The idea of being “boxed in” is first mentioned in a line of Willy’s in Act I, but the apartment buildings are included previously in the stage directions.
Willy, complaining of the room being stiff, asks Linda to open a window, not noticing that they are already open. He then states:
The way they boxed us in here. Bricks and windows, windows and bricks.
After Linda comments that they should have bought the lot next door to them, he continues:
The street is lined with cars. There’s not a breath of fresh air in the neighborhood. The grass don’t grow any more, you can’t raise a carrot in the back yard. They should’ve had a law against apartment houses.
The stage directions refer to the house’s placement among the surrounding apartment buildings.
Before us is the Salesman’s house. We are aware of towering, angular shapes behind it, surrounding it on all sides.… As more light appears, we see a solid vault of apartment houses around the small, fragile-seeming home.
Thus, Arthur Miller tells the reader that as the Salesman’s home seems “fragile” among the “solid” apartment houses, so Willy’s existence is fragile. His desire for open windows and fresh air indicates his internal anxiety.
Throughout the play, there are further references to the back yard and Willy’s stated desire to grow vegetables there, including his stating he is going to buy seeds—which he actually does not do. Willy remains enclosed rather than extend himself outside the psychological box that confines him. When he does finally plant the seeds, it is because he has lost his grasp of reality, as he does so in the middle of the night; this serves as an indication of the tragedy to come, of losing his life.
Willy’s feeling of being confined and his inability to move beyond those confines are emblematic of his personality and his failures in his career. Willy lacks many of the necessary qualities of the successful salesman, and he has never moved up the ladder as he wished to do. Yet he retains belief in the American dream, even though the world of commercial hype has let him down. Willy is boxed in by his own attitudes, not just by the system’s restrictions. It is also appropriate that, when he finally ends his life, it is out on the road rather than inside his home, a kind of escape from the “bricks and windows.”
https://genius.com/Arthur-miller-death-of-a-salesman-act-1-annotated
The "boxed in" motif is part of the feeling of being trapped and unable to escape that pervades the play. This is represented in the play by Willy Loman, who becomes trapped by his failures as well as his lies. The world has moved on without him, as it no longer needs door-to-door salesmen, and the only client Willy can still keep is the one that he is having an affair with. He wants to keep his family happy as well as have them love and respect him. If they find out about his failing career or the affair, he fears that he will lose that love and respect that he has tried so hard to keep. When this happens, he feels he has only one option, to kill himself in an automobile accident so that his family can make it through with his life insurance. Some movie adaptations of the play visually place Willy in a box, and the actor visually shows that he is worn out and trapped.
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