Back again and its snowing. Great...so I guess I'll start now. Recently we've been exercising our brains with discussions over diction and syntax. I find these discussions to be beneficial because I'm forced to focus on a single word or a method of syntax to see how it all adds emphasis to the passage. In addition to this, I find that I enjoy creating my own imitation of the passage with my peers. This last part always ends up being quite satisfying for me because as a class we get to put our awareness of the prompt into words, in an attempt to reflect it. Another helpful learning tool is the "mood and atmosphere" exercises. Although they are benefiting to moi, they end up taking an unbearably long time to complete. I'm shocked at the amount of time it takes to pick out a mood. FOREVER. But I've come to accept it. As a writer I never pick a random word to throw into my stories. Every word matters. It's like a human life. Every expression, pause, action. Everything. It can be annoying, but the time spent finding the as-best-to-perfect-as-your-going-to-get-passage is rewarding. It's true. As a class, once we've come to a consensus, the actual build up of our paragraph takes less time. Thank you stars. As I read other works from my favorite authors, Rae Carson, Cassandra Clare, and Moira Young, my eyes isolate important passages allowing me to think, What if he/she had taken out this word and chosen to simply choose the elementary words? There would be no affect. I wouldn't be able to throw the book across the room because a major character had died. I wouldn't feel the anticipation that the characters feel. An author works to make his/her readers feel. As the reader I like to be taken completely.Nothing else matters. Chores? Nope. If I can't demand myself to put the book down, the author has done a superb job.
Within these exercises we spent a class hour practicing our multiple choice. Guess what? I'm getting better. Yes! Or maybe they were easier passages. Darn. Or maybe it's because of all I've learned so far. If I could write in the booklets I would, but instead I mentally underline and circle the words that I deem to be important. I've also found that doing a quick first reading is helpful and as a result brings up my scores. In the past I've destroyed my performance by doing multiple close readings to try and understand the gibberish that I'm reading. So, there's the growth.
And then there's Shakespeare's Hamlet. To be honest I don't know how we're going to have a class discussions on this text. It twas kind o' difficult with all thee thou's and dost's and wilt's. Maybe after we've watched different interpretations of the play? Hopefully, no, I'm sure I'll have a better understanding of this play after annotations and Sparknotes. Ha! The difficulty at this moment rests with Hamlet. By having one of the major speaking roles, I found it difficult to connect with my character and the others in this work. I blame the language now. Sorry, I have to point a finger. Instinct. In consideration of the play though, Shakespeare, yet again creates a tragic plot. People were dying left and right. Tis Shakespeare's way. There's always something up with the monarchy.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Friday, November 15, 2013
And the prompt Is?
Open Prompt-Question 3 2003
Tragic Figures as Instruments of the Suffering of Others
Student LLLL:
For the limited amount of time provided this student responded pretty, I feel, articulately. Then again, they did receive a 9. He/She seemed well educated in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby enough to be able to piece through the events to consider Jay Gatsby's moments of personal, inner-personal, and societal tragedy. Not only did this student fill this essay with plenty of well chosen details(ex.the fall of Gatsby to the fall of Roaring 20's) to show these forms of tragedy, they also used strong diction to add intelligence to his/her essay.Words, for example being, dichotomy, subsequent, decadence, malicious In addition to the aforementioned, the sentence structuring incorporated a strong use of syntax, especially in the longer sentences where he/she worked with punctuation to add a flow. The use of commas benefited by separating out the details. An example of a long sentence being: "At the very end of the novel, Nick explains how Gatsby 'believed in the green light,' or the happier future mankind strives for , though we are 'boats against the current born back to the past'." And so I'm led think, wow. As the readers comment, "The analysis is provided with insight and stylistic flair."
Student C:
Not as creative. Plain language. Less developed. And really really hard to read. This student wrote about the tragedy of King Lear befallen upon him by pride, sense of duty, and vanity. The student did well in briefly introducing the less than perfect family dynamics between King Lear and his three daughters, done simply by explaining what befell upon King Lear and his daughters because of pride, duty, and vanity. The first body paragraph and the smaller second summarizes the plot but unfortunately remains focused only on how pride and suffering brought destruction to King Lear and other influential characters. The last body paragraph is on King Lear's vanity. To note, the flaw rests in that this student didn't identify how all three work in an event. They are separate from each other in this essay, and although I haven't read about King Lear's tragedy, I'm sure all three must play into the same events. Reading this essay makes me feel like I'm not learning anything new. For example, when this student is analyzing how out of all three of his daughters, Cordelia rejects the opportunity to flatter her dad because of some inheritance, saying that King Lear's pride is broken. Yeah, his pride is wounded. What else is new?
