There is a reason why Willy Loman is considered a tragic hero where much of that has to do with his pride. As a matter of fact, through the character of Willy, Arthur Miller is able to build the theme of pride around himself, bringing out pride as the main theme. The same theme of pride also helps establish other smaller themes such as the theme of legacy, change and identity. In Death of a Salesman, pride is used as a method of self-deception and as a coping mechanism. Willy Loman comes across as extremely proud even though the source of his pride is in no way grounded in reality. Steven Centola also demonstrates the theme of pride in Willy's denial of reality and inability to accept changes within himself and society. Looking at the two works you can easily see that the identity Willy ends up taking on is heavily built on his false sense of pride which plays a huge role in almost every decision he makes. His unjustified pride prevents him from learning from his mistakes and the changes that occur around him, an event that will lead to his ruin. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay While it is good that Willy is a dreamer, part of his excessive arrogance and pride comes from his relentless belief in his dreams. For him, his dreams are not only pristine but also absolute where they are free from any flaws and nothing can be done to change his stance on his country or his dreams on what he wants to achieve. In fact, it will never eliminate any form of reflective introspection in the attempt to see things as they are and not as they should be. This state alone constitutes the premise of his pride. For starters, he will never have time to question some of his beliefs and dreams. A good example is when he was having a conversation with Linda about Biff's failures. It becomes clear that his belief in the American Dream is relentless where he believes the American Dream is superior. Believing that there is nothing wrong with the American Dream will demonstrate a great sense of pride in America as “the greatest country in the world.” A country full of “beautiful cities and good, honest people (Miller 126).” Willy completely fails to see how people suffer, which makes his exceptionalism in this context reflect his false sense of pride in which he simply cannot see the truth. At the same time, at this moment Will is falling terribly as a salesman where he has little to be proud of in his financial situation. But despite this, Willy uses his relentless pride as a coping mechanism where he believes things will be okay with time. This false sense of pride causes Willy to live in a world full of disappointments where reality no longer makes any sense to him. Whether or not he chose to ignore reality, his false sense of pride laid the foundation for his downfall. What's even worse is the fact that he passes his delusional sense of pride onto innocent parties. (Centola 32) captured this aspect perfectly where he observed that “Willy fails to see the madness of his dream and ends up transmitting not only his dream but also his confusion to Biff and Happy”. Willy believed that “the man who makes a In business, the man who creates personal interests, is the man who gets ahead” (Centola 26) makes him care so much about his appearance at the expense of doing what he it is right to change his personal financial problems. He has a sense of pride precisely where he is so convinced of.