Good Morning Friends,

We are now going to examine the transformations of Biff and Hap Loman. As we have said, Biff is more the ideological son of Old Man Loman, Willie's father. Biff shares with his grandfather and Willie a tendency to find fulfilment in working with his hands, the outdoors, the wanderlust, and some suggestion of criminality that is somewhat connected to their criminality.

This manual tendency and skill is filtered through Willie in a kind of apologetic way. By that I mean that our salesman regards his skill at carpentry as a hobby, not suitable for a certain caliber of man to do as a profession. "Even your grandfather was better than a carpenter."

But Willie cannot fully embrace this part of himself because his father - from whom this part comes - abandoned him when he was "just a baby." By the way, Willie conveys a bit of criminality when he wants to show off for his brother, Ben - ".. we're gonna rebuild the entire front stoop right now," sending young Hap and Biff to "get" (steal) some building supplies from a building project across the street.

And as we have said, it was Biff to whom Willie was trying to transfer the spirit or legacy of Dave Singleman.

Hap, as we have said, is a man very much like Willie, though that was never the salesman's intention. Hap is the spiritual descendant of Dave Singleman - the legendary salesman who had been such an inspiration to Willie. Dave Singleman, you may remember, was the eighty-four year old who could still check into any hotel in any city in America, put on his slippers, get on the phone and contact the buyers, and thus, without leaving his hotel room, make his living.

And Willie was particularly admiring of the massive scale of Dave Singleman's funeral. But Hap is a salesman, a bad one, just like his father. He believes in being well-liked just like his father, and self-delusionally thinks of himself as well liked, again, just like his father. Hap is a boaster and liar just like his father. Hap is also a womanizer, just like his father.

We'll go to another post.

wingedcentaur