The Death of A Salesman (Author's Argument)

In the iconic play, "Death of A Salesman," (1949), Author Miller evidently introduces the American Dream, abandonment, and betrayal in the play, Miller portrays to his readers that the play takes place in one of America's most difficult time period, the Great Depression. The Great Depression consist of crisis and struggles that led to many American families suffering and unemployment. First the setting of the play begins with Willy insisting that his son Biff gets a job, by doing so Willy creates some type of suspense through using telegraphic sentences, and technical details to emphasize on what Biff should try to do to portray the American Dream by finding a job. Through the struggles and crisis Willy and his father faced by finding a job its difficult because both of them don't recognize that they are exactly similar and they distress one another because of that. Willy may taunt his son Biff because he wants the best for him in the future, he doesn't want Biff to face the reality he had faced in the past with his father, Willy's dad abandoned him when he was only three years old. Miller illustrated this by creating an personal anecdote and understatement to explain the reality of what Willy endured. There was quite a betrayal Willy played, his poor wife Linda thought he was very ill and too innocent but Biff knew the truth calling him a "phony" throughout the novel. In the play Willy’s preoccupation with Linda’s stockings foreshadows his affair with The Woman some type of person he known in the past. Miller foretells his affairs with the women by using dramatic and situational irony. However, these three following events led to misleading relationship with his son, emptiness in his heart of loneliness, and distance from his wife in the end which eventually followed to his death. The purpose of the play was to represents a democratization of the ancient form of tragedy; achieving greatness, the tone ranges from sincere to parodying, but at times the treatment is tender, and sometimes brutally honest to Willy's truthfulness, which leaves the audience being readers prone to intellectual curiosity and mystery.

• Indignantly: Characterized by or filled with indignation.
• Simonizing: to shine or polish to a high sheen, especially with wax.
• evasively: Inclined or intended to evade.
• resentment: Indignation or ill will felt as a result of a real or imagined grievance. 
• Saccharine: of the nature of or resembling that of sugar.

Tone: Sincere, Brutally honest, Parodying.

Strategies: 

• Preposition: "I wish you'd have a good talk with him." (15)
• Allusion: "I think the fact that you're not settled, that you're still kind of up in the air..."(10)
• Simile: "Maybe I oughta get stuck into something. Maybe that's my trouble. I'm like a boy. I'm not married. I'm not in business, I just-I'm just like a boy."(11)
• Dialogue: "You're a poet, you know that Biff? You're an idealist!"(11)
• Personification: "But you didn't rest your mind. Your mind is overactive, and the mind is what counts, dear."(3)

Questions:

- Compare the way Biff treats his father with the way Happy does. Why is it hard for Biff to tell Willy the truth? Why doesn’t Happy want him to?

- Discuss the symbolism of the two heavy sample cases and the stockings. How does Miller use the characters’ names as symbols? What do they mean? What is the significance of Loman? Why Willy instead of Bill? What other symbols does Miller use and to convey his purpose in the play?

- Can the American Dream to its civilians cause tragedy or prosperity?Explain?

Memorable Quote: "In the greatest country in the world a young man with such-personal attractiveness, gets lost. And such a hard worker."(6)

The Death of A Salesman (FinalThoughts)

The Death of A Salesman was an astonishing play that really captivated me through this spring break! The novel was full of drama and action that can entirely affect a person willfully in so many ways. At first when reading the play I though it would be some type of play that would not be interesting, but I was wrong it was better than interesting it was magnificent...the answers that I was yearning for to find out what was going to happen next between Biff and Willy. It was so much more than that, learning about these two characters and their development through the play really seemed amusing, Biff as lazy as a bum tried so hard to succeed in ther end to make his father Willy proud that only in the end he had to make himself proud. Willy taunted his son Biff so much that he didn't really have the decency to think his son was good enough for him. In the end these two characters learned a valuable lesson that they both loved each other deeply, and even animosity was transpired between the two their action within the play led to a family connection. Willy on the other hand died as a known  salesman but still in the play it left me wondering because if Willy was such in distress why didn't he try to kill himself so many times and what type of sickness did he have? Still a mystery to me.

The Death of A Salesman

 When first encountering the novel or play  "The Death of A Salesman," my  first impression of the book was I hope this book is fascinating I hope its not boring like all the other classical books. But after reading summaries of the book and reading a few pages into the book I really think im going to enjoy the book. The setting of the time period is in the 1920's which makes the book more intriguing to me because of its born classics in that era. The book reminds me of "The Great Gatsby," itself the crazy and while decade with a lot of drama that transpired. In the beginning of the first few pages is a man named Willy a sixty-three-year old traveling salesman who returns home from an exhausting trip. In the beginning the play starts off to be a mystery to me because Willy just came back from a trip and he has lost some sense of his memory he cannot really reminisce anything that happened from the past, so he returns home to his wife Linda where she greets him and where he meets both his sons Biff and Happy. What's so interesting is that both his two sons are the total opposites Biff is anything but lazy, and Happy who is thirty-two is more confident and successful in his work. Although Will has some sought of memory loss he stills favors Happy who is more of a workaholic than Biff. So far the book seems to be more and more interesting when reading it, but Willy himself seems to be a mystery, seems like we'll have to find out!