Hi, everybody! A quick word here before I shove off to work.

What I hope I have shown, so far, is that Willie Loman is a very unusual person, in that both the nature of his identity and the way it was created is very unusual. His is a "double" identitiy. He is a product of his two "fathers."

There was old man Loman, whom Willie barely knew, the one whose inclinations and talents, he seemed to have inherited. Willie's talent with his hands, making things, building things, carpentry, and the like, seem to have been passed along by his father genetically, as certain characteristics are prone to do, as we know.

Then there was the "father," Dave Singleman whom Willie desperately clung to. Singleman was the brilliant salesman who was well known and well liked all over the land, and whose funeral was something of an extravaganza.

Willie could not help being good with his hands. That is just who he was. It was as natural to him as breathing. That was the gift of his biological father.

But who was Dave Singleman? We are given no other information about him. But we might carefully infer. Singleman may have been Willie Loman's mentor, back when the youth first started with the Wagner Company.

Willie was likely much more energetic and gung-ho. This enthusiasm and hard work (remember Willie confides to Linda, his wife that unlike other men he has to "be at it ten, twelve hours a day. Other men seem to do it easier.") probably disguised and made up for a real lack of skill and fundamental unfitness for the career of selling.

Selling, the profession and way of life of being "well liked" worked well for Willie's "father," Dave Singleman. This was what I meant when I said that, in a way, for Willie, selling "ran in the family." Since it "runs in the family," since it worked for his "father," it must work for Willie, his "son."

This is why Willie cannot give up the illusion of himself as being a successful salesman. After all, it is from this paradigm that he provides the totality of his ethical instruction to his two sons, Biff and Hap. I fear that I am not quite making myself clear, but I cannot stress this enough: human personalities are not usually developed this way!!!

What we will see as we go on is that Willie taught his two boys from the side of his personality taken from his "father," Dave Singleman. He particular focused his efforts in this direction at his older son, Biff, the star.

However, it was Biff who ended up taking on the authentic part of his heritage, the old man Loman aspect, good with his hands and so forth. And it was Hap, the second son, barely acknowledged as an afterthought, in whom the Dave Singleman aspect is reincarnated. Willie, when he was alive would never have necessarily wanted and certainly would never have expected that, I think.

Reincarnated is the proper word, I'm convinced, for what we witness, so astonishing the transformation is, as we shall see in time.

Until next time then,

wingedcentaur