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The character of Willy Loman
The character of Willy Loman
The character of Willy Loman
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Father-son Relationships and Conflicts in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
In many literary works, family relationships are the key to the plot. Through a family’s interaction with one another, the reader is able decipher the conflicts of the story. Within a literary family, various characters play different roles in each other’s lives. These are usually people that are emotionally and physically connected in one way or another. They can be brother and sister, mother and daughter, or in this case, father and son. In the Arthur Miller’s novel, Death of A Salesman, the interaction between Willy Loman and his sons, Happy and Biff, allows Miller to comment on father-son relationships and the conflicts that arise from them.
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).
When their two dreams collide, it becomes frustrating to Willy because he believes that his way is the right way. If a father becomes too involved in his son’s life, Miller believes friction will be the resultant factor. As unfortunate as it is, there are many instances where a father favors one son over another, which leads to social conflicts within the less-favored son. In most cases it is the oldest son that is being favored while the younger son is ignored. Usually the father doesn’t even realize what is happening. He simply gets too caught up in the successes of his eldest son and he may even try to live out his life through his son’s experiences.
Alistair Deacon from As Time Goes By once said that, “The people in the book need to be people.” The main character in a story or in a play always has to be somewhat likeable or relatable. Who doesn’t like to feel like they can relate to their favorite character in a story? In many cases the authors of stories or books always try to make the reader feel like they are not the only ones with problems or going through a crazy situation. Wanting the reader to become engaged in the characters' conflicts is what they aim for. In Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, many people were gripped by Willy Loman’s, the main character, problems because they too struggle with many of the conflicts that Willy faces. Willy could not keep his life together, failing to see reality and pursuing the wrong dream, with a wrong viewpoint, ended up causing others around him and himself to hurt.
irritated with the crowd around him as he is repeatedly asking for a table, but he stops for
Willy wants his family and children to have as much as possible, as he thinks the more material things they have in their life that more people will like them and it will bring them happiness. “Never mind there is something I want you to have “This is what Willy said to his son after Biff was caught stealing a football; Instead of punishing him he gave him a punching bag for a gift. Whatever Willy could do or anything he could give his family to make them happy he would, but when Willy has reached an age that he can’t compete with the other traveling salesman his job was terminated. After being faced with the conflict of losing his job his life with his family starts to take a downfall. Without a job Willy cannot provide for the family and everything he says or does is a lie. He is very insecure about himself, lying to himself and his family makes him feel better. Willy tends to hide his anxiety with being cocky and arrogant. Instead of searching for another job he conti...
Gene therapy is a method used by doctors that ‘uses genes as medicine’. It repairs faulty or damaged gene copies by transferring a therapeutic or working gene into specific parts of faulty gene copy. This means that gene therapy can be used to replace a faulty gene or to introduce a new gene whose function is to modify the clinical course of a condition or to cure a problem in the gene (Refer to image 2). Image 1 shows how gene therapy is completed using an adenovirus vector while image 2 explains the method of gene therapy and shows how cells are removed, altered and injected back into the patient. Gene therapy has potential to treat and cure many medical conditions such as various types of cancer, degenerative diseases and viral infections such as AIDS. Research into gene therapy still needs to be done before this approach to the treatment of certain conditions will realise its full potential. Trials are being conducted in the United States and Europe and a modest number initiated in other countries, including Australia. The majority of these trials are focussing on treating acquired conditions such as cancer (European Society of Gene & Cell therapy, 2011).
In 15-20 sentences, identify the overarching theme in Miller’s play and why you feel this is the most important of all the themes present in “Death of a Salesman.”
This article gives an insight on the current trends on gene therapy because it offers critical analysis of gene therapy both at the beginning to the current state. It also explores the position of patients who underwent gene therapy so as to ascertain whether this therapy has been successful or not. This helps in establishing the reason why this mode of therapy has been gaining slower acceptance than it initially
Authors write with a purpose, sometimes this purpose is hidden and political, while sometimes it challenges the norm, while yet other times they write just to tell a moving story. In the end, however, all writers have the same goal: to produce a work that causes their readers to think about the plot and use their own mind to decipher the meaning. Arthur Miller is an exceptional author who possesses talent that exceeds the traditional author. Miller is one of the authors who chooses to challenge political figures, the norm, and many other assumed things about society, at least for his time. Arthur was born in 1915 and died in 2005; this gives a relative idea of the time period in which
Willy's Tragic Flaw and the Effect it Has Upon his Sons in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Willy is a salesman. Willy believes that success comes from being well liked and popular and has tried desperately to instill his notions to his two boys Happy and Biff, Willy's biggest aspirations in life. His wife Linda is extremely supportive and is Willy's only connection to reality. While raising his boys and trying to instill his "American Dream", he fails to teach them any sense of morality, leading them down to what he feels is the wrong path. At one point, he defended Biff for stealing just because he was an amazing football player.
Image what it would be like if doctors could cure Huntington's disease, muscular dystrophy, or even hemophilia. Could this be possible? With gene therapy this all could be reality in the near future. Gene therapy is a potential approach to the treatment of genetic disorders in humans. This is a technique where the absent or faulty gene is replaced by a working gene, so the body can make the correct enzyme or protein and consequently eliminate the root cause of the disease (BIO, 1990).
There are two types of gene therapy treatments. They differ in the consequences they have for the patients. The first is somatic cell gene therapy. In this process faulty genes are replaced by the correct sequence of genes. The body can then make the correct protein and ultimately eliminate the faulty gene causing the disease. It is only necessary to treat enough cells to provide adequate amounts of the correct protein so that some reach the site of action (Macer, 1990)...
Gene therapy assists in explaining the nature of infectious diseases, in particular, the interactions between an invading microbes and their host’s immune defense system. A gene must be carried by a “vehicle”, or vector in order for the therapeutic gene to counterattack the disease. The use of vectors (genetically engineered retroviral) infect human genes, which overwrite defective genes and become functional again. The gene of interest is to efficiently infuse larger cells without activating an immune response against ourselves. “The immune system has developed means of detecting and killing the cells that harbors the invaders. All these stratagems are programmed into the genes of human ce...
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
...he way he’s teaching his boys are right or not. Willy’s lack of understanding on how to teach his boys, leads him to teach the wrong ideas which would lead to Happy and Biff’s demise since both of them would believe they are entitled to everything without working hard. Willy’s failure as a father is caused by the wrong ideas he taught and the lack of experience.
Somatic cell gene therapy, or replacement cell gene therapy, is a treatment that consists in modifying or restoring the function of a gene that is not working correctly or that is not working at all. It is a way to correct mutations of genes as well as inserting or deleting a gene within the DNA. Somatic cell gene therapy is the best cure because it cures genetic based diseases. There are not many solutions genetic based problems. For example, let’s say that someone has Severe Combined Immune Deficiency (ADA-SCID) People with this disease lack of protection against bacteria, viruses and fungi and are “prone to repeated and persistent infections that can be very serious or life-threatening” (N.A., ADA deficiencies, 2013). ADA-SCID is a very rare disease affecting about 1 in 200,000 to 1,000,000 newborns worldwide and because of this there are not many methods of treatment. The only known therapies for this genetic disease, so fa...