Death of a Salesman

by Arthur Miller

BIFF: Gee, I’d love to go with you sometime, Dad.

WILLY: Soon as summer comes.

HAPPY: Promise?

WILLY: You and Hap and I, and I’ll show you all the towns. America is full of beautiful towns and fine, upstanding people. And they know me, boys, they know me up and down New England. The finest people. And when I bring you fellas up, there’ll be open sesame for all of us, ‘cause one thing, boys: I have friends. I can park my car in any street in New England, and the cops protect it like their own. This summer, heh?

Excerpt(s) from DEATH OF A SALESMAN by Arthur Miller, copyright © 1949, renewed copyright © 1977 by Arthur Miller. Used by permission of Viking Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

Question
Use the passage to answer the question.

In the present, it is revealed that the “friends” Willy talks about are actually just his customers. Based on this knowledge, what is one interpretation for why Willy refers to his customers as his “friends”? Select the two correct answers.

(1 point)
Responses

because he does not understand what it means to have friends
because he does not understand what it means to have friends

because he knows his customers so well that they are like friends to him
because he knows his customers so well that they are like friends to him

because he spends more time with customers than with his actual friends
because he spends more time with customers than with his actual friends

because he cares a lot about his sons and how they view him
because he cares a lot about his sons and how they view him

because he has convinced himself that he is well-liked by everyone

1 answer

because he has convinced himself that he is well-liked by everyone