Ignoring the reality of everyday life and how it works can obsure individuals perspective of the world, which has devastating effects, such as not being able to understand what it best for ones self in life. In ‘Paul’s Case’ by Willa Cather, the protagonist, Paul, experiences these devastating effects. In order to escape the misery of his everyday life, Paul ignores reality and devises an affluent life for himself, however it is these illogical measures that ultimately cause him to make irrational and harsh decisions that prevent him from securing self-fulfillment. Paul’s great misunderstanding about the relationship between work and money cause him to carry out decietful actions that lead to his downfall. Paul strongly believes that he belongs in the
In “The Company Man,” by Ellen Goodman the protagonist, Phil, literally works himself to death after decades of hard work and dedication to his company. Phil’s life shows that hard work does not always have its benefits. In life, we must slowdown from our hectic schedules to appreciate life itself. Goodman utilizes Phil as a paragon of the overworked, overstressed characters in society to seize the day. We accomplish absolutely nothing when we are encapsulated in our work.
This manages to show him as a naive, opinionated person in his views. This makes his opinions become less convincing and believable to the reader. Before he starts, he describes himself as a ‘hard-headed business man, who knows what he’s about.’ This presents him as pompous and someone who thinks his ideas are always right and no one should doubt them. Firstly, he says ‘last month, just because the miners came out on strike, there’s talk of possible labour trouble in the near future.’ He goes on to say, ‘Don’t worry. We’ve seen the worst of it.’ The audience, watching this three decades years later, know that there were an increasing number of strikes during the period and after the play is set, undermining Arthur Birling even more.
“A searing condemnation of the American Dream” How well does this phrase express the concerns in Miller’s play. It can be said that the American dream and its failure is certainly one of the central themes of Arthur Miller’s ‘Death of a Salesman’. Miller tells us the story of an ageing travelling salesman, Willy Loman, who’s success is rapidly dwindling, who’s sons fail to live up to his expectations and who is increasingly haunted by memories and imaginary conversations with people from his past. A significant portion of the play takes place as flashbacks that give us insight into the problematic relationship between Willy and his family and the origins of his failure as he strives to achieve success. Willy has a dream that he refuses to give up even when it becomes clear that his dream is shallow, unrealistic and unattainable.
He knew what it was like to struggle with everyday life without a job and no place to sleep in. He blamed wealthy people. In his opinion, they've caused misery of many people, because of their egoistic ways and greediness. He blamed landlords for rising rent to an abnormal wage, causing many people to lose their houses, because they couldn't afford it. He thought that rich people were the makers of poor people's
As mentioned above, Willy reflects Biffs’ failure in business as a reflection of his own dreams of succeeding although he only succeeded for a short while in his life. Also, the affair that Willy was in might have affected Biff and made him unable to keep a job. Willy has such insecurities with betrayal and himself that not only does he believe his family betrays him but also people on the outside too. His boss, for example, just because his boss fired him, Willy takes it as a form of betrayal even though he tells him, “there’s no room for betrayal in the business
This novel was set during the Great Depression in which the country suffered a great economical down fall. During that time people lost their jobs and became poor. Also at that time it was a man dominated society. Therefore it was very harsh and difficult for the American male workers as they had to travel long distances to find suitable jobs. Also the American dream was a big belief each American had during the time.
In both plays Death of a Salesman and True West can be both in contrast to the conditions of their visions of the American dream. Both of these plays focus on characters that spend their lives pursuing this dream while they fail at happiness as a result. In Death of a Salesman Willy Loman is a unfortunate, man who is so obsessed with trying to live up to an ideal that he has become disillusioned and has developed a loose sense of reality. Willy, spends his lifetime attempting to become a salesman, only to find in the end that he had failed. True West also focuses on the dysfunction of the American Dream.
Many may argue that the falling economy and the wealthy not wanting to share their shares is to blame for the raising rates of poverty here in the states. Poverty of course, has a lot to do with money and income but underneath that it is has a deeper story. Stories of how different people are suffering from it and how they are managing to live day by day. It almost seems as if it’s a foreign nation of its own and you only understand the concepts if you are in it. There is no doubt that here in America we are dealing with one of the greatest economic downfalls.
There is no way around it. One of the reasons for why people chose to fail is they are careless. Some people just don’t feel like doing anything or don’t think it’s necessary to do it. So some people just hold it off till last minute or when they do get a chance to do it, they are very lazy and slap together some random things. Another reason why people to chose to fail are they worry about other things before their school work.