I spent six or seven years after high school trying to work myself up. Shipping clerk, salesman, business of one kind or another. And it’s a measly manner of existence. To get on that subway on the hot mornings in summer. To devote your whole life to keeping stock, or making phone calls, or selling or buying.
– Arthur Miller
Death of a Salesman, Act 1. At 34 years of age Biff realizes that he no longer wants to live out his father Willy’s version of the American Dream. After spending years toiling in the rat race of purposeless business and sales jobs, he is disillusioned and tired of the pointlessness of it all. In this conversation with his brother Happy about their futures, Biff is trying to discover himself and his true identity.