Death of a Salesman - Symbols

The cars that Willy Lowman own in Death of a Salesman symbolizes his mental well-being throughout his life. This will be examined in three separate sections, Willy’s flashbacks, the ‘present time’ sections of the play, and finally the car crash. These explanations will be presented in chronological order to keep things from becoming confusing. When Willy is having flashbacks on his life it is shown that he was a very happy and stable person, …

…Willy. We see that, in the end, Willy’s life was indeed mirroring his car ownership. Whenever Willy was experiencing trouble, so was the vehicle. He owned a shiny red pick-up truck when hopes were high, his children were successful, and he was on the brink of cutting a deal for a new, higher paying job, and when the car was crushed and had seen the last of the world surrounding it, so did Willy.