...Narcissism and the American Dream in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman Narcissism och den amerikanska drömmen i Arthur Millers en handelsresandes död. Fredrik Artan Faculty of Arts and Education Subject: English Points:15.0 Supervisor: Magnus Ullén Examiner: Anna Swärdh 2014-06-18 Serial number Abstract This essay focuses on the theme of the American Dream in relation to narcissism in Miller’s Death of a salesman. The purpose is to demonstrate that a close reading of the main protagonist, Willy Loman, suggests that his notion of success in relation to the American Dream can be regarded as narcissistic. This essay will examine this by first observing how Willy´s notion of success is represented in the play, then look at how his understanding of it can be viewed from a narcissistic standpoint. The results I have found in my analysis show that there is a connection between Willy’s understanding of success and his narcissistic behavior. He displays traits such as grandiosity, arrogance, need of specialness and denial of emotions. His relationship with other characters reveals his lack of empathy, manipulation and exploitation of others as well as his need of superiority and fear of inferiority. The conclusion is that Willy and his notion of success could be considered as narcissistic. Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................1 The American...
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...Fatherhood: Does the past effect the present? Did the lack of a father negatively affect Willy’s character? (Bradford,1) Willy Loman’s father left his family and was out of his childhood when Wily was only 3 years eleven months old. As a result Willy was a failure of a father to his sons. By not having his father in his life, Willy did not know or learn how to be a good father to Biff and Happy. In the play, Death of a Salesman, written by Arthur Miller, the main character Willy is a husband, father, friend, business partner and salesman. Willy is not very good at any aspects of his life, particularly parenthood. The factors in which Willy fails at parenting are numerous including, not making his family number one priority, not disciplining his sons, encouraging bad behaviours, not admitting his faults and lying. Firstly, with Willy not making his family his number one priority, he does this by constantly putting work before them. Willy has never been there for his sons, as he is travelling every week to visit customers, and he never really had the chance to get to know, and show his love for his sons. Willy does not have the father-son relationship with his children that most fathers desire to have. Willy’s love for his eldest son Biff, is based solely on Biffs achievements as a football player. Biff has been offered '...scholarships to three universities...' (Miller 20), and when he fails math, and because of poor grades does not qualify for the university...
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...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 to continue his career as a salesman, which he has...
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...Aida Chacko ENG 2DP Dec 5, 2012 An analysis of Comparison and Contrast between Charley and Willy Don't aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally (David Frost). We often are surrounded by examples and stories about successful people doing good and pitiable ones committing crimes. People usually follow the path of a successful person because they think that they are perfect. We often neglect the truth that everyone is imperfect, and that god is not one of us. We are human beings, and liable to make mistakes. Therefore, being successful is learning from our mistakes and following our passion we desire. We as human beings are all born with a passion and we have to keep trying to achieve it. Of course, some may lack this wisdom because of their inability to understand success is not all about money and good looks. An example of this theme of success is presented in the novel Death of a Salesman. Miller clarifies this philosophical way of life through contrast and comparison between two characters. In the novel Death of a Salesman Arthur Miller demonstrates the idea of success through the Willy and Charley through the theme of foil as fathers, friends, and businessman. In the Arthur Miller’s novel, Death of a Salesman, the interaction between Willy Loman and his sons, Happy and Biff, allows Miller to demonstrate the foil comparison of the father-son relationships with the Charley’s relationship with his son. Willy and Charley’s...
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...Death of a Salesman Analysis In the play Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller crucifies the old-fashioned American Dream. Miller, while striking down the old idea that being well liked equates to being successful, shows that the American Dream of yesteryear can no longer be achieved. This idea is shown in both the last section of Act 2 and in the Requiem. Arthur Miller illustrates the condemnation of the old American Dream through Biff’s epiphany, Happy’s delusional success, and Willy’s funeral. While Biff flees Oliver’s office, he comes to a sudden realization that he’s been lying to himself his entire life and that Willy’s outdated version of the American Dream is unachievable for Biff and has caused him to fail. To reiterate this, Miller uses the “sky” (Miller, 1520) as a symbol for Biff’s possibilities. This is ironic, because Biff is running through “the middle of the [office building] and [he saw] the sky” without there being any windows mentioned. The “sky” (1520) that Biff sees isn’t the real sky, but the open-ness and the freedom that it grants. The sky also represents Biff’s chance to escape the web of lies that he has entangled himself in since high school, as its vastness is open and clear. The next way that Biff’s realization shows that the old American Dream has been demolished is that he denounces himself and his father of faking their way through life. As Biff and Willy argue, Biff admits that “[he is] not a leader of men” (1520) and that Willy is not either...
