... 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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...Jennifer Mills Professor Usha Wahwani English 102 1, April 2013 A Detailed Look at Death of a Salesman Death of a Salesman has been accepted worldwide as one of the greatest American dramas to premier in theatre. The story behind the play is based on Miller’s interactions with his Uncle, a salesman whose efforts to obtain the “American Dream” and pass his success on to his two sons becomes his main focus. Miller’s life during the preparation of Death of a Salesman provides the spark and inspiration needed to pen a literary classic. Almost five decades later, Death of a Salesman’s themes is still relevant in today’s society. Arthur Asher Miller was born October 17, 1915 in Harlem, New York City. Miller was the son of Isadora and Augustus Miller, Polish Jewish immigrants who settled in Harlem in the early 1900’s. Arthur’s father owned a successful women’s clothing manufacturing company that employed hundreds of people. Although he was a figure of wealth and prominence in the community the Wall Street Crash of 1929 left the successful family in a financial struggle. They relocated to a section in Brooklyn known as Gravesend. There Miller delivered bread to help the family maintain. In 1932 he graduated Abraham Lincoln High School. After high school miller enrolled at the University of Michigan. He worked several small jobs to pay for his college tuition. He first majored in journalism, taking up freelance writing for the Michigan Daily. While he served as a reporter and night...
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...Reaction Paper to "The Death of a Salesman" ENG/125 October 19, 2015 Reaction Paper to "The Death of a Salesman" In Arthur Miller’s Play Death of a Salesman, the play recollects the last 24 hours of the Loman’s family life and the events leading up to the death of Willy Loman. The title of the play is symbolic to the unraveling of the picture perfect family imagine that Willy created to everyone around him. The title is also symbolic to Willy losing his career as a salesman. Arthur Miller was very clever with his themes by using flashbacks throughout the play. He used four major themes according to SparkNotes Editors. (2002). Appearance vs. reality, the individual vs. society, the individual vs. himself, and the perception of the American Dream. Willy has been a salesman all his life. He has brought his sales experience into his personal life. He was selling the idea that his marriage and family life are perfect. His sons Biff and Happy are not what Willy had imagined or made them out to be. He wanted them to be successful business men just like him; however they are not. Willy has sold his lies for so long about his happy family that he can’t even remember what the truth is or doesn’t choose to remember. Willy is a man of many mistakes and doesn’t take accountability for the mistakes that he has made and often twists the truth to make himself the victim. I think Willy is a very relatable character. He by all means is not perfect and only wants the American Dream...
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...The standards of success and prosperity for the protagonists of Death of a Salesman and Wall Street are inflated by the media, celebrities, and their family lives. In the face of his brother’s triumph in Alaska, Willy struggles to achieve the same level of unrealistic, exaggerated success as a mere salesman in Death of a Salesman. Similarly, by working under the exaggeratedly cutthroat Gordon Gekko, Bud Fox seeks a hollow life of luxury, stolen through cheating. Both Willy and Bud try to succeed with exaggerated and unrealistic goals due to the pressure presented to them through external forces such as their mentors, society, their families, and the workplace. The pressure that Bud and Willy’s mentors place on them causes them to exaggerate their goals to unrealistic levels. As a result, Willy’s lucidity spirals into a deep depression that leaves him in a delusional mentality that refuses to let him face the reality of his present situation while Bud’s sanity becomes overcome by his hunger for power that is fed by his ego and arrogance. Ben Loman is the foil to Willy Loman’s character. He is wealthy, bold, and a ruthless business man. He is the epitome of a success story and living the American Dream. Ben is one of the fortunate few who found incredible success without much work, something which Willy recognizes and wants. Willy Loman believes that like his brother, he too can rise from humble beginnings to importance. His specific angle on this outlook is that a man succeeds...
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...Death of a Salesman There are some who would argue that it is precisely the ultra-capitalist mentality of individuals like Willy Loman that has propelled the American Economy to global dominance, but Arthur Miller’s classic work “Death of a Salesman” begs the question: at what cost? What does it do to a person, this desperate need to “be number one man?” Each of Willy’s sons draw a different lesson from his life and their assertions about how one should live offer a compelling choice for modern readers. A psychological need to be the best, a deep desire for being universally liked, and an irrational longing to impress strangers with wealth and status are heavy burdens to carry – especially when they are inherited from parents and internalized at a young age. Willy Loman is deeply unhappy and this largely stems from the fact that his perception of himself and what he deserves does not line up with the realities of his life. He seems to have been a moderately successful salesman over the years until things began to almost imperceptibly turn against him. His emphasis on being liked comes at the expense of being respected. He has wholly bought in to the ‘rat race’ of industrial capitalism. His view of neighborly relations is a competitive one that mirrors his workplace philosophy, he is obsessed with “keeping up with the joneses.” Willy could have been very happy doing what he was passionate about which was carpentry, home repair, and handyman style work. Instead he...
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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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...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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...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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