Death of a Salesman (Act II & Requiem)

Act II starts out with an optimistic vibe; Willy is buzzing with excitement about Biff's meeting with Oliver and he is going to talk to Howard and tell him he cannot travel anymore. He believes that Biff and Happy are finally going to achieve the American dream and on their way to being successful. This is one of the underlying themes of the story, the endless desire to be successful and well-liked but this actually brings about the Lomans' downfall. Since Willy put so much emphasis on being successful and had to much pride, he ignored what he was really good at and really enjoyed which was carpentry. However, Biff doesn't even meet with Oliver because he doesn't even recognize him so he didn't get the loan he was counting on. Biff finally realized that he has been living a lie his entire life. His dad has always puffed him up with so much ego that he hasn't been able to take anyone else's orders and never feels like he is successful enough. At dinner that night, Bif tells his father that he never had an interview with Oliver and Willy reveals that he has been fired from his job as well. This sparks another argument between them because they are both frustrated in each other's lack of success. They can't seem to communicate with each other and understand what the other is going through. Willy starts to have a flashback of when he was staying in Boston for business. Biff came up to ask him if he would talk his math teacher into bumping up his grade so that he could graduate. As they were talking, a woman appears from the bathroom and Biff becomes aware that his father is having an affair. This news stuns Biff and he is so disappointed in his father. He doesn't even want his father to ask his teacher to bump up his grade anymore. Biff was too upset with his father to care about anything at that moment. This is the reason for their ongoing conflict throughout the story. After this mishap, their close relationship seems to fall apart and they struggle to even talk to each other. During this flashback, Biff takes off and Happy follows, leaving their father alone in the restaurant. On his way home, Willy picked up some seeds and begins planting them when he arrives home. Biff and Happy show up later and Biff is determined to let his father know how he really feels. After a few minutes of confrontation, Biff breaks down and begins crying. This shocks Willy and makes him realize that Biff does love him. Later, Ben appears to Willy in a dellusion and begins encouraging him to go to the jungle to get rich again. The climax occurs when Willy starts up his car and drives off into the night.The story ends with Willy's family and friends mourning over his grave. Linda can't cry because she doesn't understand why Willy would do this to her. She doesn't know how to feel sad about this. Arthur Miller incorporates a twist of irony into the end of the story because Willy and Linda were finally able to pay their last payment on the house, but now Willy is dead. They were free of their debt, but now Linda has no one to enjoy it with.
A lot of the questions that I had throughout Act I were revealed in Act II and the Requiem. For example, I found out the reason for Biff and Willy's ongoing conflict, the reason Biff hated to see Linda knitting stockings, and why Biff didn't graduate from high school. The story is told through third person omniscient point of view. Since the story is told through this point of view, I could understand why characters acted the way they did. The theme of the story was if a person becomes to obsessed with being successful and well-liked instead of doing what they truly love, they are setting themselves up for failure. This was the reason for Willy's failure; he thought he was too good to do carpentry work even though he was really talented at it. He also instilled this into Biff and Happy, which brought about their struggles to find success. The story started to pick up after Act I and was pretty interesting to read.