Roger And Me And Death Of A Salesman Essay

The Ultimate Degradation of the Powerless: Death of a Salesman and Roger and Me

Different mediums can convey similar stories. This is apparent between the play, Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller and the documentary, Roger & Me, by Michael Moore. The conflict between the powerful and powerless members of society, which will be regarded in a socioeconomic scope throughout, and the theme of being naïve and unrealistic are evidently comparable and existent in both texts. The struggle amidst the powerful and powerless people is exhibited within Death of a Salesman and Roger and Me. Firstly, within Death of a Salesman, there is a struggle between the socioeconomically powerful, Howard, and the powerless, Willy. This occurs when Willy requests Howard, Willy’s Boss, for an increase in

his wage to fifty dollars a week and a job at New York City. Instead of satisfying Willy’s request, which Willy insists that it should be ratified because of Willy’s thirty-four-year commitment to the firm, Howard rejects Willy’s request. This is because fulfilling it would be monetarily unbeneficial for Howard. However, rather than solely dismissing, Howard also takes action by stating: “I don’t want you to represent us…. why don’t your sons give you a hand” (Miller 83). Howard is able to do this because of his wealth and great social status as a boss at the firm. Meanwhile, Willy is appalled by his dismissal from his job because of his exceedingly long commitments to Howard’s firm. Unfortunately, his sons fail to provide for Willy and he relies on the twenty-thousand dollars promised by his life insurance company, by committing suicide. On the other hand, the workers at Flint, within Roger and me, do not reach such extremes; yet they also experience the struggle with the socioeconomically powerful people. Roger Smith, CEO of GM motors, shuts down many of the factories that employ a substantial amount of Flint’s residents because of the opportunity of increasing profit margins by moving the factories to Mexico. The workers cannot get jobs, but the rich (who are the people within the inner circle of GM motors' affluence) rhetorically insist: "I mean you have such a good welfare program, so they just don't want to work” (Moore). The rich do not realize the state the laid off workers are in. Many of the laid off workers protest by stating that GM motors is founded in Flint, and as a result it has a duty to the city. Moreover, the laid off workers go to extremes to survive, like selling their blood and selling or butchering rabbits. The struggles between: Howard and Willy, GM motors and the people of Flint, are evidently conflicts between the socioeconomically powerful and powerless. Willy and the people of Flint are laid off by the opportunistic Howard and GM motors, respectively, by using their socioeconomic status. Additionally, the powerless characters, within each text, have essential ties to their powerful companies. But these close relationships do not affect the powerful members of society’s exploitation of the powerless people, meaning that the weak members of society are defeated by the strong members. Furthermore, the powerless figures fail to achieve the alternatives to the misfortune that are suggested by the potent figures. However, this struggle of the powerless people is furthered by being naïve and unrealistic. Being naïve and unrealistic leads to agony in both, Death of a Salesman and Roger and Me. Within Death of a Salesman, Willy's sons plan a celebration dinner for Willy, before any success occurs with Biff’s and Willy’s proposal to Bill Oliver and Howard, respectively. Willy’s family become engulfed by the fallacy of a guaranteed exceptional future as Willy exclaims: “I’m gonna knock Howard for a loop, kid, I’ll get an advance, and I’ll come home with a New York job… I will never get behind a wheel the rest of my life!” (Miller 74).

As a result of all this, when Howard dismisses Willy and Biff fails to ask Bill Oliver and steals Oliver’s pen, the dinner becomes an utter disaster, by taking an unfortunate emotional toll on Willy and his sons. Meanwhile, in Roger and Me, Flint quickly begins to try to boost tourism to ensure a bright future for the city. This tourism initiative is done by building a Hyatt hotel, mall, beautiful marketplace, and Autoworld, costing a substantial amount of money. This initiative completely fails and the greatly praised Hyatt hotel files for bankruptcy. The leaders of this initiative do not think the tourism plan over and they naively went forth with their projects, resulting in utter failure and a loss of hope for the people of Flint. This same sense of hopelessness arises, in both texts, and it overwhelms Willy's family and the people of Flint. Both are naïve and unrealistic in their plans, the dinner and tourism expansion, as they both assume that everything would go well. This assumption is made when both Willy’s family and the City of Flint are overly optimistic about their plans. This

exceedingly optimistic assumption, leads to miscalculations, which ultimately leads to failure. This failure results in despair and pessimism. Hence, both texts portray the theme of being naïve and unrealistic brings about agony. In conclusion, through conflict and theme, the two works, Death of a Salesman and Roger and Me, are comparably similar. Firstly, the conflict between the powerful and powerless members of society are prevalent in both texts. But there is an even greater similarity in the resolution of the conflict, the powerful people triumph over the powerless people. Secondly, the failure of miscalculated plans and the resulting agony, in both texts, forms the theme of being naive and unrealistic leads to agony. Importantly, theme and conflict are vital and basic to all forms of storytelling, which proves that both works are fundamentally similar; pointing to the idea that different mediums can convey similar messages and struggles.