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Comment on Arthur Miller's play death of Salesman
Death of a salesman as a social tragedy
Comment on Arthur Miller's play death of Salesman
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In the later part of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” Charley tells Willy that Bernard is, “gonna argue a case in front of the supreme court”(95). Bernard, a humble individual, is upset that his father revealed some of his success. In the Death of a Salesman, Bernard is viewed as a very well rounded and successful individual. He successfully graduated from university, and as evident from the quote also becomes a successful attorney. Furthermore, Bernard's success stretches beyond his career, and into his personal life. Bernard is married, has two sons, and a wonderful family. Furthermore, Bernard’s interpersonal success expands into his relationships with his successful friends. In the text, it states that Bernard goes to Washington, …show more content…
In today's society to understand success is to understand a particular individual. No two people's visions of what success means match. This greatly opposes “Death of a Salesman,” where success is seen as simply being wealthy and popular. In “Death of a Salesman” success seems to be a straightforward yes or no. If someone is wealthy and popular they are successful otherwise they are not. However, in the real world success is more individual based. One person’s success might be another person's nightmare. Some people want more intimate friends rather than a bunch of less personal friends or vise versa. Some people want to make a lot of money while others just want to make a difference. Furthermore, not everyone wants a lot of money. In today's society especially, wealth comes with a tremendous amount of additional stresses and pressures. These stresses include the fear of friends only interested in your wealth, or preventing your money from controlling you. These troubles are overlooked in the play. Instead, “Death of a salesman” portrays these two categories as entirely positive and the only necessary parts of being successful. Furthermore, success in today's society does not even necessarily include wealth as a criteria. For example according to the Huffington Post’s list of successful people includes Vincent Van Gogh who was a poor man throughout his entire life. Furthermore, Michelle Wall received the covenant honor, Mother of the year. According to the American Mother association she succeeded in raising her children and was a wonderful role model. Time and time again in our society today it does not require wealth and popularity to be
Success is the chance to go out there and use the resources available to take advantage of opportunities that most people do not. Usually, things happen in life and it can prevent the process of obtaining success. In the readings, “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara and “Horatio Alger” by Harlon L. Dalton conveys the message that success is not always an everyday thing and it takes opportunities for it to become part of life. In “The Lesson”, an angered girl named Sylvia is taken on a field trip to a toy store with Miss Moore to learn a valuable lesson. The lesson is to become successful in society because it is the only way to make it to the top. On the other hand, “Horatio Alger” shows more of a realistic viewpoint where success is not as easy
and it manifests itself in a multitude of cultural and social ways.” The author discussed the problems that occur from economic and social classes. The purpose of this argument is to debate on what kind of people will be successful in life. Everyone has a shot at being successful, and that they do with it is
Everyone has their own vision of success. For some,it is being rich and famous and for others it is to have a great impact on the world. In the first chapter of outliers Gladwell claims that success is something you need to work for in some ways, he fails to come up with a solution for people that became successful without working for it.
...your own personal idea of success. Gatsby's ideas of successful maybe have become corrupted with greedy but that does not mean it lives on now. "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past" (Fitzgerald, Pg. 189) striving for the real American dream of personal success.
The definition of success varies around the world, but according to Malcolm Gladwell its achievement can be broken down into a few components. Although Gladwell never truly establishes credibility in his book Outliers, he still backs up his proposed theories with reputable studies and sources which intrigue the audience to keep reading.The purpose of Outliers was to enlighten people about the different elements of success while also informing them of real life situations where seemingly less than likely people beat the odds and became the powerful figures that they are today. The intended audience is anyone who is looking to become successful or who is perhaps interested in the idea of success itself and wishes to learn more about it. Understandably, a secondary audience could be high school students who are about to venture out into the world on their own because with this book they will hopefully start paying attention to different factors of their lives and seizing opportunities that they may have otherwise passed up. Malcolm Gladwell talks about the 10,000 Hour Rule and also how I.Q. does not amount to much without creativity. He also speaks of how chance opportunity comes into play and that the distant background of a person still reflects how they handle situations in their present day life. Gladwell’s Outliers successfully informs the reader about the different components that add up to success with probable theories and credible studies to make for an interesting and motivational read.
Some people may be born into a family with wealth, and that is acceptable. Some people on the other hand, are not born into a family with wealth, and that is acceptable too. The work that families have done to get to the level they are in, are just a cushion. People should try to build their own reputation or success. Even if people work toward their goals of success, it could take years to reach, it isn’t something that happens over night usually. The way they act or present themselves in certain circumstances will determine if they succeed or fail. As much as people want to control every step toward that, there are things that are out of everyone's control. Every action they do, every decision they make, they can not control everything. There are certain things that can put a halt toward success, things many do not see coming till it happens. Oedipus had no idea that he was the one causing the sickness that was spreading through his kingdom. He was doing well as a king, but certain things can change that. His curse put on him when he was younger, was out of his control. The priest reminds Oedipus of his success depict the sickness surrounding them, “You saved us from Sphinx…”(40). Success may be the one thing you can control, but at the same time have no idea what could come
While everyone has a different interpretation of the "American Dream," some people use it as an excuse to justify their own greed and selfish desires. Two respected works of modern American literature, The Great Gatsby and Death of a Salesman, give us insight into how the individual interpretation and pursuit of the "American Dream" can produce tragic results. Jay Gatsby, from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, built his "American Dream" upon the belief that wealth would win him acceptance. In pursuit of his dream, Gatsby spent his life trying to gain wealth and the refinement he assumes it entails. Jay Gatsby, lacking true refinement, reflects the adolescent image of the wealthy, and "[springs] from his Platonic conception of himself" (Fitzgerald 104).
