Death of a Salesman

In our class conversations about Death of a Salesman, one topic of much discussion was that about Biff and Happy and their lifestyles. Both live opposite lifestyles but neither is happy.

Biff is unhappy because he is caught between what he wants and what is father wants. Although he is not living the life that his father wants for him and he enjoys working on the ranch, he is still not happy because he has not come to terms with pleasing his father. Even if Biff is living his life the way he wants to, he will never be happy until he accepts allows himself to be. As long as he feels like a failure to his father, it will not matter what he does, whether he is working on a ranch or a married professional, he will not be happy.

Happy is not happy (haha!) because he is doing what his father wants of him, not what he wants. Happy suffers from trying to live up to his father's expectations for Biff. Biff did not go the route that his father wanted, so Happy takes that route (a professional man who says he's going to get married) in hopes of getting his father's approval.

Although the boys live opposite lifestyles, neither is happy because they both are caught in this cycle of impossible happiness: do what makes you happy but feel bad about it, or do what your father wants and hate it. This family is very dysfunctional to say the least!