Being well liked affects parental expectations of children in very different ways depending on the parent, child, and outside variables affecting their relationship as seen in Death of a Salesman between Willy and Biff, Fences, as seen in Troy and Cory, and CODA with Ruby and her parents. The creators of all three works introduce the children to the audience by giving us a glimpse into their everyday life in order to allow the viewer or reader to understand their social status and how well liked they are. In Death of a Salesman, Biff is introduced as jobless and is described by his father as a lazy bum. But through flashback sequences, it is revealed that he was actually incredibly well off in his youth. He was well liked among his peers and …show more content…
Alternatively, the Maxson family has opposing views regarding being well liked. Cory is similar to Biff as he is a star football player, and is henceforth well liked amongst his peers and classmates. However, Troy is unlike Willy as he tells his son that being well liked will hinder his progress. He tells him, “Don’t you try to go through life worrying about if somebody likes you or not? You best be making sure they are doing right by you” (Wilson 38). This shows that Troy believes that Cory needs to be aware that social status isn’t important. He believes it's more important to simply work hard at a good job than it is to be liked. Troy believes that this fixation on popularity will hinder his success in the future. Alternatively, in CODA Jackie Rossi doesn't seem to care about whether or not her kid is popular. Ruby Rossi doesn't have many friends at her school due to her family's disability and economic status. When Ruby tells her mom about her joining the chorus, she responds outraged that Ruby wants to do something the rest of the family can not …show more content…
All three children come from different social standings, making their relationships with their parents unique from each other. All three parents maintain different viewpoints about their children’s popularity, which in turn affects the expectations they hold about their children’s future. Willy believes that Biff will grow up to become a successful salesman due to his superb likability. He eventually becomes so deluded that believes Biff to be untouchable and that nothing will ever happen to him that hinders his success. When warned by Bernard that Biff may fail math, he responds by saying, “What’re you talking about? With scholarships to three universities, they’re going to flunk him” (Miller 33). Obviously Biff being well liked causes WIlly to expect his son to be successful in his adult life, leading to him taking a more relaxed approach to parenting. Troy happens to believe the alternative, that being well liked means his son will fail, causing him to be more hands on with his parenting. He actively blocked Cory’s scholarship by rescuing him from signing his
“I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime” Elisabeth Kubler-Ross.
Comparing Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and Fences by August Wilson Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and Fences by August Wilson have similar themes of conflicts between fathers and sons, conflicts between husbands and wives, and the need to focus on a small unit of space in order to achieve success. In the process of developing these themes throughout the two plays, three similar symbolic elements are used including the insecure father figure, the "other woman," and the garden. The fathers in the two plays are comparable because they both have conflicts with their sons as a result of living in the past, and they die in the end. Willy, in Death of a Salesman, is never respected for his occupational status, so he places very high expectations on his son, Biff. Willy lives in the memory of past events to such a large extent that he cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, and he passes this trait onto Biff.
Fences written by August Wilson and Death of a Salesman written by Arthur Miller are two plays that could be considered very different in terms of their plot. The plots of both plays contain two very different cultural backgrounds which affects each protagonist differently. If the reader or audience looks past the plot into the theme and symbolisms used they can see that the plays are more similar than they are different. In spite of the different cultural backgrounds of each protagonist they both are tragic heroes that are trying to achieve the American dream as it relates to each character; both of which fail in drastic yet similar ways. The American dream has always been an important factor in many American’s lives as it is to Troy Maxson the protagonists of Fences and to Willy Loman the protagonist of Death of a Salesman. Willy Loman and Troy Maxson are both hardworking men of different cultural backgrounds, with striking similarities in the way they try to achieve and fail to achieve the American dream of their era and die in the end without earning the respect they both feel they should have.
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. – Martin Luther King Jr.” In the plays Death of a Salesman and Fences the setting takes place in the post-World War Two era of the United States. The main character in Death of a Salesman is a 63-year-old white man named Willy Loman, who lives in Brooklyn, New York. He has worked as a traveling salesman for thirty-four years to provide for his wife, Linda, and his two sons, Biff and Happy. The main character of Fences is Troy Maxson a fifty-three-year-old African American man, who lives in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. He works as a garbage collector to support his wife, Rose, and his son, Cory,
The phenomenon of the American Dream has been engraved into the American culture since perhaps the beginning of post-revolutionary America itself. The classic belief that if you work hard, you would be able to reap the material benefits of what you sowed, at least enough to live comfortably is a myth that has been propagated in many literary works, deconstructed in many American literary works as a mere myth. And in Arthur Miller’s The Death of a Salesman and August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, we see such deconstruction of the American Dream take place through both plays’ showcasing of the many complexities of the American life, complexities that are not taken into consideration with the black-and-white narrowing of the American Dream. While hard work does make up a part of the equation, it does not make up the entire equation of a comfortable lifestyle. That manifestation of the many facets of the American Dream is shown in both Miller’s The Death of a Salesman and Wilson’s The Piano Lesson.
