Lessons from 'Death of a Salesman' for 2025

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Lessons from 'Death of a Salesman' for 2025

 
 
Na Won-jeong


The author is a culture reporter of the JoongAng Ilbo. 
 
“That’s how it feels to keep getting rejected by someone you don’t even like.” This lament comes from a young person who set aside their dreams to join the race for a conventional job, following societal expectations rather than their own aspirations. It’s a sentiment I first connected with during college while reading the manga “Bambino!” (2004-12). The line resurfaced in my mind earlier this year as I watched the play “Death of a Salesman”.
 
Life is often a series of choices we make for others rather than ourselves. In “Death of a Salesman,” Willy Loman, a 60-year-old salesman, makes one such decision when his eldest son is just nine years old. Hoping for a slice of the happiness he imagines others have, he takes out a 25-year mortgage to buy a house. But he mortgages more than just his paycheck; he mortgages the potential years he might have spent building a successful business in Alaska, like his older brother. He mortgages the time his son could have spent cultivating his adventurous spirit, rather than growing into a maladjusted urban dweller.
 
Willy becomes consumed by regrets over these lost possibilities. Even when a friend offers him a decent job to ease his financial struggles, Willy can’t engage with the present. Instead, his thoughts remain fixed on a pivotal moment in his past when life seemed full of promise. He’s haunted by the question — Was this the life he really wanted?
 
When “Death of a Salesman” debuted on Broadway in 1949, it won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award. Arthur Miller, the American playwright behind the work, was inspired by a conversation with his uncle during a visit years earlier. Rather than exchanging pleasantries, his uncle opened the conversation with, “Buddy is doing very well.” Buddy was his uncle’s son. Struggling in the aftermath of the Great Depression, the uncle’s preoccupation was clear: he was desperate to maintain his pride by presenting his son as a success to his nephew, whom he had once belittled. Not long after, his uncle ended his own life.
 
Living in constant comparison with others breeds emptiness. As the new year ushers in a renewal of life, perhaps it’s time to commit to a year of pursuing what truly matters to us — no matter how small or seemingly insignificant it may seem.
 
Translated using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff. 
 
 
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