Dead End Job

I vastly enjoyed reading the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and found the relationship between Willy and his old boss Mr Wanger and his son Howard Wagner who has taken over the business in which Willy works. Willy is under the impression that if the Mr Wanger was still alive and in control of the company, he would be in charge of the New York section. However this is not the case and Willy is working a sales in out in the middle of nowhere.

It is evident that Willy has spent his whole life working this job in hope that he will be promoted and moved up the Hierarchy of the company. However, due to the change of leadership this never occurred and he is now 63 and stuck in the same dead-end job. This particular part of the play drew my attention and made me start questioning my future.

I always took the optimistic approach that things would always work out alright. But in this play Willy simply seems to never succeed and almost become crazy in a sense. What is it to have a dream or a future goal? What is it we really want and why do we want it? This play has provoked many of these thoughts into my head and the only real answer I can put to them is family. The reason I feel I do most things is for my family. I think Willy’s family is very fragmented and this is the reason for the fighting and constant indecisions thought-out the whole family.