Life is a popularity contest

 Every week when thinking of a topic to write my blog post about, I play a fun little game of “How off-topic can I get before Ms. Feldkamp begins to wonder if I actually pay attention in class?” Today, I’ve decided to begin by analyzing one line from Death of a Salesman (a frequent classroom activity to prove that I do indeed listen) and see how long it takes me to go off on a tangent. 

“Be well-liked and you will never want.”

If you’ve ever watched a picture-perfect high school movie, popularity is the key factor in a teenager’s happiness. The girls all hope to be the one who has a path cleared for her as she walks down the hallway and and the boys want to be the quarterback of the football team with the stands of classmates cheering him on. Notice how I used the phrase picture-perfect, showing that this is the scenario that the majority of American teens hope for. This unattainable storyline of ultimate popularity is crucial to the high school lifestyle, therefore, it is inevitable that this mindset carries on into adulthood, more specifically the American Dream. 

We are told from a young age that all we have to do is work hard, and our dreams will eventually come true. That is the premise of the American Dream, but unfortunately, it’s called the “Dream” for a reason, not a reality. All his life, Willy Loman yearns to be well-liked by others, for his wife to look at him for appreciation not love, and for people to flock at his deathbed, not offer support while he’s alive. His obsession with being well-liked begins from his career choice- a salesman. Constantly appealing to the wants of others means that he just continues on with life without a mind of his own. Hence, the line “Be well-liked and you will never want.” If we are blinded by the wants of others, as Willy is, we project these hopes onto ourselves and in his case, Biff, creating false dreams for his son. 

As much as the American Dream and society tells us that being well-liked is the most important, it’s also important to keep our own dreams ahead of the world and to take a look around at what we have before looking at others.