labor. He is clearly aware of the stress load on an individual, and thinks that this is one of the irreversible factors of the materialistic civilization. In “Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered,” Fritz Schumacher is more vocal. He holds materialistic civilization and craze of the humankind for the aggrandizement of wealth by sacrificing ethical values is the root cause of misery in the society. He wants this trend to be reversed. All the three books go to establish connectivity for the theme of “The Death of a Salesman,” overtly and covertly—when human values are challenged by negativities, selfishness and cut-throat completion thrives, disasters are bound to happen. When the situation turns desperate, an individual seeks desperate remedies, the ideals of life go haywire, and that may lead to a situation leading to physical and mental collapse. Works Cited Jones, Campbell (Author), Parker, Martin (Author), Bos, Rene Ten (Author). For Business Ethics: A Critical Text. Rutledge, 2005 Mamet, David. Glengarry Glen Ross: A Play. Grove Press; Reissue edition, January 11, 1994 Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman (Penguin Plays); Penguin (Non-Classics); 1st edition, October 6, 1998. Schumacher, E. F. Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered. Harper Perennial; 2nd edition, September 27, 1989 Read More