Student FF:
The "thesis" is atrocious. Gosh, I should stop judging, but really, "Ken Kelsey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest portrays Patrick Randal McMurphy's as a tragic hero. But he is not the only one that suffers-his actions result in the suffering of others as well." And thats it folks. That's the introductory paragraph. I guess it's up to the reader to figure out why this McMurphy is a tragic hero. Or one could read on...because the writer believes it's McMurphy's inability to conform. In regards to the analysis, the majority of this essay is spent describing the events that transpired in this novel, all in the effort to show how McMurphy brings upon the suffering of others. I feel like this student should have elaborated on McMurphy's inability to conform instead of escaping with, "McMurphy would not conform to the hospital society that Ratched controlled & in the end he was met w/ destruction." Not so sure about the short hand bit, but do you see what I mean? And then this student brings up "The Combine" all of a sudden, which by the way was like, uhh where did this come from? Instead of explaining what "The Combine" is in the beginning, the writer surprises his readers, indicating that he/she either didn't really understand how to include "The Combine" or just plain didn't t know how to organize his/her essay in that moment. I enjoy the reader's comments about McMurphy's infliction of suffering on others and how this writer, "...neglects to explore the possibility that McMurphy also brought these characters joy." I never thought of that. But, I have to agree. McMurphy must have had fun with these characters too. So then is he really tragic?
Tragic Figures as Instruments of the Suffering of Others
Student LLLL:
For the limited amount of time provided this student responded pretty, I feel, articulately. Then again, they did receive a 9. He/She seemed well educated in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby enough to be able to piece through the events to consider Jay Gatsby's moments of personal, inner-personal, and societal tragedy. Not only did this student fill this essay with plenty of well chosen details(ex.the fall of Gatsby to the fall of Roaring 20's) to show these forms of tragedy, they also used strong diction to add intelligence to his/her essay.Words, for example being, dichotomy, subsequent, decadence, malicious In addition to the aforementioned, the sentence structuring incorporated a strong use of syntax, especially in the longer sentences where he/she worked with punctuation to add a flow. The use of commas benefited by separating out the details. An example of a long sentence being: "At the very end of the novel, Nick explains how Gatsby 'believed in the green light,' or the happier future mankind strives for , though we are 'boats against the current born back to the past'." And so I'm led think, wow. As the readers comment, "The analysis is provided with insight and stylistic flair."
Student C:
Not as creative. Plain language. Less developed. And really really hard to read. This student wrote about the tragedy of King Lear befallen upon him by pride, sense of duty, and vanity. The student did well in briefly introducing the less than perfect family dynamics between King Lear and his three daughters, done simply by explaining what befell upon King Lear and his daughters because of pride, duty, and vanity. The first body paragraph and the smaller second summarizes the plot but unfortunately remains focused only on how pride and suffering brought destruction to King Lear and other influential characters. The last body paragraph is on King Lear's vanity. To note, the flaw rests in that this student didn't identify how all three work in an event. They are separate from each other in this essay, and although I haven't read about King Lear's tragedy, I'm sure all three must play into the same events. Reading this essay makes me feel like I'm not learning anything new. For example, when this student is analyzing how out of all three of his daughters, Cordelia rejects the opportunity to flatter her dad because of some inheritance, saying that King Lear's pride is broken. Yeah, his pride is wounded. What else is new?
