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Elements of the story death of a salesman
Aspects of main character in the the death of a salesman
Elements of the story death of a salesman
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An analysis of three messages from “Death of a Salesman” Not all families are perfect, they have their ups and they have their issues. But what makes a great family is the ability to work out all their issues and still love each other. There is a movie called “Death of a Salesman” in this movie there is a family of four that is a dysfunctional family. The father's name is Willy Loman, he is a traveling salesman, who doesn’t stay focused very well and jumps between the past and the present. Then the Mother, Linda, she is what keeps the father sane and calm and is what holds the holes the whole family together. Finally there are the two boys, Biff and Hap. These two boys don't have the strongest bond with their parents. Somehow they all seem to balance each other and make everything somehow stay together. A couple of things that cause this family to struggle are the business and economics, bad …show more content…
The mother doesn't want them to hurt the man that she loves, so she argues a lot throughout the movie with these boys that are about 25 years old. She has more of a love for Hap than she does for Biff. Whereas for the Father and his sons, is a little more complicated. Willy and his favorite son Biff struggle a lot, Willy wants to live the good life through his son Biff. Therefore he does everything for Biff and makes sure that his life is headed to greatness. Due to Willy’s life doing bad and not making an effect on anything, he tries to live what he can't know through Biff. But Biff knows a secret about his father, Biff walked in on his father having an affair in the movie. This wrecked Biff from then on, he used to look up to his father but after this he was not doing the greatest. But the mother comes in and supports every family member with their struggle and issues. She helps the father mostly but she tries to keep all of them off each others
Each person in the family starts to develop a job or rule that that play in the family that others can’t really fill. For example Jeannette and Brain’s relationship with each other are almost stronger than anyone in the family. The role that Brain plays is the one that is extremely quiet unless with his family and even though he is a younger sibling he sees it as his goal to protect Jeannette, even if it evolves fighting older bigger girls but if it’s for his family he will do it. Lori is always lost in a book but he is like the mother of the family even though their real mother is around. Their father is bright man that the kids get to see from time to time but then there alcoholic father appears and that’s when problems arise. When it comes to functioning at younger ages they were almost completely dependent on their parents like all kids are, as they started to reach teenage they started to rely less on their parents and more on each other. They started to get their own jobs, when they needed resources they would rather depend on each other or themselves. The communication was free for the kids if they had a question or a problem they would voice their concerns but the only time they didn’t was when they saw that their father was drinking or was drunk. They left the
For most people family is one of the most important parts of life. For they are the people who raised you and taught you things needed in life. For most of us we have a connection with are family that is unparallel in life, which is the reason for are undying love. At times though there is a point at which we take are family for granted like they will always be around. Parents might do things that are not agreed upon by the children, yet the parent thinks it is in the child's best interest. Sometimes it might not even be the best thing to do in that situation, yet parents have a true desire to protect their children from the dangers of the world. On the other hand, children do not always listen to the advice their parents give them and can get themselves into a lot of trouble. Anyway you look at it, most of the time we do not realize what we have until it is not longer with us. Many times we do take our family for granted and when one passes away there are many things we wish we could have said or done to show them are love. The play "Into The Woods," by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine is a direct example of how families treat each other. There is conflict ranging from hating sisters, to protective mothers and a disagreeing husband and wife. In the end lives are lost, family are in pain and those left realize that they need to treat their family better and hold on to the loved ones that they have. Families do encounter many difficult choices together, but they also must solve the problems together, and keep peace within the family, because bad choice will be regretted when those loved ones are not around longer.
Both sons live with the same concern for Willy as Linda, especially after she explains to them that Willy’s crashes were not accidents. Biff is particularly affected by Willy’s actions as Biff discovered Willy’s affair with one of his coworkers, an action which enraged Biff and caused Biff to refuse to fix his math grade and finish high school. Additionally, Willy’s affair also caused Biff to grow distant from his father, setting the two up for many future arguments such as one in which Willy tells Biff, “stops him with: May you rot in hell if you leave this house!” (129). Not to forget that Willy’s suicide was originally meant to spite Biff as Willy believed his funeral would be grand, claiming “He’ll see what I am, Ben! He’s in for a shock, that boy!” (126)--this being a tragic twist of dramatic irony. This trauma and strife brought upon Biff leads him into a great deal of hardship, never having had a job or settled down. Willy causes Biff to believe himself a failure, and Biff is dragged into Willy’s world of suffering where Biff cannot attain success in the face of his father’s high
Linda does not lose respect for Willy for his actions as much as Biff does. Biff cares about his mother dearly and does not like to see her being yelled at. He grinds his teeth when he sees his father yell at his mother, because he knows that if he argues, there will be that much more tension between him and his father. However, Biff cannot take it much longer because he is losing respect for his father. He knows his father should never get physical with his mother, and he finally takes action before it gets violent. He grabs Willy by the arm and screams at him not to yell at her. Willy gets angry at first, but then goes to bed guilt-ridden.
Willy's affair with The Woman is a crucial turning point in his relationship with Biff, his oldest son. When Biff catches Willy and his mistress, Willy first attempts to distract his son and then be rid of him. However, his attempted cover-up fails and forever shatters the idolatrous relationship between father and son.
