Eric Hatch
Death of a salesman Take home Questions
Intro to Literature

1. Willy is not a tragic hero; he is simply a great example of an American worker who is stuck in a carrier that he has completely lost interest in. Willy’s tragedy is that he has gone though his life not enjoying his job and just goes through the motions. His real passions are working with his hands, yet it is ironic that he looks down upon these people. The death of a salesman stands for willies lack of passion, effort, drive to seek new business.
Willy’s death as a salesman represents a slow decline in willies interest in his job, the everyday grind and dread of going to work everyday a blatantly hating what you do is a tragedy in itself.

2. Willy is a big contributing factor to biffs shortcoming. Biff is really a lot like his old man. He has his good qualities such as people skills, as long as his bad qualities such as laziness, lack of motivation. It was willies dream for his favorite son Biff to become a successful salesman. I would say that Willy lives vicariously through Biff. Biff and Willy are both dreamers, Willy loves to picture the potential of his sons life. They both love to dream about great things to come or things they want to accomplish, but might never take action. Biffs failures might have been learned behavior that was taught by his male role model and a young age, I think he just is the way he is. His brother grew up in the same situation and is very successful. You can not blame your sons failures on your own marital problems, their might have been things that biff did to hurt their relationship.

3. The author humanizes willy by showing all of his shortcomings and his difficult struggles in life. Having flaws gives a character a humanistic feel and is easily relatable. Willy puts people to ease and this is great for