Willy v. Solomon

I find it interesting how the idea of modernism portrayed in Death of a Salesman is contradicted so greatly by David and Solomon in the Bible. In Death of a Salesman we see Willy, a man who is influenced by the idea of modernism and who appears to not care about anything more than achieving the “American Dream”. He is in the midst of a family who loves him, but all he can see is his failures. Yet in Ecclesiastes chapter 2 Solomon writes that pleasures are meaningless. He describes having everything he wanted and in verse 10 he states, “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired.” However, despite having everything he could ever ask for, he was still left feeling empty. All the work he had put into achieving things that only he wanted had caused him to hate his life. 

Even though Willy and Solomon are adverse to one another from a face value perspective, at the end of the day their feelings are remotely similar. I think this is a perfect example of the void that God fills in our lives when we welcome Him in to take part in it. We see two men, one whom considers himself to have nothing, and the other with everything, yet both are left with emptiness. If we put what humankind considers valuable ahead of God, than emptiness is probably all we will ever feel. For example, in Psalm 139 we see a man, David, who is giving God absolute praise, and all that I sense from that chapter is happiness. Verses 13 and 14 of that passage read, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well!” David is accepting who he is because he knows God created him that way. Many times we forget that we are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made! If we make it a priority to always keep that in mind and to always be giving praise to God, how will you have the time to be like Willy? How will you have the time to be somber about all the material things that you do not achieve in life? Focus first on the Kingdom of God, and everything else will fall into place.