Question:
Paraphrase of the quote
Paraphrase (in your own words) what you think the ideas presented in this quotation.
Death of a Salesman is a challenge to the American dream. Lest this be misunderstood, I hasten to add that there are two versions of the American dream. The historical American dream is the promise of a land of freedom with opportunity and equality for all. This dream needs no challenge, only fulfillment. But since the Civil War, and particularly since 1900, the American dream has become distorted to the dream of business success. A distinction must be made even in this. The original premise of our dream of success â?" popularly represented in the original boy parables of Horatio Alger* â?" was that enterprise, courage, and hard work were the keys to success. Since the end of the First World War this, too, has changed. Instead of the ideals of hard work and courage, we have salesmanship. Salesmanship implies a certain element of fraud: the ability to put over or sell a commodity regardless of its intrinsic usefulness. The goal of salesmanship is to make a deal, to earn a profit â?" the accumulation of profit being an unquestioned end in itself.
*Horatio Alger was a 19th-century author of novels, most of which can be described as "rags-to-riches" stories.
Source: Harold Clurman, "The Success Dream on the American Stage," Death of a Salesman, Text and Criticism, ed. Gerald Weales (New York: Penguin Books, 1996).