Student FF:
The "thesis" is atrocious. Gosh, I should stop judging, but really, "Ken Kelsey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest portrays Patrick Randal McMurphy's as a tragic hero. But he is not the only one that suffers-his actions result in the suffering of others as well." And thats it folks. That's the introductory paragraph. I guess it's up to the reader to figure out why this McMurphy is a tragic hero. Or one could read on...because the writer believes it's McMurphy's inability to conform. In regards to the analysis, the majority of this essay is spent describing the events that transpired in this novel, all in the effort to show how McMurphy brings upon the suffering of others. I feel like this student should have elaborated on McMurphy's inability to conform instead of escaping with, "McMurphy would not conform to the hospital society that Ratched controlled & in the end he was met w/ destruction." Not so sure about the short hand bit, but do you see what I mean? And then this student brings up "The Combine" all of a sudden, which by the way was like, uhh where did this come from? Instead of explaining what "The Combine" is in the beginning, the writer surprises his readers, indicating that he/she either didn't really understand how to include "The Combine" or just plain didn't t know how to organize his/her essay in that moment. I enjoy the reader's comments about McMurphy's infliction of suffering on others and how this writer, "...neglects to explore the possibility that McMurphy also brought these characters joy." I never thought of that. But, I have to agree. McMurphy must have had fun with these characters too. So then is he really tragic?
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Another Day Another Summary
Death of A Salesman: Arthur Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005)
- American playwright and essayist influential in the American theatre. In his early life, Miller majored in journalism at the University of Michigan before switching to English. After this, Miller studied playwriting. He received numerous awards for his well-known plays: The Crucible, All My Sons, A View From the Bridge, etc. His play Death of a Salesman, included, received a handful of awards, one being the Pulitzer Prize for Drama(Wikipedia...yeah I know, but could they have seriously oops'd a biography?).
Significant Characters:
Willy Loman-Main character considered to be by critics a representation of the "Tragic Hero" He is hopeless without knowing that he is hopeless. He is a salesman who works to sell the products of his company, but ultimately , one learns that the product Willy is selling is himself. Willy is blatantly delusional, evidenced by his determination to be well-liked(no one really likes him). And as overworked as he is, he still wants to succeed and climb the social ladder from the lower-class life he has been living. Due to the unfortunate decisions Willy made in the past, he tends to fixate on the past and the present frequently throughout the play.
Linda- Married to Willy. Comes off as a weak and submissive female, at times by allowing Willy to out speak her during certain occasions of physical and verbal abuse. Although she know Willy has attempted to kill himself and has proof with the rubber tube, Linda does nothing more than fret to her sons about Willy's deteriorating state by asking them to try harder with their father. Linda is unaware that Willy had an affair with the Blond Woman and so, thinks the best for her. She adores him and she appreciates the hard work he has put forth despite their shabby social standings. Concluding in a way, Linda doesn't think Willy needs to change, to be more like his brother Ben.
Biff'- Willy's oldest son, who in the past is depicted as the popular and muscular "Hercules"(although he struggled in academics). Biff had a lot going for him and Willy on more than one occasion boasted with pride about his son, the football star. Unfortunately, Biff experienced a loss of innocence when he witnessed his father's infidelity, which resulted in his dislike of the father he had thought so highly of. After this revelation, Biff enters a pitiful state. He doesn't believe in himself. He is not a businessman because he flits from one job to the next and believes that he will never amount to anything.
Happy- Willy's youngest son who seems to have no sense of remorse. His focus remains largely on the women he sleeps with, even if they are engaged. One might feel pity for Happy because he is depicted as the less desired son, but ,Happy cares little about the well-beings of others, especially that of his father. This Loman would rather think that everything is fine and dandy, but this doesn't overshadow the fact that he disrespectfully finds his father embarrassing. Lastly, Happy is confident and some what of a success.
Uncle Ben-Willy's wealthy, older and confident brother.Although,Ben is deceased, Willy is the only character capable of conversing with him.Uncle Ben walked into the African jungle at the age of seventeen and walked out at the age of twenty-one a rich man after discovering diamond minds. Ben has been an absent brother, but nonetheless, a brother who Willy looks up to and seeks advice from.
A Look at Plot:
Setting-Mainly Willy Loman's house, which is in some places open/transparent without ceilings or walls. The house is surrounded by apartments and towing buildings. Behind the fence of the house resides a cemetery . Action also takes place in the yard and the places Will visits, mainly in New York and Boston.
Willy Loman is a struggling salesman who wants nothing more than to be "well-liked". He strives to be an important figure and hopes to die the death of a salesman. As a salesperson, Willy is an overworked individual who comes home exhausted from his travels.When he arrives home early from his trip at the start of the play, his wife Linda encourages him to ask his boss Howard Wagner for a job at the New York office, which he slowly finds himself agreeing to. A midst his job situation Willy is dealing with his feelings toward his "no good for nothing son", Biff, who in the past had a lot going for him.On a similar note, Biff harbors negative feelings toward his father and when his mother, Linda tells him and his brother that Willy has been trying to commit suicide, through his driving and the rubber tube, Biff is angered and believes his father to be a fake.
