Willy Loman is a mediocre traveling salesman and the delusions that barely keep him afloat. He returns home to Brooklyn early from a sales trip. At 63, he has lost his salary and works only on commission, and on this trip has failed to sell anything. His son Biff, who has been laboring on farms and ranches throughout the West for more than a decade, has recently arrived home to figure out a new direction for his life. Willy thinks Biff has not lived up to his potential. But as Biff reveals to his younger brother Happy—an assistant to the assistant buyer at a department store—he feels more fulfilled by outdoor work than by his earlier attempts to work in an office. Both grittily naturalistic and ethereally dream-like, this one punches the audience in the gut repeatedly simply because it allows us to witness his heartbreaking final downfall while witnessing his deep-seated pain.