The street is lined with cars. There’s not a breath of fresh air in the neighborhood. The grass don’t grow any more, you can’t raise a carrot in the back yard. They should’ve had a law against apartment houses. Remember those two beautiful elm trees out there? When I and Biff hung the swing between them?
– Arthur Miller
Death of a Salesman, Act 1. Willy to Linda. Willy bemoans that what’s left of the natural environment in Brooklyn, New York, is being overtaken and swallowed up by urbanization. The expanding city with its apartment blocks is encroaching on the fresh air, the grass, the gardens and the trees. Willy sees this kind of rampant capitalist growth and commercialism as destroying nature.