Willy also struggles with reality. He tends to drift into the past when he is struggling with how to be a success or when he is trying to figure out what went wrong with him and his son. The past displays happier moments between the Loman family-laughing together or preparing to head off to one of Biff's football games. Uncle Ben is also involved in these memories. As Willy's older successful brother, Willy seeks Ben out for advice. Willy wants to do well. To teach his sons the right things. Unfortunately, the past also displays the affair Willy had with The Woman.
Back in the present Biff is preparing to ask Bill Oliver for a loan and Willy is caught in his own request of asking Howard Wagner for a better position. Neither characters receive what they came looking for, despite the promises they both believed would work in their favor, and as a result, they both come face to face with reality. Later at the restaurant Biff and Happy discuss Biff's failure/ Biff's revelation that he never wanted to be a businessman. Willy arrives thinking that his son's will have happy news to share with him to numb the fact that he is now jobless. They don't have much to offer Willy and they leave him at the restaurant. Willy finds himself in the bathroom and remembers the business trip where he was with The Woman. Biff enters the hotel room wanting his father to fix the problem of him failing math, but experiences a loss of innocence when he discovers the women with his father.
Later in the night Willy finds his way home, rambling about wanting to plant seeds. He and Biff have an argument. Linda is disappointed that her sons left their father, and voices her desire for wanting Biff to leave. As Biff and Willy argue about there not being a need to be "well-liked", Biff begs Willy to let him go, and cries while he does so. Willy is shocked and delighted to know that his son loves him. While the rest of his family heads to bed, Willy is content to go. He kills himself in order to be able to support his family in his death. At his funeral, only his family, Charley, and Bernard are present(not the death of a salesman). Linda cries over his grave and tells him that the mortgage had been paid off.
Style and Such:
The point of view is told through the dialogue of the characters in this play. Miller's style flows in a comprehensible way with the use in which he encompasses the literary techniques. With his use of diction he relies heavily on the colloquial style, although some words may be taken as informal.This allows for his characters to appear real and honest with their everyday interactions. Syntax makes way for shorter sentences to allow Miller's points to get across. Imagery largely centers around the setting where it describes the Loman house and character makeups. Tone of course shifts from jovial to bitter, depending on the scene. When Willy is caught in the past the memories with his family are tender, but with The Woman and Biff the tone is desperate and ashamed. In the present scenes the tone is dark because the characters have so much hope in something or other and they tend to become disappointed and outraged.
Symbols:
Gaps-The gaps in the house symbolize Willy's entrance into the past and the state of his family as they interact with those gaps. The use of these gaps portray the worn state of the character. As a family, they are not perfect and the gaps indicate a structure(the family) that is not whole.
Seeds-When planted and watered seeds can grow and grow and grow. Willy's life is a mess and he wants a rebirth of some kind, but everything he tries to control does not grow for him. His failure in his sons. His marriage. His job. Willy in the end is unable to sprout that plant and so the seeds symbolize his failure to grow and learn from his mistakes.
Stockings-Symbolize Willy's infidelity. He buys his mistress stockings but his own wife takes the time to mend hers. The presence of Linda's stockings remind Willy of his straying and leads him to anger/shame.
The Tape Recorder-Ultimately establishes Willy's confrontation with reality. The recorder bears the truth and cannot alter the past no matter how much Willy wants to alter his.
Quotes:
In the moments before his "sacrifice" Willy is about to make a fatal decision when Ben says "It's dark there, but full of diamonds"(135). This quote is important because people have to be willing to take risks. These chances and acts of courage may be detrimental but the ending result may come out better than they had ever dreamed it to be.Full of diamonds.
In Biff's confrontation with Willy, in which Biff explains himself for taking the pen and his revelation with life Biff says, "I saw the thing that I love in this world. The work and the food and time to sit and smoke. And then I looked at the pen and said to myself, what the hell am I grabbing this for? Why am I trying to become what I don't want to be? What am I doing in this office, making a contemptuous fool of myself, when all I want is out of there, waiting for the minute I say I know who I am..."(132). There is an important message in this quote because some people who aim for success pretend to be something they're not. They commit themselves to this ideal being which as a result hides their true nature. Biff's confidence in his less than successful position teaches the audience that image is not everything. Be the true you.
