Death of a Salesman- The Two Themes

After reading and watching the play “Death of a Salesman”, I noticed two themes. One theme would be that not everyone will like you, and you have to accept it in order to gain self respect. Another theme would be that if you feel that something is wrong, you should have it checked out.

The first theme of “Death of a Salesman”, is that not everyone you meet is going to like you. You have two solutions for fixing a problem like this. You can try to fix, or better, the issue with the person or group. Or you can accept the fact that not everyone is going to like you, and gain self respect in that acceptance. Although some people may view the second solution as harsh (considering the person isn’t attempting to fix the issue), I feel that this is the better solution. Why waste time trying to please a person who probably won’t like you in the end? By accepting that the person doesn’t like you, you are able to gain yourself the self respect needed in order to survive through life. I feel that in “Death of a Salesman”, Willy Loman did not have the self respect needed in order to get through life. Willy felt that he needed to have everyone like him, and if they didn’t, then it was personal. Because these “feelings” felt personal, Willy soon developed a mental illness that brought him to have failed suicide attempts. Willy felt that if people didn’t like him he was worthless, which in fact was not true. Willy never realized that by worrying about others, he was putting a major strain on his family. His family had to worry about his suicide attempts, and needed to focus their attention constantly on him in order to make him feel happier. If Willy was able to have the self respect he needed, he would have saved himself from death, and saved his family from a major life struggle.

The second theme of “Death of a Salesman” comes from two possible reasons in the play. The first reason being Willy’s mental illness, and the second being Linda Loman’s possible suspicion that Willy was cheating on her. The theme is, should you have a suspicion that something is wrong, have it checked out. If Linda, along with her sons Biff and Happy, checked Willy’s mental illness sooner, they could have stopped many problems from arising. They could have possibly been able to find a way to make Willy feel happier, or understand what was going on in his mind. Another possible reason for this theme would be Linda and the suspicion that Willy was cheating on her. If Linda would have checked this suspicion out, she would have found out the truth and things could have ended completely different. She may have either chose to leave Willy, or stand by her husband and stick out the problems they were facing at home. One good thing about checking with a problem sooner than later, is that many issues may be able to be fixed or saved, such as in Willy’s case.

Although these two themes seem different, I feel that they connect to each other. Both themes help people to realize that if you get things checked out, or give yourself self respect, you are able to stop possible “bad endings” from happening. If Willy would have given himself the respect he needed, he could have stopped himself from living a not so rich life. While if Linda would have had Willy’s mental illness checked out, she could have possibly stopped Willy’s death from happening. The two themes help you to realize that you are able to change your life, and make it turn out the way you want your life to be.

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• Look at the way I use my sentence structure.