... Brian Kelnhofer English/125 April 2, 2015 University of Phoenix Online Death of a Salesman Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller is one of my favorite plays growing up and one that defines history. Achieving the American dream is sought by so many people in society with little regard to what makes us truly happy. Willy Loman, the main character, works his whole life to provide financial security for his family and dreams about becoming rich only to be left with nothing at the end. The major driving theme behind the play is the American dream; which Miller points out is an allegory, the fallacy of working hard your whole lives chasing the American dream only to die a lonely and depressed man. Death of a Salesman challenges the effects of the American dream in a negative way. The American Dream All your life you are told that to be successful in life you need two things: a career and money. This I find to be the American dream falsehood that today’s society is based on. The Death of a Salesman points out the flaws in that statement. Most Americans don’t work past 72 so we spend our whole life chasing a false dream only to die an unhappy and lonely person. Allegory Willy creates an illusion of what the American dream should be like when he witnessed the accolades of Dave Singleman prolonged success. Willy pressures his children to seek the same ideals but Willy doesn’t even understand the meaning of success himself. I really connected with this part...
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...In the past the American Dream was an inspiration to many, young and old. To live out the American Dream was what once was on the minds of many Americans, however soon afterward those same dreams were twisted with corruption. In The Great Gatsby, the American Dream was presented as a corrupted version of what used to be a pure and honest ideal way to live. The idea that the American Dream was about the wealth and the possessions one had been ingrained, somehow, into the minds of Americans during the 1920’s. As a result of the distortion of the American Dream, the characters of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby along with many others, lived life fully believing in the American Dream, becoming completely immersed in it and in the end suffered great tragedies. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman tells the story of the failure of a salesman, Willy Loman. Although not all Americans are salesmen, most of us share Willy’s dream of success. We are all partners in the American Dream and parties to the conspiracy of silence surrounding the fact that failures must outnumber successes. Miller amalgamates the archetypal tragic hero with the mundane American citizen. The result is the anti-hero, Willy Loman. He is a simple salesman who constantly aspires to become 'great'. Nevertheless, Willy has a waning career as a salesman and is an aging man who considers himself to be a failure but is incapable of consciously admitting it. As a result, the drama of the play lies not so...
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...hopes and dreams? Both F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ and Arthur Miller’s ‘A Death of a Salesman’ focus their main ideas on the importance of hopes and dreams. Death of a Salesman, produced in 1949, has become a classic of modern American theatre. It is a story of an average salesman with a dream of being rich and well-liked. Willy believes whole heartedly in what he considers the promise of the American Dream. In the 1940’s The American Dream was as simple as it gets, to have a perfect, successful life with a common nuclear family, a house in the suburbs, a nice car and a life without conflict or family strife. ‘The Great Gatsby’ is a highly symbolic reflection on 1920’s America as a whole, in particular the disappearance of the American Dream in an era of material excess. On the surface, ‘The Great Gatsby’ is a story of the eternal love between a man and a woman. However, in reality the main theme of the novel involves a much larger, less romantic outlook. The 1920’s was an era of decayed social and moral values, which means that the idea of The American Dream was different to what it is now. When World War 1 ended in 1918, the generation of young Americans who fought the war became intensely disillusioned. The rise of the stock market in the aftermath of the war led to a sudden increase in the national wealth and a new found materialism, leading the younger generation to pursue a life of extravagance. The pursuit of the two illustrations of The American Dream, not only...
