Symbolism used in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. In particular, the three main uses of symbolism mentioned include machines, diamonds, and garden seeds

In Arthur Miller's Death of A Salesman, the shallow ideals of the American Dream are explored and come to a ruinous close. Willy Loman is a salesman who believes that personal attractiveness and likeability will ultimately lead to the dream of financial success. He searches metaphorically for the dream, wandering the open roads as a salesman but he has little idea that hard work is the true foundation of the American Dream. The glittering façade of this dream is explored in the play with the use of three symbols: machines, garden seeds, and diamonds.

Miller uses diamonds to illustrate how brittle Willy's formula for achieving the American Dream really is. Diamonds are tangible proof of success in the eyes of Willy Loman. They represent a verification of triumph in achieving the American Dream for both himself and his family. Willy often seeks advice about success in imagined conversations with his dead brother Ben and even from his pesky neighbor Bernard, asking, "How did you do it? What's the secret, what's the answer?" He is always looking for a quick to his lack of success, not realizing that once must work to succeed.

English: Brown Flax Seeds. Français : Graines de ...

Actor Dustin Hoffman with Lee J. Cobb, who origina...

My American Dream

In Act I, Willy's delusions advance his misconception that success happens instantly, by luck or some form of great skill, and he frequently recalls Ben's line, "When I was seventeen I walked into the jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out. And by God I was rich." At the end of Act II Ben gives Willy some different and foreboding advice saying, "The jungle is dark but full of diamonds," and "A diamond is rough and hard to the touch." Ultimately, a diamond is like Willy's approach to life, fixed and unchanging. Willy refuses to change and adapt with time, and therefore becomes unsuccessful and...