Poor Willy!

I interpreted the quote “the only thing you got in the world is what you can sell” from Death of a Salesman to mean that emotions and relationships do not necessarily mean anything, because in the end, they are not worth anything. It is not something you can “take to the bank.” In the business world, everything must be concrete, not circumstantial, or it does not mean anything at all. Circumstantial things can be altered or manipulated, while concrete items or facts are something that will always remain the same, and stand for something. I believe that the relationship between the statement remains relatively the same for the 1940’s and current times. If anything, the statement has become even truer today, as you can no longer take a person on just their word alone, it must be contracted to remain true and honest. Furthermore, you cannot make money on something that is not physically there, so how could a person “sell” the fact that you named someone, etc.?  A person can claim to be like a family member, but when it comes to business, that relationship cannot and will not matter, for the sake of a successful company. If a manager was to only hire or advance those employees that he or she had some type of relationship with, or was somehow tied to, regardless of that person’s contribution to the company, the odds of having a successful business are not very high. I believe this story takes place at the time when business views were beginning to change, and were no longer revolving around what a person could do for another, but rather how successful a person could become. I believe Willy, as a character, was unwilling to believe the changes that had occurred around him, thus further aiding the unraveling of his mind. It is hard to cope with changes, but even harder if a person is unwilling to accept the change.