In the Arthur Miller play Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman comes in contact with several characters, many of whom prompt him to examine his past as well as his conscience. Charley's son Bernard is such a character. Lacking dimension and depth of character, Bernard functions primarily as a foil to expose Willy's tragic and pathetic nature.
For some, simply having infinite wealth and popularity is enough for them to be happy. For others, they need something that money can’t buy. Two books that express these qualities are: The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Both of these books describe the life of a wealthy man but each of them have different ideas of the American dream. Examples from these books will show how the American dream differs from person to person.
The toxicity of success is portrayed through famous literary works such as The Great Gatsby and The Death of a Salesman, while dealing with an overarching theme of American success. F. Scott Fitzgerald beautifully portrays a wealthy upper class society in The Great Gatsby, which has extreme corruption, hidden by it’s allure, while much of this upper class is pompous and selfish, as well as being so heavily judgemental that is it difficult to be accepted by these people. Arthur Miller’s The Death of a Salesman uses the narcissistic Willy Loman to shine light on the capitalist, middle class America, who’s life revolves around superficial success, which represents the overall flaw in the capitalist system: proclivity; this leads
“American Sociology 's Investigations of the American Dream: Retrospect and Prospect” is an article that discusses the sociology and the different views that people have on the American Dream. According to this article, sociology has developed a history of studies dealing with each person’s American way of life, and the role the American dream has played on society. Because each person has a different dream they take on different roles in society. Everybody has a different job and contributes differently to society. This article is related to Death of a Salesman because of Willy’s version of the American Dream. He says to Happy and Biff, “I’ll show you all the towns. America is full of beautiful towns and fine, upstanding people. And they know me, boys, they know me up and down New England. The finest people. And when I bring you fellas up, there’ll be open sesame for all of us, ‘cause one thing, boys: I have friends” (Miller 1440). Willy refers to the people as being kind hearted and having respect for anyone who appears physically attractive. Willy believed that in order to achieve success you must appear physically attractive and work in the business field. The role he played in society was a failed business man who struggled to be successful. He had a hard time fitting in with society creating a difficult lifestyle for
Throughout the play of Death of a Salesman and short story “Two Kinds,” the parents display their desire for their children's’ success. Both pieces of writing show characters that have set specific standards towards wealth. Between “Two Kinds” and Death of a Salesman, expectations and definitions of success lead to disappointment and broken relationships.
We all want to be successful people and everyone has his own definition of success. Some people focus on their own career without attention of other’s opinion, while some people regard wealth as the standard of success and put themselves into great pressure and sorrow. In my perspective, success is to obtain what you want. For example, if you get a job promotion in the company, you are successful even there are many people who are at higher position in the company. In the book The Present, the author indicates that success is to become who you are capable of being, and to make progress toward worthwhile goals. The author is right, the definition of success is subjective, we all have our own goals to achieve, so success is do your best on what you should do. To compare yourself to others does not make sense since we all have different life experience and background, and there
In today’s society the term “American Dream” is perceived as being successful and usually that’s associated with being rich or financially sound. People follow this idea their entire life and usually never stop to think if they are happy on this road to success. Most will live through thick and thin with this idealization of the “American Dream” usually leading to unhappiness, depression and even suicide. The individual is confused by society’s portrayal of the individuals who have supposedly reached the nirvana of the “American Dream”. In the play “Death of a Salesman” Willy thinks that if a person has the right personality and he is well liked it’s easy to achieve success rather than hard work and innovation. This is seen when Willy is only concerned how Biff’s class mates reacted to his joke of the teachers lisp. Willy’s dream of success for his son Biff who was very well liked in High School never actually became anything. Biff turned into a drifter and a ranch worker. In the play “Seize the Day” Tommy who is financially unstable also pursues the idea of getting to the “American Dream” and becoming wealthy. He foolishly invests his last seven hundred dollars and eventually loses it leaving him broke and out of work. In both plays following the American Dream is followed in different characters and in both the characters are far away from it leaving them broke and forgotten by almost everyone.
However the majority of American society define success in a different way. According to This Is How Americans Define Success article, “A whopping 90% believe that success is more about happiness than power, possessions, or prestige.” This statistic indicates that there has been a clear change in the definition of success. Americans are no longer striving to be ostentatious, but rather devoting their lives to being happy. Growing up as a child my friends and I would always discuss how we all wanted to be successful and rich, have luxurious houses, and cars in our future. As I have matured my views have remained the same. I pursue to be successful by living comfortable and content, which requires a good financial income. A survey conducted at Strayer University in 2011, interviewed 2,011 students eighteen and older. “The survey concluded that, 67% of surveyed Americans associated success with achieving personal goals; 66% cited good relationships with friends and family; and 60% said loving what you do for a living. The results show how there are different interpretations of what success