Theme:
*All thanks to Mary E.
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman suggests that valuing words instead of actions leads to a delusional perception of one's conventional success; this delusion leads to a deterioration of family and one's self.
Style/Plot-The theme is dominant throughout the events that occur in this play, which are supported through diction and syntax.The colloquial diction and the short sentences are underlined and done in a way as to allow the reader to focus on the message and the circumstances where Willy contradicts himself and behaves hypocritically. Willy pumps encouragement and praise into Biff causing Biff to walk around like a mighty Hercules. But this delusion shatters after Biff witnesses the horror of his father's affair, leading Biff to then question his father's words and importantly himself.Willy and Biff rely also on the mere promises of people who had an influence over them in their past memories. The promises of these people, Howard's father and Bill Oliver's held no real weight, and yet, both Biff and Willy expect success from theses promises. And so when they do realize that promises are nothing but words to placate an individual for a time, they are broken and make decisions that one should find depressing. Biff has negative thoughts while Willy even to the end values words and doesn't fully comprehend the emotions of Biff's (the broken man) actions, and perceives the tears as love which then allows Willy to be comfortable with the idea of killing himself. The valuing of words doesn't affect only these two characters though. Linda believes so much in Willy's words that when he kills himself, she's at a loss for words because he was a success to her and in her contentment she allowed the man to go.
Title-Willy had this idea that he was "well-liked" and when he tells Howard about the death of a salesman, one is aware that Willy expects himself to have people flocking at his own funeral. The situation is ironic because hardly anyone is at his funeral and the title helps to create the realization that words are words. You can expect one outcome and receive another, one where a quote such as Willy's "They don't even know me any more"(81) occurs.Yes, Willy died and indeed, he was a salesman. One might think they're reading about his death alone but there's so much more meaning wrapped within the title, the meaning? Well, words do not speak over actions and for Willy the result was the real death of a salesman.
Symbolism-Willy boasts to his family and his acquaintances about being a fine man but his actions with The Woman caused conflict to occur in his family and led to the deterioration of their family dynamics.Because Willy was acting through this image and his actions did not add up,his life fell through, resulting in all the success he dreamed he had and would have more of to not prosper in the seeds that he was trying to grow. The theme is also important in the tape recorder because Willy realizes that he cannot alter his past actions, which hold the most importance because if he had stronger values other than being socially wanted he may have been a success. And despite his changing words to create the lie that he's "well-liked" along with the words and actions of others, his lack of success is clear to him because what is in the past and in the present is permanent. His world is shattering and there's nothing he can do about it.
- American playwright and essayist influential in the American theatre. In his early life, Miller majored in journalism at the University of Michigan before switching to English. After this, Miller studied playwriting. He received numerous awards for his well-known plays: The Crucible, All My Sons, A View From the Bridge, etc. His play Death of a Salesman, included, received a handful of awards, one being the Pulitzer Prize for Drama(Wikipedia...yeah I know, but could they have seriously oops'd a biography?).
Significant Characters:
Willy Loman-Main character considered to be by critics a representation of the "Tragic Hero" He is hopeless without knowing that he is hopeless. He is a salesman who works to sell the products of his company, but ultimately , one learns that the product Willy is selling is himself. Willy is blatantly delusional, evidenced by his determination to be well-liked(no one really likes him). And as overworked as he is, he still wants to succeed and climb the social ladder from the lower-class life he has been living. Due to the unfortunate decisions Willy made in the past, he tends to fixate on the past and the present frequently throughout the play.
Linda- Married to Willy. Comes off as a weak and submissive female, at times by allowing Willy to out speak her during certain occasions of physical and verbal abuse. Although she know Willy has attempted to kill himself and has proof with the rubber tube, Linda does nothing more than fret to her sons about Willy's deteriorating state by asking them to try harder with their father. Linda is unaware that Willy had an affair with the Blond Woman and so, thinks the best for her. She adores him and she appreciates the hard work he has put forth despite their shabby social standings. Concluding in a way, Linda doesn't think Willy needs to change, to be more like his brother Ben.
