In the play “Death of a Salesman” By Arthur Miller, one sees the struggling salesman Willy Loman, worry about financially supporting his family, making sure his boys become successful, and others around him worry about the decay of his sanity and his worsening mental illness. The play shows what one scenario of the middle class american family might look like in the 1950’s. Revealing the sad truth behind what many call the american dream, and how for many it’s an immensely unrealistic standard.

 

One, by reflecting on the play, could say Death of a Salesman is a tragedy due to the recurring similarities to the tragedy category. Tragedy is branched out of the literary genre drama, and typically speaks about a hero who suffers through great consequence or tragic circumstances based on morals or lessons either caused by the hero themselves or their environment. Willy Loman struggles with, and through countless challenges within the timeline of the play and his life. The loss of his father at a young age causes Willy to struggle to raise his own kids, and the reader is easily shown this by his children’s flawed morals and ethics.

 

In Mr. Barazzuol’s English 11 class, students were asked to find a random book page or newspaper, and find keywords that also fit keywords within the play, Death of a Salesman, which will bring them to their final assignment in the course, a blackout poem. A blackout poem is where a poet takes a marker to already established text and starts omitting words until a poem is formed. In the blackout poems shown above one sees two images; a woman, and hose-like tube. The  poem on the left refers to the flashbacks Willy Loman has, the poem speaks about his mistress and how he only has flashbacks about her, his brother, and his young boys. The poem reads, “oh that’s sweet of you she tells me, her eyes, day in and day out I think of my brother, and my kids, and her.” This is why the silhouette of a stereotypical 1950’s women is centered within this poem, alluding to the fact that, that’s all Willy thinks about.

 

The poem to the right refers to a scene near the end of the play, where Biff, Happy, Linda, and Willy are all in the kitchen in a disagreement, and suddenly Biff, Willy’s oldest son, pulls out the tube Willy has been inhaling gas from to try and kill himself with for some time now. Others in the house knew about it but never discussed it with him until now. One could say this is arguably one of the most emotional scenes within the play and this is what the poem hints to. The poem reads “dad, what was he doing?, he shook his head and the tears coming now, she tells me I knew something was wrong, in my heart I felt it. I should stop, it is all my fault, she cries and we cry together.” The poem speaks from everyone’s view at least once. The reader understands Willy is in denial and upset about it because of the line, “I failed, it’s my fault.”, “she cries, and we cry together” refers to the ending of that scene where almost all of the characters are crying.