How Does The Past Affect Willy's Life

At some point in a person’s life does he reflect on his past. The past is a crucial component of a person’s inner mind; it lets individuals make decisions of their present and even their future. While the past usually allows an individual to recall memorable pastimes, the past can also reveal vital flaws. In Arthur Miller’s Death of A Salesman, Biff Loman reflects on his past as it impacts his present. The past has created such a problem as the relationship between Biff and his father changed. Biff’s past not only ruined his relationship with his father but also destroyed his own identity. The event that changed Biff’s feelings towards his father, Willy Loman, was his affair with the woman. Before finding out of the affair, Biff respected his father; he considered him successful and would reach out to him when he needed his father. However, Biff was shocked and …show more content…
When Biff was a teenager, Willy would tell him to go into business. He wanted him to be successful and make money. Willy’s pressures and praise made Biff overconfident and blind of the reality and his actual destiny. Biff realizes that he does things only to make his father jovial such as stealing and lying. The family is full up lies and contradictions all due to Willy’s ignorance. Biff starts to realize that what he is doing is not for his own happiness; he does not feel content with business life. Willy is not making Biff successful and gracious but making him a failure and a sinner. As a result of this false hope, Biff starts to believe in what he wants to do and will live off his own lifestyle as evident towards the end of the play when Biff tells Willy that he will leave forever. Willy had no reason to live as no one was truly there for him. Willy is considered as an outcast; society and even his family rejected him. The only result is to die as it will provide insurance family to Linda and his