Idea and Metaphor- Metaphor

By Eric Houdek 

As we talked about earlier, there were two metaphors from the play that encompassed the whole meaning of the play. 

Howard: Kid, I can’t take blood from a stone(Pg. 81)

Willy: The world is an oyster, but you can’t crack it open on a mattress.(pg. 41)

Both of these metaphors summarize the play itself.  Willy Loman is a man who believes that being well liked by everyone will lead to sucess in the real world.  This is evident when he tells Biff that Bernard will never succeed in the real world because being a book worm does nothing to add to his popularity.  This ties in to the fact that Willy is a delusional character. Although he literally sees delusions throughout the course of the play, Willy has a warped perception of reality.  Willy embraces the American dream, which is to “make it big” and to take care of his family.  However, Willy uses the salesman Dave Singleman to make the decision to use “salesmanship” as the means to achieve the American dream.  There is nothing deceptive about Singleman’s name.  He dies a SINGLE MAN, and most likely he didn’t die with a lot of money, for he had to be out working at the age of 84.  It is with a warped sense of reality that Willy sets out to conquer the world.  Raising his children, Willy chooses not to instill many disciplinary values in his children, and even looks down upon Charley’s son Bernard for being a nerd.  As time passes by, and it is evident that many of Willy’s means of achieving success have not been successful, Will still comes to the conclusion that he can take care of his family by killing himself to achieve an insurance reward of $20,000.  He commits this act, but once again, he is using the wrong means to address the problem.  He leaves his wife a widow, his son Biff has no intentions of using money for the sake of business and has plans of moving away, and it is entirely possible that the insurance company did not even honor the policy.

SO WE NEED TO FINALIZE OUR METAPHOR…