How does Miller use the father-son relationships to question the
values of 1940's America? ("Death of a Salesman" by Arthur
Miller) In America in the 1940's, material success was
preferable to anything else. Some people in 'the land of
opportunities,' were experiencing immense prosperity and
unprecedented wealth as social processes were occurring. It was
the time when the war between capitalism and communism was
occurring i.e. The Cold War, hence the era of McCarthy and un-
Americanism. Here was too the time where the majority of
citizens in the USA believed in the American Dream, which is the
pursuit of material prosperity - that people work more hours and
harder to get bigger rewards, financial freedom and the fruits
of prosperity for their families. It also can be defined as an
American ideal to a happy and successful life to which all may
aspire to. The 1940's was also a period of mass unemployment and
of an economic depression. The dream thus represented a
reaffirmation of traditional American hopes in th