... 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. The language exhibits the principles of Death of a Salesman in its acrimony and pain through Loman’s statement “a man is not a piece of fruit!” (Miller 61). This sense of diction drives the main ideas and connects these ideas to those of the average man. Even throughout the play, the language morphs Death of a Salesman into the...
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...describe contemporary America, following the Wall Street Crash. Both authors have their own ways of conveying an image, Miller uses stage directions to illustrate important settings whilst Steinbeck implements evocative vocabulary to carefully describe each significant location to the reader. Miller’s first description portrays Brooklyn, the setting of the Loman household with a gentle flute melody playing in the background, ‘it is small and fine, telling of grass and trees and the horizon’. The house is described as being ‘small and fragile-seeming’ with ‘towering angular shapes behind it, surrounding it on all sides’. This detailed description conveys to the reader that there is a sense of claustrophobia and inferiority, suggesting that this house is out of place in the daunting city. The opening location of Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’ serves as a foil to ‘Death of a Salesman’, as it outlines the beauty of the Salinas River in rural California. There are however some links between the two introductions; the Salinas River is described as ‘twinkling over the yellow sands in the moonlight’, which directly opposes the description of Brooklyn ‘an angry glow of orange’ in scene one of ‘Death of a Salesman’. Rural California seems to be a very still and peaceful place where wildlife such as rabbits, raccoons and deer are able to thrive amongst ‘sycamores with mottled, white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool’. Steinbeck then describes the Gabilan Mountains surrounding...
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...DEATH OF A SALESMAN Study Guide for Teachers World-Class Theatre in the Heart of Vermont 703 Main Stre e t , W eston, V T 05161 www.westonplayhouse.o rg The Weston Playhouse Theatre Company The 2010 WPTC Teacher’s Workshop and the School Matinee and Touring Production is made possible in part by grants from: The Bay and Paul Foundations Mountain Room Foundation National Endowment for the Arts The Shubert Foundation The Vermont Country Store and The Orton Family Vermont Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities With additional contributions from: Black River Produce Berkshire Bank Clark’s Quality Foods Price Chopper’s Golub Foundation Ezra Jack Keats Foundation Okemo Mountain Resort Thrifty Attic …and an ever growing family of individuals who believe in the impact that the performing arts can have on its community. This Teachers Study Guide was compiled and edited by Rena Murman. Credit and thanks to the following theatres for materials used or referenced from study guides created for Death of a Salesman: Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis, MN; Kennedy Center, Washington, DC; Lyric Theatre, London; Royal Lyceum Theatre Company, Edinburgh; Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, CT. © 2010 Weston Playhouse Theatre Company, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) educational and cultural institution. WPTC Performance Guides may be duplicated at no charge for educational purposes only. They may not be sold or used in other publications without the express written consent...
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...can still be compared to our every day life. Miller has written his plays filled with drama, tragedy and leaving the reader feeling the emotion of his characters. Miller has used common themes that can be traced through some of his plays; the theme of family and the extent an individual will go to for their family. In three of his plays, Miller demonstrates tragedy wrapped within denial. The three families portrayed in Millers plays, All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and A View From The Bridge are families that are consumed with denial to cover up and protect against their own guilt and selfish needs. Each of these families have characters who display such strong denial believing they are doing what is best for their family. However, when taking a closer look, what is reviled is failure and justifications to protect what is best for them selves. In All My Sons by Arthur Miller, the characters forming the Keller family are living in the 1940’s, a time where financial stability seemed out of reach. Joe Keller who is a father, husband, and business owner, is one of the main characters in this play. Joe is able to provide his family with the financial stability he has wanted but at a high cost. With one bad decision, Joe committed a crime that he never thought would affect his family directly. Joe allowed the defective airplane parts to be sent, causing the death of twenty-one men including his own son Larry. The guilt of his decision was too much to bare so Joe went into denial...
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...as well as display how they feel. Being alone forces Gregor to create distance between the only people he interacted with-his family and “casual acquaintances.” The “yellow wallpaper” similarly doesn’t allow Jane to voice her opinions as her husband John is shown to be an oppressive nature. Her staying in the room along with the wallpaper alludes to a women’s enforced, societal role almost as an object being domesticated. Jane overcomes this speech barrier by vocalising her thoughts through writing. This could be seen as a quite a feminist response, although conversely, effective in the matter of getting heard and feeling liberated from the restraints of the patriarchal establishment through her female rebellion. Unsurprisingly, a key theme both characters have a familiarity of is alienation, perceptibly linked to their isolation. The setting begins to explore how Jane would feel alienated. “Three miles from the village” gives the reader the hint that the house is in the middle of nowhere; providing Jane to become physically and socially alienated. Accumulating in this is the idea of her being home alone all day as John is out all day and the housekeeper is not always around. Notwithstanding, John may appear from time to time his presence is non-existent for Jane. The time spent alone precludes the idea of building relationships, especially displayed by the unhealthy relationship she shares with John. Mental alienation also occurs when she describes her feelings of unreasonable...
