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Teachers & SchoolsLies and Deceit
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The Lomans are all extremely self-deceptive, and in their respective delusions and blindness to reality, they fuel and feed off of one another—kind of like praying mantises do after mating. Willy convinces himself that he is successful, well-liked, and that his sons are destined for greatness. Unable to cope with reality, he entirely abandons it through his vivid fantasies and ultimately through suicide. Linda and Happy similarly believe that the Lomans are about to make it big... any day now. Unlike the other members of his family, Biff grows to recognize that he and his family members consistently deceive themselves, and he fights to escape the vicious cycles of lies. It's gotta be tough being the black sheep.
Willy, Linda, and Happy use self-deception as a means to mentally escape the realities of their lives when they are unable do so physically, like Biff and Ben when they move out of New York.