Biff'- Willy's oldest son, who in the past is depicted as the popular and muscular "Hercules"(although he struggled in academics). Biff had a lot going for him and Willy on more than one occasion boasted with pride about his son, the football star. Unfortunately, Biff experienced a loss of innocence when he witnessed his father's infidelity, which resulted in his dislike of the father he had thought so highly of. After this revelation, Biff enters a pitiful state. He doesn't believe in himself. He is not a businessman because he flits from one job to the next and believes that he will never amount to anything.
Happy- Willy's youngest son who seems to have no sense of remorse. His focus remains largely on the women he sleeps with, even if they are engaged. One might feel pity for Happy because he is depicted as the less desired son, but ,Happy cares little about the well-beings of others, especially that of his father. This Loman would rather think that everything is fine and dandy, but this doesn't overshadow the fact that he disrespectfully finds his father embarrassing. Lastly, Happy is confident and some what of a success.
Uncle Ben-Willy's wealthy, older and confident brother.Although,Ben is deceased, Willy is the only character capable of conversing with him.Uncle Ben walked into the African jungle at the age of seventeen and walked out at the age of twenty-one a rich man after discovering diamond minds. Ben has been an absent brother, but nonetheless, a brother who Willy looks up to and seeks advice from.
A Look at Plot:
Setting-Mainly Willy Loman's house, which is in some places open/transparent without ceilings or walls. The house is surrounded by apartments and towing buildings. Behind the fence of the house resides a cemetery . Action also takes place in the yard and the places Will visits, mainly in New York and Boston.
Willy Loman is a struggling salesman who wants nothing more than to be "well-liked". He strives to be an important figure and hopes to die the death of a salesman. As a salesperson, Willy is an overworked individual who comes home exhausted from his travels.When he arrives home early from his trip at the start of the play, his wife Linda encourages him to ask his boss Howard Wagner for a job at the New York office, which he slowly finds himself agreeing to. A midst his job situation Willy is dealing with his feelings toward his "no good for nothing son", Biff, who in the past had a lot going for him.On a similar note, Biff harbors negative feelings toward his father and when his mother, Linda tells him and his brother that Willy has been trying to commit suicide, through his driving and the rubber tube, Biff is angered and believes his father to be a fake.
Willy also struggles with reality. He tends to drift into the past when he is struggling with how to be a success or when he is trying to figure out what went wrong with him and his son. The past displays happier moments between the Loman family-laughing together or preparing to head off to one of Biff's football games. Uncle Ben is also involved in these memories. As Willy's older successful brother, Willy seeks Ben out for advice. Willy wants to do well. To teach his sons the right things. Unfortunately, the past also displays the affair Willy had with The Woman.
Back in the present Biff is preparing to ask Bill Oliver for a loan and Willy is caught in his own request of asking Howard Wagner for a better position. Neither characters receive what they came looking for, despite the promises they both believed would work in their favor, and as a result, they both come face to face with reality. Later at the restaurant Biff and Happy discuss Biff's failure/ Biff's revelation that he never wanted to be a businessman. Willy arrives thinking that his son's will have happy news to share with him to numb the fact that he is now jobless. They don't have much to offer Willy and they leave him at the restaurant. Willy finds himself in the bathroom and remembers the business trip where he was with The Woman. Biff enters the hotel room wanting his father to fix the problem of him failing math, but experiences a loss of innocence when he discovers the women with his father.
Later in the night Willy finds his way home, rambling about wanting to plant seeds. He and Biff have an argument. Linda is disappointed that her sons left their father, and voices her desire for wanting Biff to leave. As Biff and Willy argue about there not being a need to be "well-liked", Biff begs Willy to let him go, and cries while he does so. Willy is shocked and delighted to know that his son loves him. While the rest of his family heads to bed, Willy is content to go. He kills himself in order to be able to support his family in his death. At his funeral, only his family, Charley, and Bernard are present(not the death of a salesman). Linda cries over his grave and tells him that the mortgage had been paid off.
Style and Such:
The point of view is told through the dialogue of the characters in this play. Miller's style flows in a comprehensible way with the use in which he encompasses the literary techniques. With his use of diction he relies heavily on the colloquial style, although some words may be taken as informal.This allows for his characters to appear real and honest with their everyday interactions. Syntax makes way for shorter sentences to allow Miller's points to get across. Imagery largely centers around the setting where it describes the Loman house and character makeups. Tone of course shifts from jovial to bitter, depending on the scene. When Willy is caught in the past the memories with his family are tender, but with The Woman and Biff the tone is desperate and ashamed. In the present scenes the tone is dark because the characters have so much hope in something or other and they tend to become disappointed and outraged.