Having a family is no easy task, especially when you are faced with many challenges that are unforeseen. Sometimes one imagines or hopes for an ideal family. The ideal family would consist of a spouse, one or two kids and live happily with little to no conflicts. The reality is that even if one tries to avoid conflict by all possible means, conflict is inevitable. Stressors and strengths within a family can be seen in almost every situation. Although stressors tend to be more noticeable than the strengths. Some of which will be discussed later on, although it will be mainly focused on the strength and stressors faced after a divorce for children. But if one focuses on the stressors more than the strengths, one will only see stressors rather than solutions.
There are so many dysfunctional cycles that are continuous throughout generations within families. Some are worse than others but just as detrimental. Family members should recognize the repetitious cycle that may cause damaging consequences. There are positive traits like love, compassion, courage, leadership and genetic skills. These traits produce people who are driven to succeed and may become leaders of our future as an inspiration to others. The negative traits may consist of drugs, alcohol, mental disorders, teen pregnancy, gambling, gluttony, and even shopping which can result in financial burdens, greed, anger, complacency and fear. The way to break dysfunctional generational cycles in families is to confront the source of negativity.
As I grow up, I comprehend how much I can relate to the movie Parenthood. Although it 's not an exact replication of the movie I still have many instances that I can apply to my family. My family’s life is definitely the roller coaster because we have times of tremendous happiness, but also times where we struggle and find it burdensome to love one another. I don’t only have hardships in my regular family, but also in my extended family. For example, my uncle Victor did not mature as much as the rest of my father’s brothers. He didn’t go to college and has had complications with gambling, and struggles with keeping a steady job. This can relate to Larry Buckman because he was under some of the same circumstances and asked his parents for money.
Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, portrays the cost of selling oneself to the American Dream. Willy Loman, the central character, is madly determined to achieve affluence that he overlooks the value of his family and himself in the process. He instills in his sons, Biff and Happy Loman, that being charismatic will hand them a prosperous lifestyle. Happy trusts in his father’s ideology while Biff’s beliefs contradict them. Biff deems that success is a product of happiness and contentment, not a paycheck. Out of all the sociological theories, social conflict best emphasizes the author’s perspective of how conflict, through class and family, can deteriorate the American dream. By analyzing the play’s themes- social class and family- through the sociological perspectives: structural-functional, social conflict, and symbolic interactionist, we can predict what drives these characters to behave and perceive things the way they do.
During most father-son relationships, there are certain times where the father wants to become more of a "player" in his son’s life than his son believes is necessary. The reasons for this are numerous and can be demonstrated in different ways. Miller is able to give an example of this behavior through the actions of Willy Loman. When Biff comes home to recollect himself, Willy perceives it as failure. Since Willy desperately wants his oldest son, Biff, to succeed in every way possible, he tries to take matters into his own hands. "I’ll get him a job selling. He could be big in no time" (16). The reason that Biff came home is to find out what he wants in life. Because Willy gets in the way, matters become more complicated. Partly due to Willy’s persistence in Biff’s life, they have conflicting ideas as to what the American dream is. Willy believes that working on the road by selling is the greatest job a man could have (81). Biff, however, feels the most inspiring job a man could have is working outdoors (22).
Everyone wants a perfect family, but nothing is ever perfect. The family in “Why I Live at the P.O.” is most definitely less than perfect. When Stella-Rondo returns to her old home after leaving her husband and bringing her small child who she claims is adopted, much conflict in the family increases. Stella-Rondo turns every family member living in the household against Sister, her older sister, and every family member betrays Sister by believing the lies Stella-Rondo tells about Sister to them. Through much turmoil and distress, Sister becomes so overwhelmed with the unending conflict that she feels she must leave her home and live at the post office. In “Why I Live at the P.O.,” Eudora Welty strongly implies that the function of the family can rapidly decline when family members refuse to do certain things they should and do certain things they should not through her use of point of view, symbolism, and setting.
Biff is home for a visit and is talking with his brother, Happy in their room just as they did when they were young boys. Willy has come home prematurely from a business trip and is downstairs when the boys overhear him talking to himself in a sort of quasi-reality. In the meantime, the two boys discuss the past. It is interesting here that the roles of the two boys with respect to each other seem to have reversed. Happy was the shy one growing up and Biff had all the courage and self-confidence. Now, Biff appears to have been beaten down by life and is on the brink of the se...
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
families have struggles, both internal and external, and while this is undoubtedly true, the struggles that
The play, Death of a Salesman, is a tragic drama about an aging salesman who tries to do all he can to support his family and make them lead successful lives. The struggling salesman, Willy Loman has two sons, Biff and Happy, whom he tries to drive towards success. Willy believes that being well liked and making a good and lasting impression are the keys to success and tries to teach this philosophy to his two sons. Biff, being the favorite son of Willy, has worked as a manual laborer and Willy believes that Biff can do so much more with his life. While Biff is happy, he does not meet Willy’s criteria for success. Biff is unable to fulfill Willy’s dream because Willy’s idea of success is not a life Biff wants to pursue.