It is easy enough from our later perspective to see through Willie’s illusions, and to poke fun at his unsound go-getter values. But that is not the point. The one thing that matters is that Willie believed; he took seriously his own existence and what he had been taught he could rightly expect from life. “I don’t say he is a great man,” says his wife in describing Willie’s disintegration to their sons, “but he’s a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid.”
