Biff - character summary

He's the only character in the book who shows any real personal growth. Sure, Biff is also flawed, just like everyone else. He can't hold down a job, he steals from all of his employers, and he even went to jail. Despite these shortcomings, however, we can't help but like Biff. Why? Because he shows real initiative on the personal development front.

The deal with Biff is that he's Willy's oldest son and the one whom Willy seems to be really crazy about. Biff was a hotshot in high school as the star football player. However, he never put much energy into his schoolwork and failed math as a senior. A lot of this was due to the fact that Willy let him get away with anything and never encouraged him to do well in school. Without the math credit, Biff couldn't graduate and therefore couldn't take his football scholarship to college.

Things might have worked out for Biff even though he flunked math. He could've taken a summer course and made everything all right. However, right about that time Biff caught his dad…