Had Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” been written in Communist China in the same time period, the different context would create different meaning and interpretation of the theme of the failed American Dream. In order to support that different meaning, the play would likely be written slightly differently. It would be in the Chinese language; Biff would dream of Communism, rather than returning to the land; and the Loman’s would become Chinese migrants to American who thought they too could achieve the American Dream.
The play captures the last day before the death of Willy Loman, a victim of the American Dream. Even though each member of the family tries their best, they are not successful in meeting each other’s’ expectations or achieving their own dreams. Willy Loman is a travelling salesman in his sixties who has two sons and a wife. He has not always been faithful to his wife, and he has high expectations of his son Biff. Willy’s wife is committed to Willy and his dreams. She is willing to help Willy ignore reality and asks her sons for help. Willy’s oldest son had a lot of promise as a football player. Willy hoped for great success from Biff. After Biff discovered his dad’s affair in Boston he lost his interest in succeeding in business. Happy is Willy’s youngest son has a job and hopes to advance a career in business. He has many of the same dreams as his father. If the audience were Chinese Communists, the purpose of the play would change to one of empathy of the struggle to one of illustrating the wrongs of the American way.
The Loman’s might become a family of Chinese migrants who had come to America to seek a better life thirty years before. This would reinforce empathy with the characters for the Chinese audience. The play moves between Willy’s life between 1928 and 1942, which is the present in the play, in random order. The American Dream is what creates Willy’s expectations in life. This includes succeeding in business, becoming rich, and essentially winning. Willy has not been succeeding, and he is near the end of his career and his life. He realizes that his only way to cash in on the American Dream is to kill himself, as he is worth more dead and can give his child a chance at succeeding.
Willy said “After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive”. This might be interpreted as the soulless nature of capitalism and the superiority of Communism (Miller, Act 2). The single act which would make him successful and reach the American Dream is his death, not his life and not the hard work that he has done for over thirty years. If Willy Loman were a Chinese immigrant worker who worked hard for 30 years without much benefit, this would become strong propaganda regarding not leaving China for the American Dream. The government of China in the twentieth century was very concerned about Western influences, and all manner of the arts were subject to review by government policy. For this reason, it would be wise to write the play in a manner that assures it will pass such reviews.
When Happy says “I’m gonna show you and everybody else that Willy Loman did not die in vain. He had a good dream. It’s the only dream you can have – to come out number one” it is clear that Happy does not fully understand all of the facts, or the short-sightedness of his father’s dreams (Miller, Act 2). Willy chooses to leave the insurance money to Biff, who wants to live close to the land, rather than his son Happy, who wants to succeed in business, and this displays the inefficiency and unfairness of the “system”. In a play rewritten for a Chinese audience, Biff, as the new head of the family, uses the insurance money to bring his mother and brother back to China. In this way the play would have a happy ending for this Chinese audience.
For a Chinese audience this link to the land would likely be well understood, although China was also going through an industrial revolution and more people were leaving farms for cities. Still, rather than the dream of returning to the land as a farmer, Biff might dream of Communism as the foil to his father’s love of the American Dream. This part might be written with specific government message lines in mind, as Chinese propaganda against America was a part of life in those times.
Miller’s play talks about hopes and dreams, and not reaching them. After the war, there were a lot of tensions with Russia, and there was fear of communism. In fact, Death of a Salesman was accused of being against capitalism and the American Dream (Griffin. 5). Because of this, there was controversy for Miller. He was also accused of being a communist. Given that this was the interpretation of his play by many of his contemporaries, Chinese communists, who had real fears and concerns about the American Dream, would have an even stronger connection to the criticism of capitalism inherent in this play. With just a few changes to the text it could serve as a strong warning to the Chinese of the dangers of Capitalism.
