Comparison of Willy Loman in Miller's "Death of A Salesman" and Troy Maxon in Wilson's "Fences" Compares the 2 main characters and questions whether they were good fathers.

Essay by USMCgirl02High School, 12th gradeA+, April 2002

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In the books Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, and Fences by August Wilson, there are common themes that run throughout the book. Among these are two, hard working men that can be a bit disillusioned by life. The main character of each book, Willy Loman and Troy Maxson are similar in many ways. They both try hard to be good men and fathers, but unfortunately, they are imperfect in both aspects. Troy distances his self from his youngest son, and many could say that he is too hard and cold towards him. Willy in a way believes that his grown sons could not have done any wrong when they were younger and do no wrong now. But these two fathers are not totally bad. There are many good personal traits that they both display in these books. But as stated as before, they weren't perfect at all.

In many ways, both Willy and Troy were in fact good fathers.

They worked hard to provide for their families and tried to set an example for their sons by their own actions. Willy was extremely supportive of Biff's high school football success and went to all the games. Troy tries to instill certain values such as responsibility into his son Cory and explains to him that he shouldn't go through life worrying if people like him or not. He tells him he takes care of him not because he likes him, but because it is his duty.

Troy seems to be a bad father more visibly. He does not encourage Cory's high school football career in anyway, in fact he tells him to tell the scout he is not interested and thinks having a job is more important. His attitude toward Cory the majority of the time is cold and...