In both of these works: The Lesson by Tony Cade Bambara and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller the main character is living a life insulated from reality. In the case of Willy Loman, the world has simply left him behind, and he lives with illusions of past glory as a top salesman. In The Lesson, Sylvia is one of a group of poor black children in 1930s Harlem, who go on an outing to Schwartz’s toy store in Manhattan with a local spinster retired teacher. This world and the one they live in are a universe apart and the children had not been out of their own neighborhood before and did not know of the huge differences and inequalities. While the main theme of Death of a Salesman is the inhumanity of progress, and the main theme in The Lesson is the inequality of American culture, the minor theme of living separated from other reality runs through both works, especially the reality of the American Dream, which is an illusion for the characters in both works. Willy Loman is a salesman who was of the old school where relationships were what mattered. Willy lives in his own fantasy world where tomorrow he will make that one big sale and his boss will learn to value him. He believes that his son, Biff, still has a chance to be a success. He keeps sending him to new interviews to get him a job. His second son, Happy, is a shoe salesman, which Willy considers as a failure. Near the beginning of the play, Willie loses his job, because he just cannot learn new ways. He owes only one payment on the house for which he has paid for thirty years. He could have borrowed the money, but his pride would not let him. He commits suicide so that his whole life will pay off. His widow, Linda, is devastated because all she really ever wanted was Willy. The theme of being separated from reality runs through the entire play as an undercurrent and the reason why Willy failed so miserably in everything, even in death. He never let go of his dreams for his eldest son, even when they were passed any hope of attainment. He also never stopped believing he would prove that his way of selling was the right way and he would make a huge sale to make his boss see this. Willy believed in the American Dream, the classic happy and successful family and he believes that being likable and creating relationships are the way to get this(Peck ). He dreamed his son Biff could be a football star. He actually thinks that he will become successful himself as a salesman. However, these have no more chance of coming true than do the seeds that Willy plants in his back yard have any chance of growing without any sun, which cannot reach the yard, because the tall buildings around it block the sun. At the beginning of the play, we hear Willy talking to himself, and act one ends on that note. Will talks to illusions, his absent son Biff and his brother Ben, who went to Alaska and got rich in Africa. In the second act, Willy “remembers” the past and his family as perfect and happy, and he wonders where he went wrong that this happiness and promise remains unfulfilled. He simply cannot understand that being handsome and well-liked is not enough for success. In Act Two the boys invite Willy to dinner, but they abandon him after an argument while he babbles in his delusional memory in the bathroom. Throughout the play, he slips into fantasy more and more often. When the