ly difficult for this man who has such hopes and dreams for all of them. You see, making people believe you are something you are not when you operate from a distance is very easy; the closer to home your actions are, the easier it is to discover your weaknesses. And this becomes quite evident when Willy says to his sons that someday he will take them to New England and show them how important he really is. Willy never does take them because he knows his children are too close to him and they would surely reveal him for the fake that he is.As the play begins, Willy has just come home from New England. The audience believes Willy must have had a tiring day, presumably from the long drive, since he is physically exhausted (carrying those two heavy suitcases I felt as though Willy's life was in each of them, a very heavy and burdensome life). Soon we discover that Willy is physically drained because he was driving aimlessly with no sense of direction; this is the first example of how this play is set partly from the mind and memory of Willy Loman. The difficulty that arises is because the plot fluctuates between the 1940's and 1928. The audience must follow carefully from the past to the present, and I found this to be easiest by watching the interaction between Willy and significant life events (e.g., the 1928 Chevrolet; Willy finding the boys polishing the Chevy upon his return from a trip to Boston; Biff's big football game).Willy Loman is at the bottom of the ladder. He is not ingenious and therefore lacks the basic inductive and deductive reasoning skills to make himself promotable (and profitable). Willy is a physically large man, tall, barrel-chested with a deep voice. Yet one might consider his name (Loman) farcical (i.e., Low-man) since we soon discover that he is really insignificant on the social scale. Willy soon finds out just how expendable he is because the company takes him off salary and places him on straight commission b...
