You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away – a man is not a piece of fruit!
– Arthur Miller
Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy is talking to his boss Howard about getting a non-traveling postion with the company, after spending 34 years working for it. When Howard refuses, Willy uses a fruit metaphor to describe how Howard has treated him like an orange. His boss has consumed the best years of his life and when he is of no further use he throws him away like a peel. This is symbolic of an unsentimental capitalist system that treats employees as expendable, discarding them when they are no longer needed. Themes of betrayal and abandonment, found throughout the play, are present here.