Open Prompt-Dec 9

1990. Choose a novel or play that depicts a conflict between a parent (or a parental figure) and a son or daughter. Write an essay in which you analyze the sources of the conflict and explain how the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work. Avoid plot summary.

      In Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman the main character Willy Loman and his son Biff are constantly at conflict. Throughout the play, Willy believes in the capitalist business system and that anyone can be successful, whereas Biff denies this and tries to escape the business world. The origin of this conflict, as we find out towards the end of the play, lies in the family's past. In Death of a Salesman, Miller uses the conflicting ideals of Biff and Willy to contrast conventional views of the business world with human nature.

     The origin of the conflict between Willy and Biff originates at the end of Biff's high school years, as we find out in a mental flashback of Willy's in the second act. Biff had originally believed in his father and his father's world, thinking business was the only path to success and that Willy had succeeded and become essentially a perfect human being. In the flashback, Biff goes to meet his father in a hotel in Boston to ask him to speak to a teacher about changing a grade, again assuming his father is influential enough to have anything done. He finds Willy in a hotel room with an unknown woman. Immediately Biff becomes disillusioned with the Willy's whole world. He wonders how many other parts of what Willy has told him have been a lie besides his marriage. This disillusionment continues throughout the rest of the play, as Biff rebels against his father's views for the remainder of the play. The single scene in the hotel is the reason for the conflict, but it was built up to for years by Willy's lies or fantasies. If Willy had exposed Biff to the truth and given him a vision of a less ideal world, the events in the hotel probably would not have effected him so greatly.

     The conflict is the central theme of the play and provides context for Miller to communicate his themes. One of those themes is the failure of the capitalist business system. Miller feels that many people have views similar to Willy about the business world, and have bought into the system enough to have lost some perspective. In the play, Miller exaggerates this in Willy's case, making him in a complete fantasy world, and Biff serves to make it apparent to the audience how far Willy has gone from reality. Willy constantly makes statements about the business world that are generally accepted as true, for example, that one will start off with a low position, but move up after years of working somewhere. Willy has come to believe it so completely that he almost doesn't recognize that has not happened in his own case. Biff continually points out the flaws in Willy's thinking, giving entirely negative feedback and saying Willy has failed and that he himself does not have chance to succeed. Biff's disillusionment and the contrast with Willy's delusion's puts the dire situation of the Loman family in perspective.