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...what is of great importance (Morrel and Niles 128). What this implies is that anything whatsoever can be written to satisfy what readers and the audience are expected to see and feel (Anthony Collins 54). However, the messages in such writings can be continually nurtured in order to increase the power of the emotions and the images communicated if the story is relayed via a deeper message. This means that authors and writers can opt not to put a vivid face in the true significance and purport; this eventually expands the force field of their story’s meaning (Collins 34). Further, this prospers the capacity of the readers and the audience to interpret and explore; particularly, when the author employs the use of writing devices that prompt the readers to explore the writing in very different light. This is the kind of technique that Frank Kafkas employs in his novel, “The Metamorphosis”, in which he presents readers with a story of how a man mutates into a bug – a cockroach. “The Metamorphosis” is not just an intriguing tale, it is also a perfect example of an author employing various writing techniques, and how such techniques can change the interpretation of a story (Wyllie 4). From the beginning of the story, the author entwines various stylistic devices to deliberately divulge the hidden roots that hold the tale upright. These devices guides the readers mind unintentionally towards the various notable aspects of human relationships, unveiling a more meaningful and...
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...states, “even as a little boy he had resented his father’s failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala. That was how Okonkwo first came to know that agbala was not only another name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had taken to title (2.12)”. Okonkwo tried so hard to be so different and ever since a young boy he started invested in this future life to become wealthy. Everything was so perfect for him. His life was easy, he had money, many women, big farms, and a nice house. Everything starts to get messed up when he kills his adoptive son and he does not show any remorse because he tries so hard to be opposite of his father. This part is when the reader sees the problem about Okonkwo’s self-identity and how his ambition to be unlike is father will mess things up. During a funeral, Okonkwo kills another boy by accident but this time the Igbo people evicted him for seven years to live with his mother in their homelands. While Okonkwo is at his mother homelands, he discovers about the missionaries and how they are trying to take over the land he once ruled. Therefore, after his seven years Okonkwo returns to his Igbo people and tries to reclaim his land. One day during a council, Okonkwo kills a court messenger from the missionaries and realizes his clan would not go to war with him anymore. At the end of this devastating story, it is proven that Okonkwo ruined his own life because he tried...
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...Senior English Curriculum Map: 2010-2011 School Year English IV * Note: “Sacred Book List” Addendum is at the end of this document Quarter #1 August 23 to October 22 Essential Questions: 1. How do writers and artists organize or construct text to convey meaning? 2. What does it mean to be a stranger in the village? Unit Goals 1. To understand the relationship between perspective and critical theory. 2. To apply critical theories to various texts studied and created. 3. To control and manipulate textual elements in writing to clearly and effectively convey a controlling idea or thesis. Student Published Portfolios: For each of the first three quarters, students are required to complete three to four published writing portfolio products. Quarter 4 is devoted to completion of the Laureate Research Project. . Pacing: This map is one suggestion for pacing. Springboard pacing guides precede each unit in the “About the Unit” sections and offers pacing on a 45-minute class period length. Prentice Hall Literature – Use selections from Prentice Hall throughout the quarter to reinforce the standards being taught as well as the embedded assessments within the SpringBoard curriculum. QUARTER #1 SpringBoard Curriculum Pacing Guide August 23 – October 22 Standards and Benchmarks | Unit Pacing Guide | SpringBoard Unit/Activities | Assessments | SpringBoard Unit 1Literature * The students will analyze and compare significant works of...
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...bugs at the bottom of the natural order. When mankind tries to rise above their insect status and connect with humanity, as Gregor did when he emerged from his room to see his sister and listen to the violin, they are cruelly driven back into isolation and alienation. Through Gregor, Kafka presents a totally tragic view of man's existence. Kafka also shows that mankind is driven by materialism, often to the exclusion of developing human relationships. Modern life demands that a person have a job to earn money to fulfill materialistic desires. The materialistic mind-set usually enslaves the individual and transforms him into a beast or insect who does not have time to care for others. Gregor is the perfect example. He hates his job as a salesman but endures it in order to provide material things for his family. In order to have and give financial security, he sacrifices a social life, companionship, pleasure, and dreams. His life is miserable, and he counts the days until he can quit his job. Ironically, the people that he supports and loves prove they have no depth of emotion for him. Once he cannot financially care for them, they one by one desert him, adding to his total misery. Gregor is literally left to climb the walls and die in total alimentation. Through him, Kafka is warning modern society that it is being forced into an existence similar to that of Gregor. Character analysis of Gregor In...
