Oh, yeah, my father lived many years in Alaska. He was an adventurous man. We’ve got quite a little streak of self-reliance in our family.
– Arthur Miller
Death of a Salesman, Act 2. As Willy tries to convince Howard to give him a non-traveling job in New York, he rewrites his family history. Making them out to be imbued with an independent pioneering sprit, he describes his father as a great adventurer. In truth his father upped and abandoned his family and left them fend for themselves. But in order to fit his sales pitch to Howard, Willy has rewritten his father’s desertion as some kind of heroic action. This speaks to the themes of self-deception and abandonment.