Everyone wants to escape reality and live their lives the way they dream it would be. Due to disappointments, people tend to daydream, lose touch with reality and start imagining that life is easier in dreams than in reality. They get to plan their life and live it as if it were real – no resentment, heartbreaks or disappointment. In their dreams, they have full control of their life unlike in reality where everything is uncontrollable and people are subjected to failures.
The Death of a Salesman is about a man who is determined to achieve the American dream at any cost, even if it means deceiving his own family. Willy Loman craved success and popularity, so he lied to his family about his job and misled his colleagues about his personal life. As he grew older and realized that his dream was slipping away, Willy became increasingly depressed. His obsession with the American dream ultimately led him to take his own life in order to pay off debts and provide for his family through insurance money.
In The Things They Carried, the soldiers also imagine an escape from reality by envisioning their lives back home or what life could have been like if they were there. The story is set during the Vietnam War, where young soldiers are drafted to fight for their country. These soldiers are typically older teenagers and boys in their early twenties who have been separated from their previous lives and forced to defend America’s dignity. Despite being immature, many of these boys long for the love of girls they fancy, hoping that it will inspire them to continue on with the war.
The illusion of escaping reality and entering a state where you imagine things that could have happened often occurs to people who want to avoid their current situation, as is the case with Willy. He is aging and fears that he will never achieve his dream of the American Dream. Willy’s children, Biff and Happy, also desire an escape from reality. Both are dissatisfied with their lives and frequently discuss leaving everything behind to live in the west. BIFF (enthusiastically): Listen, why don’t you come out West with me?” (Miller 13).
The same thing happens when a person is at war. They tend to imagine things so that they can escape the harsh reality, even for a second. In The Things They Carried,” Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carries the burden of a dead man because he wasn’t paying attention to the war. He was daydreaming about Martha, a girl he had recently dated before going to war, at the moment Ted Lavender was shot.
Being in the war often makes soldiers feel lonely. They leave their loved ones at home and become vulnerable when they are sent to war. This vulnerability can cause them to drift away from the reality of war and imagine the life they could have had if they weren’t drafted. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross escaped reality by imagining his date with Martha, as he remembered telling her one evening. He recalled how she nodded and looked away, and how later, when he kissed her, she received the kiss without returning it. Her eyes were wide open but not afraid or those of a virgin; they were flat and uninvolved (O’Brien 5).
Like soldiers who escape reality because they couldn’t have what they want, Willy feels the same way. He has a hobby of talking to himself and often drifts from reality into his fantasy world. Willy goes in and out of his imagination even when talking to Linda, his wife. He frequently loses focus during their conversations. When Linda compliments him and assures him that he looks handsome, he drifts off into his imagination and imagines his mistress. From the darkness is heard the laughter of a woman. Willy doesn’t turn to it but it continues through Linda’s lines” (Miller 24).
In the novel The Things They Carried,” soldiers were not given a choice when they were drafted; they were obliged to serve. The narrator did not share his country’s vision of the war, and when he was drafted, he wanted to escape. He imagined doing things he was not used to doing, such as charging an enemy position or taking aim at another human being: “I imagined myself doing things I could not do” (O’Brien 12).
The escape from reality is not limited to a specific group of people; many individuals drift away from reality occasionally. For instance, Willy talks to his deceased brother Ben when he wants to escape reality. During the time when Howard was firing him, Willy often slipped in and out of reality. As Miller writes, Willy stares into space, exhausted. Now the music is heard — Ben’s music — first distantly, then closer, closer. As Willy speaks” (60).
They are all the same. They want to forget the present situation and go someplace else. The war was not easy for any of the soldiers. Watching their friends die, they all wanted to get out of war as soon as possible, go home, and be with their family. It is also not easy living and not achieving what a person has planned – watching their life deteriorate even when they are still alive.
Arthur Miller’s play and Tim O’Brien’s novel showcase various situations where men yearn to escape reality. Through delicately crafted characters, readers gain insight into why they feel the need to flee their current circumstances. The glimpse into their imaginations enables readers to empathize with their heartbreaks and connect with the characters on a deeper level.
Willy and Biff, along with the soldiers fighting in the Vietnam War, all yearned to escape their current situations and live in their dreams, even if only for a few seconds. They longed for an escape because their present lives seemed dismal. Daydreaming allowed them to experience life as they wished it would happen – Lieutenant Jimmy Cross could pretend he was with his college sweetheart Martha, while Willy could imagine he had achieved the American dream. All of them desired something more than what they currently had and sought to escape reality.
Reference
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. New York: The Viking Press (1949).
O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Penguin, 1990.
