Week 3-4
Take that phony dream and burn it
(5/12-5/16, 5/27-5/30)

Brainstorming two significant moments

Reflect on two moments from Death of a Salesman that stood out to you. Use them as a starting point to explore what the play means to you and how it connects to your life, values, or beliefs about success and the American Dream. 

The moment, what happened, why it stuck with me

Example

Biff, trying to get himself and his father grounded in reality, yells, "Pop! I'm a dime a dozen, and so are you!" to which Willy replies, “I am not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman, and you are Biff Loman!” (105).

Here, Willy refuses to believe he’s ordinary or just another work horse in society. This reminded me of how society pushes people to be special or successful, even when it’s unrealistic. Because of this mindset, we will beat ourselves with a fantasized vision of ourselves and our life purpose, which in this play's case, can consume us in a life of falsehood.

Example #2

At his breaking point with his father, Biff cries, "Will you let me go, for Christ's sake? Will you take that phony dream and burn it before something happens?" (106).

Here, Biff is absolutely defeated and pleads for his father to stop putting his life on a pedestal, giving too much meaning to his actions or his life pursuits. This reminds me of how much power and pressure family's can have over their children. 

Being a personal essay, there are a plethora of ways for you to structure your essay. However, for those who cannot decide, I'll post the following suggested structure for your convenience. 

If the essay is 4-5 paragraphs long, the following method would work well:

Introduction paragraph

Introduce the play, the characters you will discuss, the messages and meanings that you find to be important. This isn't the place to fully go into every point and perspective you have, rather it is a time to show you are knowledgeable about what you will discuss. This is also where you can supply a summary for your reader.

Body paragraph #1

Since the essay requires you to examine and analyze two scenes or moments from the play, this paragraph is perfect for this objective. Start with a claim about the play, a character, or why a moment is significant. Give context to the scene, perhaps what happened before the quote or interaction. Supply the reader with a direct quote from the text with page numbers. Explain the quote, guiding your reader through how you understand it, then tell us why it is so impactful to you.

Body paragraph #2

After you've made these choices and explained the significance, now it's time to make a personal connection. This does not have to be that you fully understand or have felt what happens in the play. It can be how your vision conflicts with the play, but likewise, it can be speaking to something you've felt for a long time as well. This section of the essay will be dedicated to you making sense of the play through your own life experiences, what you've heard or seen in life, or even how this may connect to another piece of media (a video game, TV show, anime, etc.). 

Conclusion

Okay, you've shown us two moments that hold significance, you've made connections to the real world, now it's time to evaluate. Should we read or watch the play? Would you recommend it? If you had to rate it, what scores would you give it and why? Was the content of the play great? The acting from the film? Where you go with this paragraph is entirely up to you! 

Brainstorming your Box

Cereal Name: ___________________________
What does your name symbolize? What idea or theme does it play on?

Visual symbols (3 minimum)

What It Looks Like and What It Represents

1.

2.

3.

Example: Success O’s

Cereal name & symbolism
Success O’s – A pun on “Cheerios,” this cereal name represents the never-ending loop of chasing the American Dream. 

Visual symbols & their meanings 

What It Looks Like and What It Represents

1. Shattered briefcase: Cracked, torn handle, papers spilling out Willy’s broken career and failed version of success.

2. House with foreclosure Sign: Small home with overgrown grass and "For Sale" sign.

3. Gold medal turning to dust: Sparkling medal that fades and crumbles Biff’s lost potential and how the dream erodes under pressure.

Brainstorming your Board

Game title: ___________________________
What theme or message does this title reflect?

Game objective
What are players trying to achieve? How does this reflect the play’s message about success, failure, or the American Dream?

Board design concept (sketch or describe)
Shape or layout? Are there different paths? What symbolic places or moments appear on the board?

Event/Chance card ideas
Card name and what happens in the game

Example: The Loman Way

Game objective
Players race to “Achieve the Dream,” but each path is unpredictable. Players can succeed, stagnate, or collapse based on chance, past decisions, and how well they "sell themselves.”

Game board concept
A winding path that splits into multiple routes (education, career, family life), each full of risks and illusions. Certain spaces lead to flashbacks, setbacks, or truth revelations.

Chance/Event cards (examples)

1. Flashback! 

Go back 3 spaces

2. Willy’s past interferes with progress 

Business is Looking Up!

3. Move forward 2 spaces

The illusion of short-term success

4. Biff Steals a Suit

Lose a turn

5. You’re Well-Liked! (Are you?)

Roll again or go back 1 space

1. "I opened the windshield and just let the warm air bathe over me. And then all of a sudden I'm goin' off the road! I'm tellin' ya, I absolutely forgot I was driving. If I'd've gone the other way over the white line I might've killed somebody. So I went on again--and five minutes later I'm dreamin' again, and I nearly--I have such thoughts,  have such strange thoughts" (Willy, 3-4).

