![]() ![]() In the second act, he deals with being fired. The play begins with the 63-year-old Loman dealing with a recent paycut after 34 years on the job at a time when he is having difficulty meeting his financial responsibilities. According to Associated Press correspondent Cynthia Lowry's review of the drama, "we watched an aging, defeated traveling salesman move inexorably toward self-destruction, clinging desperately to fantasies". Loman's world crumbles around him during the play. His misplaced values of importance and popularity were shaken to the core by his declining ability to leverage those self-perceived traits successfully as he grew older. His wife not only allows these delusions, but also she buys into them, somewhat. He lives in a world with delusions about how popular, famous, influential and successful he is and about the prospects for the success of his sons. According to Charles Isherwood, Loman is the play's dominant character because "It is his losing battle against spiritual and economic defeat that provides the narrative spine of the play." Loman is a symbolic representation of millions of white collar employees who outlived their corporate usefulness. The play presents Loman's struggle "to maintain a foothold in the upward-striving American middle class" while combating his own self-doubt that plagues him in reminders from the past that his life rests on unsolid ground. His business knowledge is still at its peak, but without his youth and heartiness, he is no longer able to leverage his personality to get by. He has lost the youthful verve of his past and his camaraderie has faded away. ![]() Willy Loman is an aging suburban Brooklyn, New York salesman whose less than spectacular career is on the decline. ![]()
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