The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and Our Town by Thornton WilderOn the path of life, the right path is not always where the road signs lead. The path to self-discovery is found in following your heart and mind and wherever they may lead. In the plays Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and Our Town by Thornton Wilder, parallel paths and contrary connections can be made between the coinciding characters in both. In Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman paints the portrait of a sixty-year-old man reflecting on his past, made of lies and despair. Looking back on his past, he finally and inevitably finds himself at the end of his life. Mr. Webb from Our Town plays a publisher of Grover's Corner Sentinel and Emily's loving father. At the beginning of the play, he displays his knowledge of his own self-discovery, which he hopes to share with others. Mr. Webb, a self-discovery, raised Emily consistently as a woman who finally recognized the value of life. Married to George Gibbs, her life was very comparable to that of Linda Loman, married to Willy Loman. Linda Loman was a woman devoted to the needs of her partner, but also blind to the real needs desired by Willy. In the end, she always wondered why or what was wrong. Interwoven by salient parallel traits of progressive self-awareness, these characters promoted both plays to a higher level of understanding. The similar life philosophies residing in both Willy Loman and Mr. Webb are present in both plays as they progress. Their strong self-confidence gives them the ability to influence others by giving them advice. Mr. Webb's advice to George was to "start early by showing who's boss" (Wilder IIi 58). The confidence to tell a willing son-in-law shows one's ability to believe. Likewise, Willy often dictated the actions of the people around him. Usually his interferences were contradictory to what others had in mind, such as "No, you finish first" (Miller 1.3). His constant dictations most often cause contradictions with his dictations! At first, Willy called Biff a "lazy bum" (Miller 1.2), but then he called him a "hard worker" (Miller 1.2). This shows Willy's faith in his ideas, but shows confusion within those ideas. Mr. Webb also inherits the same weakness as Willy. Describe... middle of paper ...... understand what the meaning of life is. Linda and Emily experienced many similar points along their journey to discovery, but in the end, one found herself in doubt and the other in desire. So, in conclusion, the path to self-discovery was an accomplishment that not everyone could achieve. Open-mindedness and the ability to try new things opened the door for Emily and Mr. Webb to see the meaning of life. They learned their lessons of self-discovery because there was no one to hold them back. In a word, they were luckier than Willy and Linda's because their path to discovery was easier and shorter. But Willy and Linda weren't unlucky. There were many opportunities open for them to see their wrongs and what was right. But they did not succeed because their character, stubborn and blind, did not allow them to see these open windows. The window of opportunity is always open, our minds must be trained to perceive it and free ourselves from this existence. Work Cited Miller, Arthur. Death of a seller. www.public.iastate.edu/~spires/Concord/death.html.Wilder, Thorton. Our city. New York, New York:, 1975.