Content Warning: This section of the guide references crude language and anti-gay slurs, which feature in the source text. 

“Bad luck. That’s all it is. I pray in your life you will never find it runs in streaks. That’s what it does, that’s all it’s doing. Streaks. I pray it misses you. That’s all I want to say.”

Levene gets defensive at Williamson’s statement that he’s blown his last four leads, but his claim about streaks of luck seems to be the prevailing descriptor the salesmen use to describe periods of low sales. Luck is something that can’t be quantified or predicted, and it provides a reason that a sale falls through when every other element seems to be in place and guaranteed.

“Marshal the leads…marshal the leads? What the fuck, what bus did you get off of, we’re here to fucking sell. Fuck marshaling the leads. What the fuck talk is that? What the fuck talk is that? Where did you learn that? In school? (Pause.) That’s ‘talk,’ my friend, that’s ‘talk.’ Our job is to sell. I’m the man to sell. I’m getting garbage. (Pause.) You’re giving it to me, and what I’m saying is it’s fucked.”

Levene’s quip about school suggests that he didn’t go to school himself, so he’s devaluing Williamson’s presumed education in comparison to his own years of experience. Talking down to Williamson for being younger and newer in the field is a way to sell his own wisdom and experience in hopes of influencing Williamson to give him what he wants. Levene underestimates Williamson throughout the play, and Williamson strikes back easily at the end of the play, when Levene trips over his own lie about the robbery.

“Fuck him. Fuck Murray. John? You know? You tell him I said so. What does he fucking know? He’s going to have a ‘sales’ contest…you know what our sales contest used to be? Money. A fortune. Money lying on the ground. Murray? When was the last time he went out on a sit? Sales contest? It’s laughable. It’s cold out there now, John. It’s tight. Money is tight. This ain’t sixty-five.”

Levene is pointing out that the contest is an ineffectual attempt to squeeze blood from stones. The salesmen don’t need Cadillacs to motivate them because they’re already motivated by the commission. The logic behind the sales contest is flawed, because when the market is rough, the salesmen’s diligence and skill only go so far.