He likes being outdoors and working with his hands, yet wants to do something worthwhile so Willy will be proud of him. He wavers between going home to try to fulfill Willy's dream for him as a businessman or ignoring his father by going out West to be a farmhand where he feels happy. Biff was a football star with a lot of potential in high school, but failed math his senior year and dropped out of summer school when he saw Willy with another woman while visiting him in Boston. She is the first to realize that Willy is contemplating suicide at the beginning of the play, and urges Biff to make something of himself, while expecting Willy to help Biff do so. She chides her sons, particularly Biff, for not helping their father anymore, and supports Willy lovingly even though Willy sometimes treats her poorly, ignoring her opinions over those of others. Linda is passively supportive and docile when Willy talks unrealistically about hopes for the future, although she seems to have a good knowledge of what is really going on.