2. "Figure it out. Work a lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it, and there's nobody to live in it" (Willy, 4). 

3. "Well, I spent six or seven years after high school trying to work myself up. Shipping clerk, salesman, business of one kind or another. And it's a measly manner of existence. To get on that subway on the hot mornings in summer. To devote your whole life to keeping stock, or making phone calls, or selling or buying. To suffer fifty weeks of the year for the sake of a two-week vacation, when all you really desire is to be outdoors, with your shirt off. And always to have to get ahead of the next fella. And still--that's how you build a future" (Biff, 10-11).

4. "And whenever spring comes to where I am, I suddenly get the feeling, my God, I'm not gettin' anywhere! What the hell am I doing, playing around with horses, twenty-eight dollars a week! I'm thirty-four years old, I oughta be makin' my future. That's when I come running home. And now, I get here, and I don't know what to do with myself. I've always made a point of not wasting my life, and everytime I come back here I know that all I've done is to waste my life" (Biff, 11).

5. "You're a poet, you know that, Biff? You're a--you're an idealist!" (Happy, 11).

6. "Maybe I oughta get married. Maybe I oughta get stuck into something. Maybe that's my trouble. I'm like a boy. I'm not married, I'm not in business, I just--I'm like a boy. Are you content, Hap? You're a success, aren't you? Are you content?" (Biff, 11).

7. "All I can do now is wait for the merchandise manager to die. And suppose I get to be merchandise manager? He's a good friend of mine, and he just built a terrific estate on Long Island. And he lived there about two months and sold it, and now he's building another one. He can't enjoy it once it's finished. And I know that's just what I would do. I don't know what the hell I'm workin' for. Sometimes I sit in my apartment--all alone. And I think of the rent I'm paying. And it's crazy. But then, it's what I always wanted. My own apartment, a car, and plenty of women. And still, goddamnit, I'm lonely" (Happy, 12).

8. "I gotta show some of those pompous, self-important executives over there that Hap Loman can make the grade. I want to walk into the store the way he walks in. Then I'll go with you, Biff" (Happy, 13).

9. "I don't know what gets into me, maybe I just have an overdeveloped sense of competition or something, but I went and ruined her, and furthermore I can't get rid of her. And he's the third executive I've done that to. Isn't that a crummy characteristic? And to top it all, I go to their weddings! ... I hate myself for it. Because I don't want the girl, and, still, I take it and--I love it!" (Happy, 14).

10. "I'm losing weight, you notice, Pop?" (Happy, 17). 

11. "Because Charley is not--liked. He's liked, but he's not--well liked" (Willy, 18).

12. "I have friends. I can park my car in any street in New England, and the cops protect it like their own" (Willy, 19).

13. "Listen, Biff, I heard Mr. Birnbaum say that if you don't start studyin' math he's gonna flunk you, and you won't graduate. I heard him!" (Bernard, 20). 

14. "That's why I thank Almighty God you're both built like Adonises. Because the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want" (Willy, 21).

15. "I don't know the reason for it, but they just pass me by. I'm not noticed... they do laugh at me. I know that" (Willy, 23-24).

16. "There's nothing the matter with him! You want him to be a worm like Bernard? He's got spirit, personality..." (Willy, 27).

17. "Why is he stealing? What did I tell him? I never in my life told him anything but decent things" (Willy, 27). 

18. "Why boys, when I was seventeen I walked into the jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out. And by God I was rich" (Ben, 33).

19. "Dad left when I was such a baby and I never had a chance to talk to him and I still feel--kind of temporary about myself" (Willy, 36).

20. "Sometimes I'm afraid that I'm not teaching them the right kind of--Ben, how should I teach them?" (Willy, 36).

21. "Biff, a man is not a bird, to come and go with the spring time" (Linda, 39). 

22. "Stop making excuses for him! He always, always wiped the floor with you. Never had an ounce of respect for you" (Biff, 40).

23. "Willy Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He's not the finest character that ever lived. But he's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He's not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must be finally paid to such a person... you don't have to be very smart to know what his trouble is. The man is exhausted" (Linda, 40). 

24. "The man who never worked a day but for your benefit? When does he get the medal for that? Is this his reward--to turn around at the age of sixty-three and find his sons, who he loved better than his life, one a philandering bum... And you! what happened to the love you had for him?" (Linda, 41). 

25. "Because I know he's a fake and he doesn't like anybody around who knows!" (Biff, 42). 

26. "He's been trying to kill himself.... The insurance inspector came. He said that they have evidence. That all these accidents in the last year--weren't--weren't--accidents" (Linda, 42). 

27. "I tell you he put his whole life into you and you've turned your backs on him. Biff, I swear to God! Biff, his life is in your hands!" (Linda, 43). 

