Good Evening Friends,

We are trying to figure out why it is that Willie Loman shoehorned himself into a career - "selling" - that he was not suited for, was never really good at, and arguably never actually liked (he liked the idea of being "well liked," which he saw as a reward for being a good salesman - I will return to this point).

Let us return to the "We're gonna do it here!" scene, where Willie rejects his brother Ben's offer to go to work for him "managing" some properties for him in Alaska. Well before his outburst explained to Ben why he went into the field of selling.

The reason was, in a word, Dave Singleman. Dave Singleman was a beloved old salesman with the Wagner Company. He was very good at selling. Willie admired the way Dave Singleman could, at the age of eighty four, go to any hotel in any city, put on his slippers and get on the phone, and then without ever leaving his hotel room, he could make his living.

Presumably he could do this because of relationships with buyers and other concerned personnel he'd built up over a period of decades. "And when he died," said Willie, "the funeral was MASSIVE." It had been attended by multitudes of buyers, secretaries, salesman, and the like. This was a dramatic demonstration of how universally admired and loved Dave Singleman had been. Willie wants to go out like that.

It's important to remember that Willie's father abandoned the family when he was "just a baby." And so did Ben. Willie Loman had to get a father figure from somewhere.

Sure Willie wanted Ben's respect. Sure Willie wants to think of himself as the kind of man his father would have respected. But what he really wants is to meet the standard set by his "father," Dave Singleman.

Okay, so Willie was motivated to be like this other salesman; couldn't he have realized after the first decade, at least, or the second in the selling game that he was just no good at it; and couldn't he have done something else for a living, something more of a match with his actual innate abilities and talents, thus developing a different, more workable - for him - lifestyle model which he might have advocated to his sons?

No. Absolutely not. Willie Loman could have done no such thing.

Why not?

We'll talk about that next time.

wingedcentaur