“Modernism” and “Postmodernism” though plays
As the booming in industrialization changed the U.S as a whole, it also caused some
drastic changes in the life of the American, both in good ways and in bad ways. Because of these
changes, the time a”er industrialization was separated into two era which are Modern era and
Postmodern era, and they are associated with their respective major movement in Literature
which are “Modernism” and “ Postmodernism.” The similarity between these two eras is what
was called “ American Dream”, which is the dream of every man in U.S to have freedom, success
in their careers and they are free to provide any kind of luxuries to their families, thus making
them even happier. However, Modernism and Post-Modernism are formed to bring up
surrealism that things do not go that way. The di,erence is, however, in modernism people still
keep the hope of that American dream, while in Postmodernism they completely drop them.
Those are why “Death of a Salesman” can best represent Modernism, as well as how well
“Glengarry Glen Ross” represents postmodernism. As we could see, in “Death of a Salesman”,
despite the tragedy and how messed up the salesman’s family has become, all the characters
still cling onto some hope for happiness of their family and still hold certain amount of morality,
however in “Glengarry Glen Ross” all of those hopes and moralities are dropped.
One of the most basic Modernism trait of “death of a salesman” is the play’s rejection of
totality that is meant to provide guidance. For this play, the so-call “American Dream” is the
culprit of all the troubles. For the most part, Modernism is focused on the idea that the
presence of things national identity or spirituality are very meaningless and that exercising them
will only bring futile result as “human relations have shi”ed” (woolfe). Similarly, through the
main character Wily Loman, Miller was trying to express that chasing a”er the American is only
an illusion if you put financial success as its standard. By this, Wily is a total failure as he implied
such standard to such own life. He has disillusions about the American dream as he gradually
believes the key lies in the financial success with real materials, not in happiness. This shows
just how corrupt the Western capitalism is as it is only concerned with materials, not with
spiritual things like family love or happiness. Unfortunately, it took Wily his family that is on the
verge of destruction to realize how wrong the way he is going. This industrialization and
American dream make him think of only how to be financially successful, thus creating the
chances for all his superiors at work drive him to work his soul o,. Soon, his family life stop
appearing in his thought and all he can think about is materials things such as money. Without
his family as a mental support, he soon strayed of the right path and caused a lot of immoral
actions. These actions eventually destroy his family and lead to his suicide. However, even in
those messes, there is still a glimpse of hope, which is yet another trait of Modernism. As Wily’s
son, Bi, tells him that his dream is put in the wrong place, it indicates a hope that Bi, would not
go on his father’s footstep and mess his life up like Wily has done.
One other modernism trait of “death of the salesman” is the dropping of the strict time
chronology. The play is stopped every now and then by the appearance of the people from
Willy’s past, through the 8ashback of his memories. Miller uses an alignment of present and
past which are presented by Willy’s mental rambling. This alignment of present and past is also
