WILLY: No! Boys! Boys! (Young Biff and Happy appear.) Listen to this. This is your Uncle Ben, a great man! Tell my boys, Ben!
BEN: Why boys, when I was seventeen I walked into the jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out. (He laughs.) And by God I was rich.
WILLY (to the boys): You see what I been talking about? The greatest things can happen!
– Arthur Miller
Death of a Salesman, Act 1. Willy’s flashbacks and retreats into the past are a frequent occurrence throughout the play. His deceased brother Ben appears in many of them, in the form of a memory or hallucination. Here Willy is eager for his wealthy brother Ben to tell his boys how he walked into the jungles of Africa a teenager and came out rich at 21. Willy both admires and is envious of his brother’s material success. The legendary Ben, who sounds almost too good to be real, reflects Willy’s idea of the American Dream.