The Importance of Biff in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
The play "Death of a Salesman", by Arthur Miller, follows the life of Willy Loman, a self-deluded salesman who lives in utter denial, always seeking the "American Dream," and constantly falling grossly short of his mark. The member’s of his immediate family, Linda, his wife, and his two sons, Biff and Happy, support his role. Of these supportive figures, Biff’s character holds the most importance, as Biff lies at the center of Willy’s internal conflicts and dreams, and Biff is the only one in the play who seems to achieve any growth.
Biff’s role is essential to the play because he generates the focus of Willy’s conflict for the larger part, his own conflict is strongly attributed to Willy, and finally, he is the only character who manages growth or a sense of closure in the play. Willy is forever plagued by the fact that Biff has not "gone anywhere in life." Biff, who is already in his thirties, is still drifting from place to place, job to job, most recently work as a farmhand. Biff is a source of endless ...
In the novel The Kite Runner, author Khaled Hosseini writes about Amir a young Afghan child who is a coward and who later as an adult seeks redemption from past mistakes. These characteristic effects Amir’s live throughout the novel from childhood to present. However, these are just words on a paper without some proof and the novel happily supports this either through the events or the behavior of other characters. Now let’s start with Amir’s past childhood.
It’s not that uncommon for people to kill each other, and it happens every day. What is not common, is for someone to kill for no apparent reason. Typically there has to be some sort of benefit behind the murder. Whether that may be to get that out of their way for some reason, or to get something that they want. This article was meant to show resemblance between serial killers and your average everyday murderers. He brings up serial killer Lou Ford as an example of someone who acts as if they are normal, yet deep inside are very dangerous minded. Instead of using his physical attributes to murder people, he satisfies his needs by psychologically tormenting people. He does this as long as he possibly can, but there is only so much they can take of
In Arthur Miller’s Death of a salesman the play is based on one man trying to reach the a personal dream while unknowingly hurting his family. During Willy Loman’s life he caused his family to be damaged by living a life that he could no longer fulfill. His sons Biff and Happy realized what their father is going through and are their for him in his time of need. Willy traveled around the east coast selling merchandise but as he grew older he lost his ability to travel. Willy tried to force his dream on to his sons Biff and Happy after he realizes that he can no longer cut it for his traveling job. He risks his life and is eventually fired after a lifetime of hard work. Willy subconsciously decided that he need to create a future for his children. His realization that he can not fulfil his dream crush him and he starts to complain about
In Death of a Salesman, Biff's perception of society is altered through a chain of events throughout the play. His unrealistic expectations about how to succeed, learned from his father, eventually caused the destruction of his fantasies. His concept of an ideal society, where being liked is what is needed to succeed, is harshly changed to a reality where he must realize that hard work and devotion are necessary to prosper.
Dr. Jekyll depends on his left-brain so much that when he suddenly begins using the right, the balance is thrown too far off. This “cure” inadvertently creates his mental illness and criminality (Stiles 887). At the time of his confession, Jekyll says, “I was conscious of no repugnance, rather of a leap of welcome. This, too, was myself. It seemed natural and human” (Stevenson 88). This statement is rather heart breaking as Jekyll simply sought a means to end his misery. When Dr. Jekyll cannot reverse his “cure” on cue to the good, law-abiding man, he commits an act of “self-destruction by drinking a poisonous phial to avoid capture and the following legal and social condemnation” (Sanna 35-35). In terms of Jekyll and Hyde’s dissociation, no matter the cause, the theory of dualism comes up numerous times.
In transition, the last two lines of the verse “Be of sin the double cure; Save from wrath and make me pure.” (850), are very significant. They capture the fulfillment of Old Testament prophesies and refer to what is often called the double imputation. In this, our sins were laid upon the pure, unblemished Christ, which he then in turn absorbed the punishment of God’s wrath for the sake of mankind. The relationship between Toplady’s concepts and biblical verse are once again evident in this encounter. Referring back to the Bible for an explanation, the first book of Peter reads: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (The Holy Bible, 1 Pet. 2:24) This passage correspondingly defines double imputation as being a justification by grace through faith alone. Therefore, loosely translated,
It is difficult to face anything in the world when you cannot even face your own reality. In his book The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini uses kites to bring out the major themes of the novel in order to create a truly captivating story of a young boy’s quest to redeem his past mistakes. Amir is the narrator and protagonist of the story and throughout the entire novel, he faces enormous guilt following the horrible incident that happened to his closest friend, Hassan. This incident grows on Amir and fuels his quest for redemption, struggling to do whatever it takes to make up for his mistakes. In Hosseini’s novel, kites highlight aspects of Afghanistan’s ethnic caste system and emphasizes the story’s major themes of guilt, redemption and freedom.
Willy Loman, one of the few tragic heroes in the modern era, is not very different from other tragic heroes which precede him. Willy, similarly to other protagonists in Aristotle’s tragedies, has a tragic flaw which leads to his eventual downfall. However, Willy’s demise in the 1940s play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, cannot be contributed purely to Willy’s own faults, but also to the actions of surrounding characters. These characters will go on to push Willy into a corner, making it even harder for him to overcome his circumstances, eventually playing a part in the tragic end of Willy Loman. By the end of the play, it is Ben, Biff, and Charley who contributes the greatest to the ultimate demise of Willy Loman.