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...tragic elements to them. Yet many critics say that both plays deviate too far from Aristotle’s foundations of what a tragedy should be. For example neither character is in an “elevated position”, which Aristotle says is vital for a tragic hero as it gives the character a “height” to fall from. Willy and Blanche aren’t royal or particularly high class, although Blanche believes herself to be a Southern Belle and portrays that image publically there is evidence that she isn’t a Southern Belle, Willy is a working class salesman who would be consider a “common man”. Both characters are relativity common people, however in Miller’s “Tragedy and a Common man” he says that he believes “a common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were.” Miller goes on to say that the “tragic feeling is evoke in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down their life… to secure… their sense of personal dignity”. For Willy this is to be known as a salesman, He bases his goals for the American Dream, which is flawed as it forever leaves him wanting more as a person. He bases his end goal on Dave Singleman who has people from all America come to his funeral; Willy believes that he is the embodiment of the American dream. Aristotle says in his Poetics, that tragedy represents men as better than they are. The purpose of tragedy was to create pity and fear in the audience. This was achieved by showing the audience that we feared and a character...
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...man was exempt from his disgust, that man being Gatsby. In the Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald creates an America society that contradicts everything America prides itself on which is lack of aristocracy and equal opportunity. The United states is a country that was so great due to the idea of the American dream, which the founding fathers of the nation built the country on. Fitzgerald utilizes deep characterization and symbolism to elaborate themes of the American dream to display what the American dream truly stood for and what it has become. Throughout the plot we come to recognize themes of American dream, through deep insight into characters and what they represent in the American society. After Nick...
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...Kennedy Nabors Mrs. Dale AP English IV 24 November 2012 The Odyssey of Realism All throughout literature and script has been used as a means to describe or make a point to an audience. In American literature, the focus of these devices has become the use of language, aesthesis, truth, expression, fiction, and affectiveness. In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller’s stylistic devices convey not only bitter deception and bleak despair, but also hopeless despondency and forlorn anguish to display the realism and iniquity of the common man. As a representative form of American realism, Death of a Salesman portrays the use of language to convey a feeling of acrimony that demonstrates the relationship between the ideas of Willy Loman and the American common man. Willy Loman as the protagonist and the antagonist of his own story creates the sense of language that develops the idea of being “liked and you never will want” stating the façade of the Willy’s society (Miller 21). While communicated to the audience through a form of realism, his language functions as the crevice between the real and non-real. As development of language continues sometimes Willy Loman’s clichés “rise to the level of pure poetry” (Roudane 369). The use of language constructs poetic symbolism and closes the gap between non-realism and realism. Throughout the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain utilizes a poignant sense of diction reciprocating the slang the common man used in the Antebellum South...
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...The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that occurred in 1911 was a huge tragedy and led to discussion of why safety regulations are important. The girls couldn’t escape because the made assumptions about the moral character of the works and locked the doors that led to the fabric so the workers didn’t steal any. The fire killed 148 people because there was no escape route; so most of the people either jumped out the window or burned in the fire. If there had been safety regulations in the factory then there would have been fire escape doors like there are now in this generation. These immigrants came to America to work, so they could make their own American Dream possible. The American Dream wasn’t possible for the factory workers, because the safety regulations prohibited them from being happy at work. The American Dream for them was to be able to go to work and feel safe and secure in their workplace. Safety regulations in the factory would have allowed the workers to have the American Dream of being comfortable and safe in their work place, live the pursuit of happiness, and want to continue living and working in America. By having safety...
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...The American Dream' is based on the 'Declaration of Independence': 'We believe that all men are born with these inalienable rights - life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' (Thomas Jefferson, 1776). This 'dream' consists of a genuine and determined belief that in America, all things are possible to all men, regardless of birth or wealth; if you work hard enough you will achieve anything. However, Miller believes that people have been 'ultimately misguided' and Miller's play, Death of a Salesman, is a moving destruction of the whole myth. The origins of the American Dream seem to have been rooted in the pioneering mentality of the 18th and 19th century immigrants, most of whom came to America because of a promise of a new and better life. In particular, the opportunity to own one's land. But land 'ran out' and so cities developed and massive variations arose in wealth, which meant that this 'American Dream' changed from being a potential reality, into being a dream, like the name implies. Most of Miller's plays are directly or indirectly about the American Dream, because ultimately this dream wasn't going to succeed as lots of people wished. Death of a Salesman written in 1949, is a moving destruction of the whole myth. To be hard working, honest and have ambition were the ways of the American Dream. This lead to success, wealth and in due time - power. But this dream for everyone developed, and encouraged greed, selfish behavior, pride and rivalry between one another...
