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Miller's play takes place from 1945-1949, from around the end of WW2 to the time it was written. Miller focuses on the American Dream. With WW2 having recently ended, the American Dream was a thing with American society again, going along with the postwar boom that happened after WW1 as well. Except after WW1 there was the Great Depression because of the roaring 20's where everybody spent all of their money.Everyone had super huge dreams about the rebirth of the American Dream.  New York was seen as a busy place full of opportunity for everyone, which was nice. Not like society today. Oh well. National shift from agriculture to urban industry, which connects to Willy's dream of becoming a successful salesman in time.

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The play takes place over a day or two before Willy's death. The play is extremely fast paced, with two days taking place over 139 pages.  The play in general explains the major points of Willy's life, from his childhood with Ben to his suicide at the end. Because the play itself isn't long, a lot of information is packed into what space is available, causing the pace to be fast.

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After both WW1 and WW2, America experienced a postwar economic boom. The novel, taking place in the aftermath of WW2, depicts Willy as an average American, dreaming about someday becoming a successful person. The economic boom after WW2 led to many American citizens looking for any opportunities to become successful

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Postwar society shows a renewal of the 'American Dream'. All of the characters in the play depict this idea, especially Willy. Willy believes that by working hard, that eventually success will come to him, because there's opportunity for everyone to become successful.

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The time period is around the shift from an agricultural economy to an urban/industrial economy. This is why Willy aims to be a successful businessman rather than something like a farmer, which Ben aimed to be successful as.

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The narrator knows some things about the characters that aren't obvious. The narrator doesn't appear much in the play, since it's mostly dialogue between the characters, but when he does, it's to provide information or context to the reader. An example is when the narrator is describing Uncle Ben as he walks on stage for the first time. The reader knows nothing about him , or his significance to the story as a whole, but the narrator says, "he is utterly certain of his destiny", allowing the reader to understand what kind of character he is. Usually, the narraotr just explains what actions are happening, or when the play is shifting from past to present

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Biff has the largest character change out of the characters in the play. In the beginning, Biff is seen as less successful than his brother, Happy. In flashbacks, Biff is shown to be a successful person, albeit extremely prideful. His character changes after he discovers his father cheating on his mother, becoming less ambitious and more apathetic. His excessive pride is his major flaw, which he realizes at the end of the play. At the end of the play, the two brothers Happy and Biff part ways, both in search of success. Biff, after realizing his flaws, decides to follow in his uncle's footsteps, searching for success in the wilderness, rather than try to find success in the city like his father had.

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Happy is a character that denies his flaws. At the beginning of the play, he's depicted as being more successful than his brother, Biff. As the reader continues the play, Happy becomes a more self-absorbed character, and thinks about what he wants more than he acts to actually achieve what he wants. At the end of the play, in the parting scene between Biff and Happy, Happy chooses the life that his father took, trying to find success in the city and an industrial economy. The parting scene between the brothers made me cry because it showed that they learned nothing from the last generation's mistakes. Happy decides to continue in his father's stead, after seeing what happened to him because of it.

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Willy is probably the most tragic character I've ever read about, most likely since he's extremely realistic for a fictional character. In the beginning, Willy is seen as a man with high ambition, working hard to be able to reach the amount of success that he wants. As the novel progresses, and you learn more about Willy, the reader learns that he's extremely realistic. The passage where the reader discovers that Willy is suicidal and adulterous is the point where the view of Willy changes. By the end of the play, the reader sees Willy as tragic, realizing that his ambition is useless and he's wasted his life away by never acting on his ambition. Willy is such a believable character because it's possible for any human to become him.

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Uncle Ben's character is the exact opposite of Willy's. He's less realistic, just because of human nature being the way it is, and not many humans leaving everything to pursue their ambitions. Uncle Ben's character is dead throughout the entirety of the play, not including flashbacks that include him alive. Uncle Ben is a character that chose to act on his ambitions, and work in the wilderness to achieve success. Uncle Ben is a believable character, though there aren't many people like him in the world anymore.

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Flashbacks disrupt the chronological order of the novel. The pace seems slower because of these flashbacks, since the chronology of the play is disrupted, and the time period switches back and forth, from present to past. Most of the play consists of flashbacks, which gives context to what happens in the present during the play.

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Willy's character is extremely static. The only changes that his character has are for the worse, leading to his eventual suicide. The youngest the reader sees Willy is in a flashback as he talks to his brother Ben. In this scene, Willy is seen as being stubborn and unwilling to leave with his brother to achieve his dream of success. Willy's character remains this way throughout the entirety of the play. His character works hard, thinking that he's working towards success, while always remaining in the same position, unable to reach his dreams of success. Willy's character development occurs after his final argument with his son, where he's accused of filling them with useless ambition. After this accusation, Willy breaks down and commits suicide, after realizing that his sons cared for him.