Seventy-three transgender children who were allowed to express their gender identity freely, forty-nine of their siblings and seventy-three non-transgender children were involved in the study. None of the transgender children had taken hormone, but they lived freely to express their gender identity. The study measured anxiety and depression levels. For depression levels all the numbers were almost all the same. Anxiety levels for all the children varied. Transgender children had higher levels of depression and anxiety than the siblings or non-transgender children, but the variables were only one or two numbers more. These transgender children were relatively happy with their lives as they were able to live with the gender identity they wanted. Letting transgender live the identity they feel comfortable can improve their mental health in the long run. (“Transgender
The Kite Runner is a narrative, the first book written by Khaled Hosseini. There exist two main characters in this book——Amir and Hassan. Amir is the young son of a wealthy family, while Hassan is the son of a servant in Amir’s family. The story has happened in Afghanistan. Amir and Hassan always played together since childhood but after Amir watches Hassan is bullied and raped without showing up, unable to deal with his guilt, Amir forces Hassan’s family to leave their house. And then their friendship is broken. Soon the war began and Amir’ family run to America. Few years later, one of his father’s friends asks them to come back to Afghanistan and tells Amir three unbelievable facts: Hassan is the son of Amir’s father and the wife of Hassan’s “father”; Hassan died; the son of Hassan was sold. Hence, in order to atone for his crime, Amir finally finds Hassan’s son back. (Khaled Hosseini, 2003)
Within the passage the little girl feared every day what the guy was going to due to her and her mother. Throughout the whole passage she describes how he would force him self on to her and take advantage of her. The little girl does state, that she knows her mother goes through the same experiences that she does but is afraid to tell her that she does go through that. In the passage she
“Symptoms of these disorders may include hallucinations and delusions severe deviations of mood depression and mania lack of, or, inappropriateness of emotional response and severe impairment of judgment.” (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia) “During her illness many arguments had been urged to persuade my mother to refrain from attending upon her.” (Shelley 29) A lot of feelings and emotions are currently running through his mind in this situation and it 's causing him to freak out. He is scared to lose her wife because he loves her a lot and it 's causing him to get scared and probably say and do things he does not mean to. Considering that Victor is going through his older ages in this story he tends to have thoughts that cause his brain to function in the wrong way. “Occurring in middle to old age, these disorders involve progressive, nonreversible brain damage. Organic brain damage may also result from toxic reactions to such substances as alcohol, PCP” (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia) “I thought I saw Elizabeth, in the bloom of health, walking in the streets of Ingolstadt. Delighted and surprised, I embraced her, but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death.” (Shelley 44) Victor was starting to go insane after see what the world has put him through and experiencing the things he has. He was beginning to hallucinate and claim that he saw Elizabeth even though she had
Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman follows protagonist Willy Loman in his search to better his and his family’s lives. Throughout Willy Loman’s career, his mind starts to wear down, causing predicaments between his wife, two sons and close friends. Willy’s descent into insanity is slowly but surely is taking its toll on him, his job and his family. They cannot understand why the man they have trusted for support all these years is suddenly losing his mind. Along with his slope into insanity, Willy’s actions become more aggressive and odd as the play goes on. Despite Willy and Biff’s “family feud”, his two sons Happy and Biff truly worry about their father’s transformation, Happy saying: “He just wants you to make good, that’s all. I wanted to talk to you about dad for a long time, Biff. Something’s – happening to him. He – talks to himself” (Miller 21). Willy, as a father, cares about his children but he wishes they would do better. He believes Biff should have been an athlete. According to Harrington, “Even figuratively, Willy is haunted, and particularly in Biff’s failure to achieve success as a sports figure” (108). This haunting is part of what led to Willy’s slow plunge into madness. As Willy’s career in sales fails, he also fails, even failing his family. Heyen adds: “He didn’t have anything of real value to give to his family, or if he did, he didn’t know what it was” (48). His debilitating flashbacks and delusional hallucinations with Uncle Ben cement his horrifying realizations that he has let down his family. Willy Loman blames the economy for his downfall in his career. In one of his more extreme outbursts he exclaims, “There’s more people! That’s what’s ruining this country! Population is getting out of control. ...
Rousseau suggests that the first convention must be unanimous, and the minority has no obligation to submit to the choice of the majority, “as the law of majority rule is itself established by convention and presupposes unanimity at least once” (Rousseau, 172). For Locke and Hobbes, one’s self-preservation (and the protection of his property, which is quite synonymous to self-preservation to Locke) is the first principle , and if it is threatened, one has the rights to leave the “body politic” or rebel. Moreover, one also has the right to decide whether he wants to stay under the government when he grows to a certain age . Such arguments give the minority a passive freedom: their voice may not be powerful to change the society, but they can at least leave the society that is against them. Furthermore, Rousseau disapproves factions within a state, especially big ones, as their wills, namely the majority’s wills, potentially nullify the general will . His continual emphasis that the general will should represent the entire people indicates his concern for the
The illegal trafficking of humans may seem like a thing of the past but in reality, it is happening right in front of us every day. Human trafficking is a problem all over the world . In many third world countries such as Bangladesh the men, women, and children lack medical care and the basic necessities of life. These victims have nothing, forcing them to look elsewhere for a better life. Numerous times people who are desperate for a better life have been tricked by traffickers who promise them a better life or money. Then they deceive the person and turn around to sell them for a profit. The more vulnerable the person the easier they are to use for trafficking. If we could supply them with a place to