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...The traditional definition of "The American Dream" is the idea that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. Certainly, nowadays, the American Dream has more than one definition. For some of those who have come into the United States legally and illegally from third world countries, it means different things, one of which is a haven from poverty and starvation where they can be cared for freely. While some work and become independent, some people do not perceive "the American Dream" as being defined by working; instead, "the American Dream" is one of a benevolent government which takes care of the person his/her entire life through various federal programs. However, this latter idea has not yet become part of the canon of American literature. In the 1920's, the American Dream became materialized and one's character had less to do with success and the achievement of the dream. As a satire against this elevation of material success as the defining term of the American Dream, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote his seminal novel, The Great Gatsby in which he portrays a morally corrupt wealthy class in the Eastern United States. They are "careless people" (as the narrator Nick Carraway remarks) in a restless and driving society that have tainted values--Daisy marries Tom Buchanan because he gives her a $350,000 pearl necklace--taking what they can get unscrupulously and discarding anyone who does...
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...Mr. Hoeben ENG 102 10 December 2013 The Failed American Dream: Analysis of Death of a Salesman A tragedy play is a source of drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to extreme suffer or sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with lack of approval or support. Arthur Miller’s tragedy play, Death of a Salesman can be viewed as a urology of a man who was a constant dreamer, which represents his life and tragic death as he tries to fulfill his visions of having the American Dream. American tragedy explores the great myths that govern a society by examining the lives of its most ordinary citizens. Miller vividly expresses ideas throughout his play by demonstrating a changing society. Also, reading Death of a Salesman allows the play to be psychologically viewed as one man’s journey from shame and his own lack of self-confidence. Arthur Miller portrays Willy, his family, and other characters situation by the use of symbolism and themes, he accurately puts into words what every human being thinks, feels, and worries about, but often has trouble expressing. The lead character is Willy Loman, a failing door-to-door salesman coming to the end of his life but doggedly holding on to lost dreams. In the beginning of the play, we see Willy returning home to his wife Linda after almost crashing his car. Linda begins to worry about her husband and fears what may happen in the future. We soon learn why Willy is unable...
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...29.09.2012 ‘Tragedy is an imitation of an action’ is what Aristotle said about the theater genre, tragedy. I have been curious about the ‘imitation of an action’ part and asked myself question such as what could the’ imitation of an action’ as a phrase in this context of tragedy mean so, under the light of the emphasis our instructor put on the chapter ‘the definiton of tragedy’ in ‘Aristotle’s Poetics’ reading that we were assigned to read and since I wanted my question to be cleared and I also wanted to understand the foundation of tragedy and prepare myself, base knowledge wise, for readings that were to come, I started my reading with that particular chapter. Through the chapter I partially understood, through my own reading without anyone’s help, the combination of artistic beauty of changing the places of the words, harmonious rhythms of songs that provide an emballishment to the ongoing play on the stage and the crucial components such as ‘the soul of tragedy’ and another component as important as the plot that I am not too confident about whether I absorbed its meaning and relation with other parts of a tragedy, that element is thought. I think through the chapter I found an answer to my question of what is imitation of an action, let me expand my question for beter understanding and my own answer through the information I gained through my reading . I think my question of what imitation of an action is pretty straightforward to understand, in literal base I know...