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Out of all of the characters, Biff had the largest character development. The youngest the reader sees him is in a flashback while he's still in high school. He's seen as being incredibly proud and ambitious because of his father's parenting. At the end of his education, Biff discovers that his father is adulterous, which causes a drastic character change. Because of his excessive pride and seeing his father cheating on his mother, Biff becomes a tragic character. He leaves his family to find work, only to constantly steal things from others and end up in jail. He returns back home by the time the play begins, where he's seen as useless, and less successful than his younger brother Happy. The events in the novel all lead up to Biff accusing his father of ruining their lives by blowing them up with excessive pride and ambition. After Willy's death, Biff's character resembles that of his uncle Ben's. As Happy decides to live the way Willy lived and find success in the city and industrial economy, Biff decides to revert back to hard work in the wilderness to find success like Uncle Ben had. The novel ends with the brothers parting ways, and Biff leaving to become a successful person like his uncle had been.

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Happy's character change is extremely tragic. The youngest the reader sees him is as a child with Biff. Happy is shown to act like his brother, but is seen as more successful to his parents. Unlike Biff, Happy is extremely good with people, and uses it to his advantage. As the novel progresses, it's revealed that Happy isn't as successful as he's thought to be, and lies about his position at the company he works for. After Willy's death, Happy decides to follow in his footsteps and attempt to find success in the industrial economy. Biff offers to let Happy find success with him, but Happy refuses like Willy had with Ben. Happy's character is tragic because he repeats the mistakes his father made without realizing it, causing the events of the play to happen again, possibly into newer generations as well.

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The text that connects the best to Death of a Salesman is As I Lay Dying. Both texts are tragedies, and end with the younger generation making the same mistakes that the older generation has. Both texts benefit humanity, by creating a character that is an example of how not to act or become.

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I don't have any experiences that connect to Death of A Salesman, though I have read a book that's similar. In the novel Seagull by Jonathan Livingston, the same idea of the American Dream is present. The idea of reaching success through hard work and ambition is prominent in both texts.

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Biff's major character change occurs when he realizes why he isn't as successful as he thought he would be. He accuses his father of filling him and Happy with so much pride that they became haughty. Their fight scene ends with Biff telling Willy, "Pop, I'm nothing! I'm nothing, Pop" (Miller 133). He claims that he's "a dime a dozen", and just the same as everyone else, with the same dreams of success. The author uses this passage to explain just how tragic not acting to reach success is.

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The point of Miller's play is to inform the American populace. He uses Death of a Salesman to warn the public about the dangers of excessive pride and ambition. Use of pastoral is excessive in his play, showing that Miller uses his play to tell the public that finding success in the wilderness is more probable than finding success in the city, where everyone else tries to find success too. Miller's way of telling the story is interesting and keeps the reader interested, keeping a fast pace throughout, and slowly introducing new ideas and reasoning through flashbacks.

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At the end of the novel, the author repeats the scene between Ben and Willy with Biff and Happy. Biff offers Happy to find success with him, but Happy claims that he'll find success for his father, since his dreams failed, saying, "He fought it out here, and this is where I'm gonna win it for him" (Miller 139). The mistakes of the older generation in the story are repeated in the younger generation, showing that some characters learned nothing from past mistakes. Biff leaves in search of success that he'll eventually find, while Happy decides to stay and find success in the place his father couldn't, which he'll never find. The author uses this passage to explain how humans must learn from past mistakes, or else they'll have the same failures.

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Four recurring elements in Death of a Salesman are the motif of ambition, success, the idea of the American Dream, and pastoral. Miller's use of these ideas creates the theme of the play. These ideas are constantly placed throughout the entire play, reminding the reader the main idea that the author is trying to convey. Connecting these ideas with the character of the novel, multiple themes can be created. Each of these four recurring ideas connects to Miller's theme, and the context of the play's time period. By using these ideas, Miller creates the idea that excessive pride and ambition is disadvantageous to humans, simply because of human nature. Using his characters, and pastoral, Miller explains the importance of the American Dream revolving around finding one's own success in the wild, where no others are willing to. Willy, being an example of what not to do, follows everyone else, attempting to find success in the city, where every other American citizen also attempts to find success. Miller's play describes human nature extremely well, and I think that it's important for readers to completely understand the point, and the complexities of it, that he tries to describe in the text.

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As a reader, I can connect to the characters in the play, through different aspects of their personality. Connecting to Willy is rather easy, since he's a good example of general human nature. Willy spends a majority of his life working hard for something that he loves and wants to be successful in. Sadly, he shares the same dream as many others from the time period, and never actually finds success. Being able to connect with Willy's character is a part of human nature, since humans are naturally ambitious, and strive to achieve their goals.

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At the end of the play, most of the characters are thrown into depression, or changed in some way, due to them being unable to accomplish their goals. Willy's life is shown to have wasted away, with nothing that he can say he's proud of accomplishing. Willy's ambitions were extremely unrealistic, especially for the time period that the play takes place in. A large amount of today's younger generations seem to have the same feelings of despair that the characters in Death of a Salesman have. The idea of having goals and ambitions that you'll never be able to reach is prominent in both Miller's play, and today's younger generations.