Post-pastoral

• Post-Pastoral

  It is possible to read Death of a Salesman as a post-pastoral text.
• Post-pastoral

  • Death of a Salesman can perhaps be read as a post-pastoral text in that it (briefly) exposes the economic reality of rural life in the mid-20th Century.
• Making a living

  • Biff admits to only earning “twenty eight dollars a week” on the ranch and, as such, has no realistic hope of raising the “ten thousand dollars” needed to buy a ranch.
• Reality of the countryside

  • As Happy asks Biff, “what can you make out there?”
  • Although the myth of the American countryside appeals to men such as Willy and Biff, the reality remains that, without money, it too can be a harsh environment.