“Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller is a timeless tale of the last days of Willy Loman, a sixty-three year old traveling salesman. In the story, Willy begins to hallucinate about the past. His hallucinations are believed to be the result of how his sons, Biff and Happy’s, lives turned out. Biff, thirty-four, has moved from job to job since he dropped out of high school and for a brief time went to jail. He wants to work on a farm though it’s against his father’s wishes and he feels like he should be “making a fortune” at this point in his life. Happy, the youngest of the two, lives in an apartment and keeps telling his parents that he will settle down and get married, though he isn’t going anywhere in his business and enjoys sleeping with many different women. The Loman’s next door neighbor, Charley, owns his own business and his son Bernard has become one of his most valuable employees. It is apparent that Charlie is doing something right when it comes to parenting. His techniques are much more effective than Willy’s.
Willy, though he meant well, tried to be a friend more than a father to his sons. In the play, he makes a feeble attempt at reprimanding Biff for stealing a football from school. Then he gives immediately, trying to reason that the coach would probably commend Biff for taking the initiative to practice with a regulation ball at home. The problem here is that Willy is interested with appearances more than academics. He thought that since Biff was so popular in school that he’d excel in life as well. Exaggeration is another flaw in Willy Loman’s parenting. When he says, “Go to Filene’s, go to the Hub, go to Slattery’s, Boston. Call out my name Willy Loman and see what happens! Big shot!” we see how he tries to talk himself up. Probably the greatest problem with his parenting style is that he did not set a good example for his sons. This is displayed when Biff catches him having an affair in a hotel room in Boston. Throughout the whole play Willy is unsure whether or not he raised his sons correctly.
The opposite could be said about Charley. Though we don’t know much about his background, we can gather what type of father he is by observing his son Bernard. For example, when Bernard tries to warn Willy that Biff was failing he was brushed aside. One can infer that Bernard only went to Willy because he thought that he would have commanded that Biff take more interest in his schoolwork like his father would have done. When Bernard speaks to Willy about his business trip, he does not disclose that it is to argue a case at the Supreme Court. His modesty shows that he has been raised to have good values.
Given the evidence above, one can conclude that Willy’s parenting is inferior to Charley’s. Though both of them love their children unconditionally, Charley appears to be sterner. Setting ground rules, being a positive role model, and instilling moral values are all characteristics of effective parenting. Willy just didn’t understand that.
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