28. "You never grew up. Bernard does not whistle in the elevator, I assure you" (Willy, 45). 

29. "I'm gonna get married, Mom. I wanted to tell you" (Happy, 50).

30. "Like a young god. Hercules--something like that. And the sun, the sun all around him. Remember how he waved to me?...Loman, Loman, Loman! God Almighty, he'll be great yet. A star like that, magnificent, can never really fade away" (Willy, 51). 

31. "I would like to own something outright before it's broken! I'm always in a race with the junkyard!" (Willy, 54).

32. "If only Biff would take this house, and raise a family" (Willy, 54).

33. "Because he's only a little boat looking for a harbor" (Linda, 56). 

34. "His name was Dave Singleman. And he was eighty-four years old, and he'd drummed merchandise in thirty-one states.... And when I saw that, I realized that selling was the greatest career a man could want. 'Cause what could be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four, into twenty or thirty different cities, and pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people... when he died, hundreds of salesmen and buyers were at his funeral" (Willy, 61). 

35. "You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away--a man is not a piece of fruit!" (Willy, 61-62).

36. "Howard, are you firing me?" (Willy, 63).

37. "Ben, nothing's working out. I don't know what to do" (Willy, 64).

38. "You've a continent at your doorstep, William. Get out of these cities, they're full of talk and time payments and courts of law. Screw on your fists and you can fight for a fortune up there" (Willy, 64). 

39. "Why must everybody conquer the world? You're well liked, and the boys love you" (Willy, 65). 

40. "It's not what you do, Ben. It's who you know and the smile on your face! It's contacts, Ben, contacts!" (Willy, 65). 

41. "You're comin' home this afternoon captain of the All-Scholastic Championship Team of the City of New York" (Willy, 67). 

42. "I'm--I'm overjoyed to see how you made the grade, Bernard, overjoyed. It's an encouraging thing to see a young man really--really--Looks very good for Biff--very" (Willy, 70). 

43. "He was so proud of those, wore them every day. And he took them down in the cellar, and burned them up in the furnace. We had a fist fight....I've often thought of how strange it was that I knew he'd given up his life. What happened in Boston, Willy?" (Bernard, 72). 

44. "When the hell are you going to grow up?" (Charley, 75). 

45. "I always felt that if a man was impressive, and well liked, that nothing--" (Willy, 75). 

46. "After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive" (Willy, 76). 

47. "How the hell did I ever get the idea I was a salesman there? I even believed myself that I'd been a salesman for him! And then he gave me one look and--I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been. We've been talking in a dream for fifteen years" (Biff, 81).

48. "I don't know, I just--wanted to take something, I don't know. You gotta help me, Hap, I'm gonna tell Pop" (Biff, 81).

49. "Hap, he's got to understand that I'm not the man somebody lends that kind of money to. He thinks I've been spiting him all these years and it's eating him up" (Biff, 81). 

50. "Dad is never so happy as when he's looking forward to something!" (Happy, 82).

51. "I'm not interested in stories about the past or any crap of that kind because the woods are burning, boys, you understand? There's a big blaze going on all around. I was fired today.... I was fired, and I'm looking for a little good news to tell your mother, because the woman has waited and the woman has suffered" (Willy, 83). 

52. "Hap, help him! Jesus... help him... Help me, help me, I can't beat to look at his face!" (Biff, 90). 

53. "No, that's not my father. He's just a guy. Come on, we'll catch Biff, and, honey, we're going to paint this town!" (Happy, 91).

54. "Because if he saw the kind of man you are, and you just talked to him in your way, I'm sure he'd come through for me" (Biff, 92).

55. "Now stop crying and do as I say. I gave you an order. Biff, I gave you an order! Is that what you do when I give you an order? How dare you cry?" (Willy, 94).

56. "She's nothing to me, Biff. I was lonely, I was terribly lonely" (Willy, 95). 

57. "You--you gave her Mama's stockings!" (Biff, 95).

58. "You fake! You phony little fake! You fake!" (Biff, 95).

59. "Oh, I'd better hurry. I've got to get some seeds. I've got to get some seeds, right away. Nothing's planted. I don't have a thing in the ground" (Willy, 96). 

60. "Don't you care whether he lives or dies?" (Linda, 97).

61. "You invite him to dinner. He looks forward to it all day--and then you desert him there. There's no stranger you'd do that to" (Willy, 97-98).

62. "You're a pair of animals! Not one, not another living soul would have had the cruelty to walk out on that man in a restaurant!" (Linda, 98).

63. "Ben, the woman has suffered. You understand me? A man can't go out the way he came in, Ben, a man has got to add up to something" (Willy, 99).

64. "Because he thinks I'm nothing, see, and so he spites me. But the funeral--Ben, that funeral will be massive! They'll come from Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire! All the old-timers with the strange license plates--that boy will be thunderstruck, Ben, because he never realized--I am known! Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey--I am known, Ben, and he'll see it with his eyes once and for all. He'll see what I am, Ben! He's in for a shock, that boy!" (Willy, 100).

