Succeeding or Overcoming Father: Two Ideas on American Cities in Death of a Salesman and Fences

In this essay I illuminate two disparate but concurrent ideas on the American cities of 1940–50s reflected in the stories about father–son relationship, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and August Wilson’s Fences. The urban space appears as irrevocable reality in both texts, and it functions as the main reason for the tragic demise of fathers and the problematic father–son relationship. Nonetheless, the protagonists as well as their sons in each play react to the city space in a diametrically opposed way: Willy Loman eludes the city, but Troy Maxson indulges in it; Biff and Happy succeed their father, but Cory defies and overcomes his. This essay explains this difference stemming from the same urban condition through interdisciplinary study of literature and socio–historical research of the American cities of mid-twentieth century. I begin by textual analysis of each play, of which aim is to manifest the gap in the characters’ attitudes, and in expansion, the plays’ standpoint concerning cities. Then I move on to explore the history of urbanization in America, and the influences of its particular phases on the discordant perspectives on American cities. Accordingly, Jeffersonian agrarianism originating from the 19th century that still held negative stance on the city in the 20th century is discussed in relation to the birth and expansion of American cities, which is clearly reflected in Death of a Salesman. On the other hand, the appearance of naturalism to which social determinism was an intrinsic element is discussed in step with the American ghetto formed by massive influx of foreign and local immigrants, which is vividly depicted in Fences.