Why does Willy ultimately choose to commit suicide? Provide one or two pieces of evidence to support your answer.
What to look for in student response:
Although there are a number of reasons why Willy commits suicide and we are never given specifics, he ultimately decides to kill himself because he feels worthless. First, there's his job. He's no longer effective, the younger men are passing him by, and sales no longer rely on the game he was taught as a young man; Willy had been replaced by those with new ideas and techniques, while he refused to change with the times.
Secondly, he was in debt over his head. His desire to acquire the American Dream left him with a lot of things he couldn't afford and not enough money to pay for them. Even with his commission, Linda reminds him that his fridge/car/house payments total more than he makes. Without a job, all of these things became a pit he couldn't crawl out of, and in his own words, "you end up worth more dead than alive." (p. 98)
Thirdly, Ben (or the memory/story of Ben) motivates him to kill himself on p. 135 because Ben advises him that even in the “dark, there are diamonds.” We can infer that the darkness represents death. Diamonds are a tangible wealth, and Willy seeks this as a symbol of success.
Fourthly, the guilt from his affair finally catches up to him at the end of the book when he remembers Biff catching him with The Woman in Boston. On p. 128 when Willy doesn’t want to tell Linda the truth, it’s unclear what he’s talking about, but it could be the affair since he just came back from the flashback. Willy would rather kill himself than accept the fact that really, honestly, all his son wants is some shirtless sweaty time in Midwestern haystacks. The point is, Willy is still deluded when he kills himself. We all know the money isn't going to be used to start a business. What's sad is that Willy doesn't. That final delusion is almost worse than his death itself.