65. "Oh, Ben, how do we get back to all the great times? Used to be so full of light, and comradeship, the sleigh-riding in winter, and the ruddiness on his cheeks. And always some kind of good news coming up, always something nice coming up ahead.... Why, why can't I give him something and not have him hate me?" (Willy, 101).

66. "May you rot in hell if you leave this house!" (Willy, 103).

67. "I want you to know, on the train, in the mountains, in the valleys, wherever you go, that you cut down your life for spite!...Spite, spite, is the word of your undoing! And when you're down and out, remember what did it. When you're rotting somewhere beside the railroad tracks, remember, and don't you dare blame it on me!" (Willy, 103).

68. "What is this supposed to do, make a hero out of you? This supposed to make me sorry for you?...There'll be no pity for you, you hear it? No pity!" (Biff, 104).

69. "No, you're going to hear the truth--what you are and what I am!" (Biff, 104).

70. "The man don't know who we are! The man is gonna know! We never told the truth for ten minutes in this house!" (Biff, 104).

71. "You big blow, are you the assistant buyer? You're on of the two assistants to the assistant, aren't you?...You're practically full of it! We all are! And I'm through with it" (Biff, 104).

72. "You know why I had no address for three months? I stole a suit in Kansas City and I was in jail. Stop crying. I'm through with it" (Biff, 104).

73. "I stole myself out of every good job since high school!" (Biff, 105).

74. "And I never got anywhere because you blew me so full of hot air I could never stand taking orders from anybody! That's whose fault it is!" (Biff, 105).

75. "I ran down eleven flights with a pen in my hand today. And suddenly I stopped, you hear me? And in the middle of that office building, do you hear this? I stopped in the middle of that building and I saw--they sky. I saw the things that I love in this world. The work and the food and time to sit and smoke. And I looked at the pen and said to myself, what the hell am I grabbing this for? Why am I trying to become what I don't want to be? What am I trying to become what I don't want to be? What am I doing in an office making a contemptuous, begging fool of myself, when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am! Why can't I say that, Willy?" (Biff, 105).

76. "Pop! I'm a dime a dozen, and so are you!" (Biff, 105). 

77. "I am not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman, and you are Biff Loman!" (Willy, 105).

78. "I am not a leader of men, Willy, and neither are you. You were never anything but a hard-working drummer who landed in the ash can like all the rest of them! I'm one dollar an hour, Willy! I tried seven states and couldn't raise it. A buck an hour! Do you gather my meaning? I'm not bringing home any prizes any more, and you're going to stop waiting for me to bring them home!" (Biff, 106). 

79. "Pop, I'm nothing! I'm nothing, Pop. Can't you understand that? There's no spite in it any more. I'm just what I am, that's all" (Biff, 106). 

80. "Will you let me go, for Christ's sake? Will you take that phony dream and burn it before something happens?" (Biff, 106). 

81. "I'm getting married, Pop, don't forget it. I'm changing everything. I'm gonna run that department before the year is up. You'll see, Mom" (Happy, 107). 

82. "Loves me. Always loved me. Isn't that a remarkable thing? Ben, he'll worship me for it!" (Willy, 108).

83. "Imagine? When the mail comes he'll be ahead of Bernard again!" (Willy, 108). 

84. "Oh, Ben, I always knew one way or another we were gonna make it, Biff and I!" (Willy, 108).

85. "Why didn't anybody come? ... Where are all the people he knew? Maybe they blame him" (Linda, 110).

86. "There were a lot of nice days. When he'd come home from a trip; or on Sundays, making the stoop; finishing the cellar; putting on the new porch; when he built the extra bathroom; and put up the garage. You know something, Charley, there's more of him in that front stoop than in all the sales he ever made" (Biff, 110).

87. "He had the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong....He never knew who he was" (Biff, 111). 

88. "A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory" (Charley, 111).

89. "I'm not licked that easily. I'm staying right in this city, and I'm gonna beat this racket! The Loman Brothers!" (Happy, 111).

90. "All right, boy. I'm gonna show you and everybody else that Willy Loman did not die in vain. He had a good dream. It's the only dream you can have--to come out number-one man. He fought it out here, and this is where I'm gonna win it for him" (Happy, 111).

91. "Forgive me, dear. I can't cry. I don't know what it is, but I can't cry. I don't understand it. Why did you ever do that? Help me, Willy, I can't cry. It seems to me that you're just on another trip. I keep expecting you. WIlly, dear, I can't cry. Why did you do it? I search and search and I search, and I can't understand it, Willy. I made the last payment on the house today. Today, dear. And there'll be nobody home. We're free and clear. We're free. We're free...we're free" (Linda, 112).