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...Literary Analysis of Death of a Salesman By definition, an entrepreneur is a person who organizes and manages any enterprise usually with considerable initiative and risk. Although different entrepreneurs have different accomplishments, they all have some personality traits in common. In The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Biff and Happy do not have the integrity, willingness to learn, and commitment to a venture required for entrepreneurs. Alexander Becker, a distinguished business journalist, wrote in his article that “Your business depends on your integrity while your integrity depends on delivering what you promise.” It is important that Integrity is embedded within the entrepreneur and his business that customers can easily distinguish it and are easily drawn to it. However, this essential trait of an entrepreneur is not seen in either of the Loman brother. Happy has great capacity for self-delusion; being only an assistant to the assistant buyer, he constantly brags to his family that he is the assistant buyer at his store. When Biff tries to free him from this self-delusion by saying that “you’re one of the two assistants to the assistant, aren’t you?”(Miller 131), the statement “Well, I’m practically…” (Miller 131) indicates that he is still attempt to cover up the exposed truth. In another occasion, he tries to lie to Linda that Wille had a great dinner with them by saying that “Boy, what a night you gave me!”(Miller 124) Even though he is aware that Linda...
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...Emily Nole Professor Bruce Poteet English 161 4 November 2014 “A Good Man Is Hard To Find,” and “Good Country People” Literary Analysis Flannery O’Connor’s works are perfect examples of distortional point of view, and literary irony. Through her work “Good Country People,” O’Connor uses her humor and uses distortional point of view through her characters Hulga, Mrs. Hopewell, and Mrs. Freeman to “humble and expose the biases of the overly intellectual and spiritual bankrupt.” Through her work “A Good Man Is Hard To Find,” O’Connor uses her humor and uses distortional point of view to convey and emphasize that we each experience reality, however distorted, through the unique, sometime morally-distorted lens of individual perception, through...
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...Competition analysis. Page 7 = References. Pages 8 = Appendix. Executive Summary McDonald’s brand is one of the best worldwide. The McDonald’s Corporation is a “Centralized, International company”, they compete in the fast food industry supplying hamburgers, French fries and other consumable items using standardization, heavy expansion and branding as the driving force. Today McDonald’s operates over 30,000 restaurants worldwide in over 121 countries. McDonald’s marketed an intense, rapid expansion into foreign countries through three primary methods, franchising, joint ventures, and company owned restaurants. With most of the international restaurants coming from franchising agreements, McDonald’s management relied on this franchising method to aid in the acceptance of a new style of eating into unfamiliar markets. With minimal risk and maximum gains, franchising continues to add heavily to McDonald’s international success. With a centralized, international structure, McDonald’s keeps a close hold on operations, cost and quality. With an ethnocentric management strategy, McDonald’s relies on home based logic and attitudes and transfers them to their international outlets and restaurants. In order for McDonalds to control its overseas operation, McDonald’s uses a combination of two approaches. The majority of control would fall under the rules approach, meaning that control lies with headquarters...
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...Producers Be Solely Responsible for Food Safety Issues? Date of submission: 26 March 2012 Table of Content 1. Introduction 2. China Food Scandal 3. Analysis of China’s case 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Conflict: Business vs. Business Conflict: Business vs. Government Conflict: Society vs. Government Implementations and Critique 4. Taiwan Food Scandal 5. Analysis of Taiwan’s case 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Business Government Consumers Implementations and Critique 6. Alternative Solutions 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Changing the business culture by incentivizing ethical practices 2-Prong approach Improve information symmetry Develop a systematic approach for food scandals 7. Conclusion 8. Appendix 9. References 1. Introduction In recent years, the world has seen many cases of food safety issues, especially in Asia and the effects are global. Our group has chosen China and Taiwan as our two main countries for analysis: China is one of the world’s largest exporters of food products and food safety issue is pertinent; Taiwan’s food products are exported to 15 major countries such as U.S., China, Germany, Hong Kong, and Malaysia (Wang, 2011), thus food safety issue is serious as well. If these hazardous products were circulated to different countries, the consequences would be widespread. This report provides the background information, analysis of the problem and solutions in the respective countries. In addition, our group will identify the root cause of the problem, generate alternative solutions...
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...Дневник читателя READER’S JOURNAL Ernest Hemingway. The Old Man and the Sea (1952). Joseph Heller. Catch-22 (1961). Tennessee Williams. A Streetcar Named Desire (1959). Iris Murdoch. The Black Prince (1973). Jerome David Salinger. The Catcher in the Rye (1951). Michael Ondaatje. The English Patient (1992). Ray Bradbury. Fahrenheit 451 (1953). Ken Kesey. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962). Edward Albee. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962). Arthur Miller. Death of a Salesman (1949). ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Ernest Hemingway. The Old Man and the Sea (1952). ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- FULL TITLE · The Old Man and the Sea ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- AUTHOR · Ernest Hemingway ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- TYPE OF WORK · Novella ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- GENRE · Parable; tragedy ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- LANGUAGE · English ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN · 1951, Cuba ------------------------------------------------- ...
