Well...

Willy Loman is a salesman. An old-schooler stuck in the new school times of the now-old school. He believed in relationships and connections. He thought that as long as a person was well - liked, he would be fine. People would look out for you, support you, help you if you needed it. He tells his boss that he should really allow him to work at the firm, namely because he helped name him as a baby. Willy thinks that if you really go for it, if you really work, you can get what you want. He thinks that his boy Biff can just go to see a man he used to know, and ask him for upwards of 10k dollars. Simply just because he once knew him. Willy wholeheartedly buys into the idea of individual opportunity. However, Arthur Miller has the opposite view of it. He believes that if a person is educated and well-liked, they can have a chance at sucsess. But its not likely. When he shows Bernard in the very end of the book as a well-established lawyer, it is to contrast the idea of a smart hard-working boy, as opposed to Biff who never graduated high school and has floated around for a long time.