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...the Salem witch-hunts and World War II brought upon a common psychology of desperation and deep meanings of struggle to many of Arthur Miller’s poems. “The Crucible” deals with extraordinary tragedy in lives of normal people due to the witch-hunts. “All My Sons” probes with the idea of dissatisfaction and unrest within the greater American population, influenced from the desperation and paternal responsibility put on people. Lastly, “Death of a Salesman” a work based on the American dream and national values, was influenced greatly by his hatred relationship with his uncle. The historical and personal events that occurred during Arthur Miller’s early life greatly influenced his writings of “The Crucible”, “Death of a Salesman”, and “All My Sons”. “The Crucible” was historically influenced by those trying to cleanse American culture of anyone who persisted in seeing the Soviet Union as a source of good in the world. This disgusted Miller so much that he based “The Crucible” on the anti-communist hysteria that pervaded the 1950s America, and the witch-hunts of the late 17th century He hated the idea of tragedy in ordinary lives and had much concern for the physical wellbeing of the working class. The outburst of these ideas caused him to be called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, and was convicted of contempt of Congress for not cooperating (this conviction however was later appealed). The unraveling of his troubled and turbulent marriage with Marilyn Monroe...
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...entertained the children. The children simply could not understand what their father had gone through while imprisoned and had false expectations of him. When they were younger they admired their father because they could see no flaw in his personality or actions, but after the internment camps they lost their naïveté and could not regard the man that returned as their father. This reunion underscores the tragedy of the American's decision to imprison Japanese Americans because it shows how a family can change drastically when you separate and imprison them. When the father returned from imprisonment he had trouble adjusting to the post-war environment, “He was suspicious of everyone: the newspaper boy, the door-to-door salesman, the little old lady who waved to us every day as we passed by her house on our way home from school. Any one of these people, he warned us, could be an informer.”(90). The U.S. Government imprisoned many Japanese-Americans, like the father, who's only crime was being Japanese. After the war the father was suspicious of everyone, because in his eyes every American was a potential...
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...who inhabit it. The American dream is often considered a fantasy by those who criticize it. Capitalism sometimes may not be all that it is cracked up to be when you get down in the dirt and start building. Even when you begin to believe you are moving forward you can be eternally unsure of the direction you are moving. At this point, the race to the top can drive you crazy. In Arthur Miller’s play A Death of a Salesman, the central character Willy Loman embodies the American dream and he is certainly mad. In the story, Willy works as a growing salesman who is getting older and tiring from travelling for work for small returns. His hard work goes unrewarded as each paycheck goes right into the house which always needs to be serviced and mended. This house as it gets to be paid off after 25 years finally becomes owned by the family who ironically may soon not live in the house together. Willy’s family consists of his humble and caring wife, Linda, and his two handsome and able-bodied sons Happy and Biff. The story centers around the external conflict of Willy pushing Biff to be what he wants him to be and Biff’s internal conflict of what it is he would like to do with his life. Death of a Salesman is considered by many to be a tragedy as the play’s events lead to the ultimate suicide of its central character. The play does not lend itself to be a tragedy in a normal sense but a tragedy for all who have succumbed to or at one time believed in the American dream. William Hawkins claims...
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...Fiction analysis 702 Words March 2, 2013 Death of A Salesman By Arthur Miller Death of a salesman is a play that displays an imagine of the “American Dream” . Critics describe Death of a Salesman as the first great American tragedy and gave Miller credit for being the first in understanding the deep fundamentals that make up the United States. The play by Arthur Miller is based on the difficulty of achieving economic and individual success in a World War II society. In the play Miller presents differences between successful visions of the "American Dream" and "unsuccessful" ones. As the play goes on it continues to describe how the failure of William Loman’s and son’s Biff and Happy’s dream dies out. William Loman is portrayed as an insecure self-deluded traveling salesman. In a flashback, Willy tells his sons what it takes to be successful in America. He states, "Because the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want. You take me, for instance. I never have to wait in line to see a buyer. Willy Loman is here!" That’s all they have to know, and I go right through" (Miller). In reality this is only Willy’s fantasy. It appears that Willy is actually taken as a joke to other salesmen. Willy’s instability doesn’t allow him to fit into the society he pictures. As Willy is taking a shot at success his personal relationships begins to fail him. Willy is than found...
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