Symbols:
Gaps-The gaps in the house symbolize Willy's entrance into the past and the state of his family as they interact with those gaps. The use of these gaps portray the worn state of the character. As a family, they are not perfect and the gaps indicate a structure(the family) that is not whole.
Seeds-When planted and watered seeds can grow and grow and grow. Willy's life is a mess and he wants a rebirth of some kind, but everything he tries to control does not grow for him. His failure in his sons. His marriage. His job. Willy in the end is unable to sprout that plant and so the seeds symbolize his failure to grow and learn from his mistakes.
Stockings-Symbolize Willy's infidelity. He buys his mistress stockings but his own wife takes the time to mend hers. The presence of Linda's stockings remind Willy of his straying and leads him to anger/shame.
The Tape Recorder-Ultimately establishes Willy's confrontation with reality. The recorder bears the truth and cannot alter the past no matter how much Willy wants to alter his.
Quotes:
In the moments before his "sacrifice" Willy is about to make a fatal decision when Ben says "It's dark there, but full of diamonds"(135). This quote is important because people have to be willing to take risks. These chances and acts of courage may be detrimental but the ending result may come out better than they had ever dreamed it to be.Full of diamonds.
In Biff's confrontation with Willy, in which Biff explains himself for taking the pen and his revelation with life Biff says, "I saw the thing that I love in this world. The work and the food and time to sit and smoke. And then I looked at the pen and said to myself, what the hell am I grabbing this for? Why am I trying to become what I don't want to be? What am I doing in this office, making a contemptuous fool of myself, when all I want is out of there, waiting for the minute I say I know who I am..."(132). There is an important message in this quote because some people who aim for success pretend to be something they're not. They commit themselves to this ideal being which as a result hides their true nature. Biff's confidence in his less than successful position teaches the audience that image is not everything. Be the true you.
Theme:
*All thanks to Mary E.
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman suggests that valuing words instead of actions leads to a delusional perception of one's conventional success; this delusion leads to a deterioration of family and one's self.
Style/Plot-The theme is dominant throughout the events that occur in this play, which are supported through diction and syntax.The colloquial diction and the short sentences are underlined and done in a way as to allow the reader to focus on the message and the circumstances where Willy contradicts himself and behaves hypocritically. Willy pumps encouragement and praise into Biff causing Biff to walk around like a mighty Hercules. But this delusion shatters after Biff witnesses the horror of his father's affair, leading Biff to then question his father's words and importantly himself.Willy and Biff rely also on the mere promises of people who had an influence over them in their past memories. The promises of these people, Howard's father and Bill Oliver's held no real weight, and yet, both Biff and Willy expect success from theses promises. And so when they do realize that promises are nothing but words to placate an individual for a time, they are broken and make decisions that one should find depressing. Biff has negative thoughts while Willy even to the end values words and doesn't fully comprehend the emotions of Biff's (the broken man) actions, and perceives the tears as love which then allows Willy to be comfortable with the idea of killing himself. The valuing of words doesn't affect only these two characters though. Linda believes so much in Willy's words that when he kills himself, she's at a loss for words because he was a success to her and in her contentment she allowed the man to go.
Title-Willy had this idea that he was "well-liked" and when he tells Howard about the death of a salesman, one is aware that Willy expects himself to have people flocking at his own funeral. The situation is ironic because hardly anyone is at his funeral and the title helps to create the realization that words are words. You can expect one outcome and receive another, one where a quote such as Willy's "They don't even know me any more"(81) occurs.Yes, Willy died and indeed, he was a salesman. One might think they're reading about his death alone but there's so much more meaning wrapped within the title, the meaning? Well, words do not speak over actions and for Willy the result was the real death of a salesman.
Symbolism-Willy boasts to his family and his acquaintances about being a fine man but his actions with The Woman caused conflict to occur in his family and led to the deterioration of their family dynamics.Because Willy was acting through this image and his actions did not add up,his life fell through, resulting in all the success he dreamed he had and would have more of to not prosper in the seeds that he was trying to grow. The theme is also important in the tape recorder because Willy realizes that he cannot alter his past actions, which hold the most importance because if he had stronger values other than being socially wanted he may have been a success. And despite his changing words to create the lie that he's "well-liked" along with the words and actions of others, his lack of success is clear to him because what is in the past and in the present is permanent. His world is shattering and there's nothing he can do about it.