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...critical theory today critical theory today A Us e r - F r i e n d l y G u i d e S E C O N D E D I T I O N L O I S T Y S O N New York London Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 270 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016 Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 2 Park Square Milton Park, Abingdon Oxon OX14 4RN © 2006 by Lois Tyson Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business Printed in the United States of America on acid‑free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 International Standard Book Number‑10: 0‑415‑97410‑0 (Softcover) 0‑415‑97409‑7 (Hardcover) International Standard Book Number‑13: 978‑0‑415‑97410‑3 (Softcover) 978‑0‑415‑97409‑7 (Hardcover) No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data Tyson, Lois, 1950‑ Critical theory today : a user‑friendly guide / Lois Tyson.‑‑ 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0‑415‑97409‑7 (hb) ‑‑ ISBN 0‑415‑97410‑0 (pb) 1. Criticism...
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...a girl from each of 12 districts, are designated Tributes, and must fight one another in the wilds of a computer-controlled artificial environment until there's only one survivor. The concept is hardly an original one. Older audiences with a sense of movie history will recognize more than trace elements of "The Most Dangerous Game," "Spartacus," "Battle Royale," or "The Running Man." But "The Hunger Games" wasn't intended for older audiences. The trilogy was written for adolescents absorbed with their own turbulent history. The unsecret ingredient of its rampant success was turning a dog-eared, dog-eat-dog premise into a coming-of-age story about a strong, resourceful girl, then widening it into a fable of star-crossed lovers. Young readers—girls in particular, though not only girls—saw themselves in Katniss's struggles...
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...being, he was his people’s writer as well. Nick Joaquín was born in the old district of Pacò in Manila, Philippines, on September 15, 1917, the feast day of Saint Nicomedes, a protomartyr of Rome, after whom he took his baptismal name. He was born to a home deeply Catholic, educated, and prosperous. His father, Leocadio Joaquín, was a person of some prominence. Leocadio was a procurador (attorney) in the Court of First Instance of Laguna, where he met and married his first wife, at the time of the Philippine Revolution. He shortly joined the insurrection, had the rank of colonel, and was wounded in action. When the hostilities ceased and the country came under American rule, he built a successful practice in law. Around 1906, after the death of his first wife, he married Salomé Márquez, Nick’s mother. A friend of General Emilio Aguinaldo, Leocadio was a popular lawyer in Manila and the Southern Tagalog provinces. He was unsuccessful however when he made a bid for a seat in the Philippine Assembly representing Laguna. Nick Joaquín’s mother was a pretty, well-read woman of her time who had studied in a teacher-training institute during the Spanish period. Though still in her teens when the United States took possession of the...
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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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...Narrative A narrative is a sequence of events that a narrator tells in story form. A narrator is a storyteller of any kind, whether the authorial voice in a novel or a friend telling you about last night’s party. Point of View The point of view is the perspective that a narrative takes toward the events it describes. First-person narration: A narrative in which the narrator tells the story from his/her own point of view and refers to him/herself as “I.” The narrator may be an active participant in the story or just an observer. When the point of view represented is specifically the author’s, and not a fictional narrator’s, the story is autobiographical and may be nonfictional (see Common Literary Forms and Genres below). Third-person narration: The narrator remains outside the story and describes the characters in the story using proper names and the third-person pronouns “he,” “she,” “it,” and “they.” • Omniscient narration: The narrator knows all of the actions, feelings, and motivations of all of the characters. For example, the narrator of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina seems to know everything about all the characters and events in the story. • Limited omniscient narration: The narrator knows the actions, feelings, and motivations of only one or a handful of characters. For example, the narrator of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has full knowledge of only Alice. • Free indirect discourse: The narrator conveys a character’s inner thoughts...
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...does not necessarily have to be included in a message that conveys the you-attitude. True False 6. Wordiness means having more words than the meaning of a message requires. True False 7. Wordiness helps to clarify a message by making it concise and easy to read. True False 8. Adding words to increase you-attitude or develop a reader benefit will make a sentence wordy. True False 9. The word "you" should be used in all business messages in order to convey the you-attitude. True False 10. Long sentences, by definition, are wordy. True False 11. Revisions to sentences in order to include the you-attitude should not change the basic meaning of the message. True False 12. To best convey the you-attitude, a company should refer to a customer's order generically as "Your order" since the customer already knows what he ordered. True False 13. A sentence that focuses on the communicator's work or generosity will convey the you-attitude only if the word "you" is included. True False 14. "We" should never be used in a business situation because it focuses on the writer, not the reader, and therefore makes the reader feel excluded. True False 15. The word "I" in a written document suggests that you are concerned about the organization's problems, needs, and...
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