Miller reveals a negative attitude towards Willy’s behavior by displaying Willy’s poor parenting skills. Being a father of Biff and Happy, Willy should teach Biff and Happy with correct moral values. When Biff steals football from the locker room, Willy first told Biff “to return that.”(30) This is the right thing to say to Biff as stealing is illegal. However, Willy then contradicts himself by saying, “Sure, he’s gotta practice with a regulation size ball, doesn’t he? … Coach’ll probably congratulate you on your initiative!”(30) In this incident, Willy teaches Biff wrong moral ethics that stealing is acceptable. Besides stealing, Willy encourages Biff to play football instead studying. When Bernard, Biff’s friend, asks Biff to study, Willy argues that ‘’with scholarships to three universities they’re gonna flunk him?’’(33) As Biff is good at playing football, Willy is confident that Biff is able to get a scholarship and get accepted by the universities easily.
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.
In the plays Fences by August Wilson and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. These plays have that role of a father of a difficult task of having a good relationship with their sons; that ideal relationship of the father and son set rules. The father sets the rules and son has to obey them with respect. However is difficult to have a healthy relationship with your father. For the fact that a father has high expectation of his son. For example, “Death of a Salesman “and “Fences “both Willy and Troy are fathers that are having a hard time earning the respect from their son that they want, and trying to be a role model for their sons. Between, Death of a Salesman,” and fences,” both protagonist, Willy and Troy both depict the role
In the onset of the play, Willy told Linda that you “work a lifetime to pay of a house. You finally own it, and there is nobody to live in it” (Cohn 56). This quote shows how Willy strives his whole life to make a home for his family and by the time he sees the realization of that one dream, his family has drifted apart and he is alone with his haunting thoughts and his ghosts. Willy has such high expectations for himself and his sons, and when they all failed to accomplish their dreams, they were unable to accept each other for what they truly were. Willy raised Biff with the idea that success depends on whether or not a person can sell himself and not how smart a person is. Biff’s tragic flaw is his acceptance of Willy’s values and not creating any of his own. When Biff realizes his father is a fake, he becomes a lost individual and he does not speak to his father for 14 years. In Willy’s family it is always Biff who receives recognition, however, Happy strives for attention too...
Growing up, Willy doted on Biff the most, which reflects the way his own father doted on his older brother Ben. Their father-son relationship was strong until the incident with The Woman caused a rift to grow between them. Willy feared seeing his son due to the chance of being exposed, and Biff did not want to be reminded of his father’s betrayal. However, near the end of the play, Biff and Willy had a heart to heart which seemingly did some repair work on their relationship. Biff grew to forgive his father and confessed that he loved him despite their past. He experienced growth through the events of the story, making him another candidate for the
As a father, Willy only wants the best for his sons. He wants his sons to do better than what he has done with his life and achieve more success. Willy 's dreams for his sons are a source of tension and anxiety for Biff and Happy. Their desire to please their father clashes with what is deemed moral and the right way to act. Willy 's dreams for his sons are seen as added pressure for them to succeed within life. In order to fulfill their father 's wishes, they develop a mindset that they must do whatever it takes for them to succeed. Happy is trying to move up the ranks within the company he works for and in order to please Willy, he acts as if the only way to advance is by neglecting any sort of boundaries. When Happy is discussing his competitiveness
In fact, it is Willy's emphasis on likeability that leads Biff to brush aside his education in the first place. Bernard, the friend next-door who begs Biff to study for the Reagents, is described by Willy as a...
That kind of favoritism has a profound effect on a child, in order to be acknowledged by his father, Happy believes he must become Willy’s version of success by acquiring wealth and popularity. Happy has been living his entire life in a way that he believes will bring him attention from his father, yet his father ignores him and he becomes more miserable that if he had gone his own way. When a father chooses to favor upon one son over another, the father-son relationship occurs as well as in the son’s life. Within this relationship, the responsibility of the father is to provide values, a role model and leadership for his sons. In almost every family, the sons will look to their father as role model and a hero, which in this case Biff does but Happy does not. It is in the father’s best interest to use this opportunity to give these qualities and allow his sons to become responsible
Death of a Salesman deals with many timeless issues. Though these issues are portrayed through the story of Willy Loman in the nineteen forties or fifties, their presence in today's world is still very prominent. The relationships in Death of a Salesman are riddled with jealousy, hope, love, dreams, hate, disappointment, and many other very human emotions.
Although the parents in Arthur Miller 's play Death of a Salesman want their sons to be successful, their sons Biff and Happy struggle to communicate with them, which results in fights that creates further dysfunctional relationships in the Loman family. Success is crucial to the father Willy, who believes he is above other salesman, giving him the wrong idea of his position. When Willy saw his brother Ben as a success, jealousy swept over him. Willy is a pushy father who wants to show his children Biff and Happy that success is most important. Biff is a realist and wants his family to accept the fact that they may never live the dream. Happy has his father’s traits but is much more understanding with Biff.