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...Analysis of “Materialistic Perception” in F. Scot Fitzgerald Using Marxist Literary Criticism Chapter I 1.1 Introduction The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. The story primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. Considered to be Fitzgerald's magnum opus, The Great Gatsby explores themes of decadence, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval, and excess, creating a portrait of the Jazz Age that has been described as a cautionary tale regarding the American Dream. 1.2 State of Problem The Great Gatsby provides a critical social history of America during the Roaring Twenties within its narrative. That era, known for unprecedented economic prosperity, the evolution of jazz music, flapper culture, and bootlegging and other economy struggle that was the result of the materialism and capitalism damaging on social behavior, led to the widespread social distress. 1.3 Theoretical Framework Using literary criticism to interpret what is the ideal life of America in 19th century and what is the dream of American people after World War I. as a Marxist interpretation of the novel makes especially clear, reveals its dark underbelly instead. Through its unflattering characterization of those at the top of the...
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...DECLARATION I hereby declare that I have submitted an original piece of work. The secondary research work has been properly cited and acknowledged. Zoya Ishaq June 25, 2011 ____________ _____________ _________________ Name of student Date Signature DEDICATION I dedicate this report to my grandfather Malik Anwar-ul-Haq who passed away on October 6, 2010. He was my source of encouragement, motivation and inspiration. He was a best friend, a companion, a teacher, a father and a man with a dignified character and an impressive personality. Bareabu, this is for you to thank you for all your effort, time, love and support in making me who I am today and to tell you that you will always be remembered. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I am extremely grateful to Allah Almighty for showering His blessings on me continuously and helping me at every stage of life and providing me with the ability to complete this report successfully. I would like to thank my parents for their trust and belief in me always. They make me who I am today with their unconditional love. My humble gratitude and word of appreciation is also for Ms Saira Farooqi, Head of the BBA Department at Kinnaird, and Ms Manal Talat for providing me with the courage to make a name as a student of BBA for 4 years. They have been a motherly figure...
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...A TEACHER’S GUIDE TO THE SIGNET CLASSIC EDITION OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO AND JULIET By ARTHEA J.S. REED, PH.D. S E R I E S W. GEIGER ELLIS, ED.D., E D I T O R S : UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA, EMERITUS and ARTHEA J. S. REED, PH.D., UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, RETIRED A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Classic Edition of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet 2 INTRODUCTION William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is an excellent introduction to Shakespearean drama; teenagers can relate to its plot, characters, and themes. The play’s action is easily understood, the character’s motives are clear, and many of the themes are as current today as they were in Shakespeare’s time. Therefore, it can be read on a variety of levels, allowing all students to enjoy it. Less able readers can experience the swash-buckling action and investigate the themes of parent-child conflict, sexuality, friendship, and suicide. Because of the play’s accessibility to teenagers, able readers can view the play from a more literary perspective, examining the themes of hostility ad its effect on the innocent, the use of deception and its consequences, and the effects of faulty decision making. They can study how the characters function within the drama and how Shakespeare uses language to develop plot, characters, and themes. The most able students can develop skills involved in literary criticism by delving into the play’s comic and tragic elements and its classically...
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..."In the first two seconds of looking –in a single glance – they were able to understand more about the essence of the statue than the team at the Getty was able to understand after fourteen months . . . Blink is a book about those first two seconds." Gladwell begins his introduction with the story of a kouros – an ancient Greek sculpture of a young naked male – that was acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1983. Kouroi are very rare. As a result this particular kouros was being sold for $10 million. Because of the hefty price tag, the Getty Museum was very careful when testing to see if the kouros was a forgery. However, after 14 months of analysis, the Getty determined that the kouros was in fact real, and bought the statue. Many scholars did not agree that the kouros was real. To them, something about the statue didn’t look right. When Thomas Hoving, the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, looked at the statue the first word that came to his mind was “fresh”. When Angelos Delivorrias, director of the Benaki Museum in Athens, first laid eyes upon the statue he felt a wave of immediate disgust. For a long time the validity of the kouros was hotly debated. Finally, the Getty’s case began to fall apart. As it turned out, a lot of the documents used to prove the statue’s authenticity were forged. Also, as experts began to examine the statue in great detail, they came to the realization that it used a hodgepodge of styles from many different places...
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... Life Sciences South 163 Monday/Wednesday/Friday 9:30 am – 10:20 am January 9, 2013 – May 10, 2013 Course Description In this class, we will learn about the basic conventions and terms used to understand and discuss the three major genres of literature: fiction, poetry, and drama. This class will help you understand the sometimes baffling world of literature, and is intended to provide the general student with basic experience in literary analysis. Additionally, I hope this class will lead you to a lifelong appreciation for (and engagement with) reading literature. Although this class features extensive reading and writing, it is not necessary for you to be a bookworm or a writing superstar to succeed in this class – if you are willing to put in the time and effort to study, faithfully attend class, keep up on your reading and writing assignments and engage in our discussions ...
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