He lies and lives on the road degrading himself in every way to attain the friendship with the most people. Willy’s severe dementia cements him as unreliable early on in the play, and it also explains some of the resentment his family feels towards him. Willy is so obsessed with succeeding in the business world and being “well liked” (Act 1, Scene 2) he can’t except that his life in general has been a failure. He replays moments in his life when the world brought nothing but promise and his sons were talented young athletes with their whole lives a head of him. Willy drifts fluidly in between reality and fantasy fluidly sometimes having two conversations at once.
Although in his sixties, he is still a traveling salesman bereft of any stable location or occupation, and clings only to his dreams and ideals. There is a strong core of resentment in Willy Loman's character and his actions assume a more glorious past than was actually the case. Willy sentimentalizes the neighborhood as it was years ago, and is nostalgic for his time working for Frank Wagner, especially because his former boss's son, Howard Wagner, fails to appreciate Willy. Miller presents Willy as a strong and boisterous man with great bravado but little energy to support his impression of vitality. He is perpetually weary and exhibits signs of dementia, contradicting himself and displaying some memory loss.
When Willy has a flashback of when Ben visited him and they discuss about their father, Willy says to Ben that “I still feel kind of temporary about myself?”(Death of a Salesman, 51). From the quote, Willy gives the reader the clue that he wanted his father to play as an important figure in his life but was not present in his life Since his father left him it has caused a negative psychological impact on Willy. This includes Willy always trying to be a friend to his sons oppose to playing the role of a fatherly. This can be clearly proven when Biff steals the football. During this scene, Willy says to Biff that ““I want you to return that.
DEATH OF A SALESMAN In the play, Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is, at first, set up as the character of the tragic hero. He has had goals and ambitions that he did not fulfill, and that his sons have not fulfilled, despite the pressure that he puts on them to accomplish his opinion of what success should be. However, as the story moves along, we see Willy’s tragic hero status decreasing substantially. As he desperately sifts through his past for some sort of actualization or realization, he only proves himself a to be failure, by the standards that he himself had set. There are a great many comparisons to be drawn from this play, and compared to the novel, The Great Gatsby.
Kelsey Sewalson Professor Hoppe English 2342 November 28, 2012 The Role Responsibility plays in “Fences” August Wilson’s play, “Fences”, is about a middle aged black man named Troy who works for a garbage company. Growing up with an abusive father and constantly feeling outranked by the white man, he underestimates his potential and sets his goals accordingly. While constantly battling racism, Troy cripples his son’s dreams of playing baseball due to his own expectations of what he feels his son could potentially achieve as a black man. Troy fails to recognize his good fortune in that he has a wife who treats him well and soon finds himself tangled in an affair. Not only is he unfaithful to his wife Rose, but he also appears to have no conscious for his infidelity and his lack of nurturing towards his family.
Pap hadn't seen Huck for a decent time and did not appreciate that he was dressed nicer than his father or that he was educated. The reason he came back to Huck was to acquire the money Huck came into with Tom Sawyer to, presumably, help supply his alcoholism. He did not want Huck to appear or think he was better than his father. Pap neither wanted others to shape his son and wanted to use Huck for his own gain. Anything of value Huck had while he was with his father, Huck relinquished them to avoid getting beaten.
He defends him against the bully of Jimmy Parson kicks during his fight over big Joe. It shows that he really love his two brother. Tommo looks up to Charlie and they are always there for each other. Tommo support Charlie for Charlie’s love for Molly, even it’s hard for him because he also like Molly but he still supports his brother, he even becomes the postman delivering their letters to each other. When Charlie decides to go to the war, Tommo said that he will go with him, because he doesn’t want to be far away to Charlie.
“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’s too old and ultimately he is losing his mind. Willy’s constant flashbacks and hallucinations begin to get the better of him. But he refuses to admit what is beginning to happen. Willy’s wife goes to her sons because of their fathers’ behavior. She tells them of the noose found in the basement, and also of how Willy has been getting into car ‘accidents.’ She begins to cry and tell Biff and Happy that Willy may not have been the most perfect father or husband or businessman, but he was a good guy and that “attention must be paid.” Clearly his whole family is affected by Willy’s recent behavior and willy can start to recognize this.
For these two families life in the hood is a miserable situation that seems hopeless (e.g. violent crime, drugs, harassment by police etc.) In Trey’s family his father expresses feeling freely, communicates openly with his son, conflict is allowed and resolved in this family which has the characteristics of a healthy family. In the movie Furious asks Trey to recall