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Close Reading "At Berkeley"
Link
Critic Dana Stevens, a former alumna of Berkeley University, recently posted a detailed analysis of Frederick Wiseman's documentary At Berkeley concerning the interpersonal relationships between faculty and students as they interact individually and as a body to issues that impact the institution. Stevens comments expertly on the organization of the film and the events that take place within its more than four hour film span with the use of diction, syntax, and details to aide in proving that Wiseman's careful consideration of both faculty and students is done to show that despite the tension between the two groups, both sides exist together and react separately from the other when it comes to matters of the school , e.g., the cost of education.
Stevens uses recognizable diction frequently to indicate Frederick's Wiseman's deliberate observations of the faculty and students interactions in his film. This is done in a way that readers get the sense that Stevens notices Wiseman's techniques and wants them, as readers, to notice too. Wiseman, in his attempts at not favoring one side features events that involve both the reactions of the students and faculty.When Stevens writes, " He’s interested in the way people living and working together in large groups—a high school, a ballet company, a mental institution, a hospital—establish hierarchies, distribute power, resolve conflicts, and find ways to coexist, or at least survive," the reader becomes impacted by her use of the words distribute, resolve, and coexist. As a community bound with the title of a university, it comes as no surprise that the individuals found within the structure must find some way to live as humanly as possible. With the tension and the disagreements and the times of harmony. Such is the human way. And what Wiseman is trying to document. Further along in this article, Stevens uses words like curiosity and eavesdrop to define Wiseman's aim for this documentary-to make it as real as possible.As he films board room discussions to classroom discussions to student marches, it is all done in the effort to show how the university runs. In the sentence concerning the reaction to the student led march, Stevens writes, "We’re encouraged to identify neither with the students’ half-baked radical rhetoric...nor with the administrators’ vaguely paternalistic dismissal of the protesters’ often valid outrage. " The use of diction within this sentence indicates that opinions can be formed about what is being seen, but both sides aren't shown in a good light, therefore helping to support the coexisting of the faculty and students with the use of "half-baked..." and "vaguely paternalistic".
Syntax is used periodically throughout this article with the focus on punctuation, specifically commas, questions, and dashes to add fluidity and to create pauses to allow the reader to differentiate between the faculty and the students.For example Stevens writes, "Wiseman’s camera audits a variety of graduate and undergraduate courses, in which students and teachers discuss a poem by John Donne, the design flaws of a pair of prosthetic legs, the future of space travel, and, in more than one class, the impact of the latest spate of budget cuts and fee increases on their own educations and lives." The commas not only have a calming affect , like ocean water rushing up to touch the edge of the sand t, but they allow for a smooth transition from the everyday student-faculty interactions to the financial costs that are splitting the two parties in half.From there Stevens uses questions to add to the uncertainty when she describes security reactions during the student march. She writes, "Should the head librarian shut down the library before its normal closing time? Are there enough campus police in place if the protest should turn violent?' This allows for a sense of urgency as on both sides, student and faculty, the tension is rising, but fortunately it cannot go on as Wiseman documents because the university has to run as it must.
Details are an essential literary tool in this article because without them, Stevens would have no foundation to draw from in order to form a critic on Frederick Wiseman's At Berkeley.She gives specific dates, "In October of 2012, a year after a large student and faculty protest that nearly shut down the campus, a few hundred Berkeley students staged a march through the campus to the main library, where they occupied a large reading room for several hours, making speeches and issuing lists of demands with the passion, enthusiasm, and lack of coherence that only young lefties can muster." As apparent in the aforementioned sentence, Stevens is well informed about this march and gives her readers the specifics to help inform them from what she was able to take from Wiseman's documentary. Stevens then includes details on how Wiseman chose to show this student and faculty outrage, helping to highlight Wiseman's intent on filming the functioning of the university,especially with the interactions between students and faculty at Berkeley. In her efforts to educate us on Wiseman's research on Berkeley's organization, Stevens embraces his techniques and fills her articles with the details found within At Berkeley, concluding in a way to consider a possible, "imperfect, democratic institution."
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