Miller explores this concept through the Loman boys who worked hard to conform and fit themselves into a mold created by their father and find it is not one that translates to real life. The boys who Willy “gasses up” and refers to as greek gods, or “Adonises,” to his brother Ben, find it difficult to live up to the idealization of their father. Willy’s “inadequate sense of self-worth” (Ribkoff 49) fuels a sort of neurosis within him, making it hard to network and do his job effectively or even to maintain healthy relationships with his family. In her critical analysis, “Father-Son Conflict and the American Dream in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and August Wilson’s Fences” Ama Wattley contends that:
Because his sons show all the signs of conforming to the values Willy believes are necessary to succeed in life- namely attractiveness and popularity- he is confident that their futures will be bright, and he essentially lives vicariously through Biff, believing his son will achieve all that he never did in his life