Death of a Salesman

In the screenplay, Death of a Salesman (1949), by playwright, Arthur Miller, the protagonist, Willy Loman is a salesman- the items of which he sells remain unknown and irrelevant- constantly dreaming of attaining success, unbeknownst to him that at his age success has eluded him, living his “last day on earth” and attempts to reevaluate his life in order to find where he fails at life. Willy seems to be suffering mental deterioration since the flashbacks he experiences are seen as him talking to himself by other characters, The play progresses with the help Willy’s flashbacks, many of which reveal to the audience Willy’s disillusionment with the world around him and his hopes of achieving the American dream through himself or his sons, particularly Biff. Many items from the play serve to symbolize Willy’s desire for tangible success such as the refrigerator, the Chevy, and Linda’s, his wife, stockings, that would apparently prove his financial stability and achievement. Willy and his son Biff are indirectly compared with Charley, a neighbor and friend, and his son Bernard, both of which have achieved success and are content with their lives. Miller’s purpose of the play is to point out the flaws in pursuing the American dream, and valuing the worldly aspects of life over the moral and sentimental pieces. The audience Miller seeks includes those thoroughly absorbed in the materialistic values created by the society in which they live and those hopelessly chasing after dreams, unaware of the adverse effects that accompany the endless chase.

Vocabulary

Apron: the projecting edge of a platform such as a theater stage, dock, or loading bay

Incipient: beginning to appear or develop

Mercurial: lively, witty, fast-talking, and likely to do the unexpected

Pennant: a flag that has a shape similar to a ship's pennant

Roguish: unscrupulous or dishonest in the manner of a rogue

Valise: a small piece of luggage

Tone

Contemplative, satiric, morbid

Rhetorical Strategies

• Flashbacks; “Willy: Oh, Ben, how did you do it? What is the answer? Did you wind up the Alaska deal already?
  Ben: Doesn't take much time if you know what you're doing. Just a short business trip. Boarding ship in an hour. Wanted to say good-by.
  Willy: Ben, I've got to talk to you.
  Ben: Haven't the time, William.”
• Apostrophe; “[…WILLY, talking, shuts the refrigerator and comes downstage o the kitchen table. He pours milk into a glass. He is totally immersed in himself, smiling faintly.]”
• Symbolism; “WILLY [angrily, taking them from her]: I won’t have you mending stockings in this house. Now throw them out!”
• Allusion; “WILLY: Like a young God. Hercules- something like that.”
• Telegraphic sentences; WILLY: I gotta overcome it. I know I gotta overcome it. I’m not dressing to advantage, maybe.”

Discussion Questions

1. Are Arthur’s flashbacks factual, or are Willy’s memories massively influenced by his feelings and hopes of the moment? Explain.
2. Why does Willy choose to reject Charly’s job offer, knowing he has no job to go back to?
3. Why does Miller choose to let Willy die without realizing why he never reaches success?

Memorable Quote

“Charley: Willy, when’re you gonna realize that them things don’t mean anything? You named him Howards, but you can’t sell that. The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell. And the funny thing is that you’re a salesman, and you don’t know that.

Willy: I’ve always tried to think otherwise, I guess. I always felt that if a man was impressive, and well liked, that nothing-”

Final Thoughts

Whenever I read a novel, I suffer a mental breakdown and/or go through a temper tantrum if someone ruins the ending for me. However, the play, taught me that the ending is not always as important as following and understanding character development, especially since the ending of the work was given not only in the title but with the introduction. It’s understandable to want success or chase after a dream, but sometimes a person just has to put that dream to rest and go for the realistic opportunity. I personally would like to see the play because it seems it would be difficult to create and act on the stage described in the screenplay due to constant flashbacks and no fadeout when switching from scene to scene.

In the Heart of the Sea Assgmt 3

In the piece retelling the tragedy of the Essex, “In the Heart of the Sea” (2000), particularly chapters nine through eleven, the author, Nathaniel Philbrick exploits the emotions, mental instability, and savageness of the remaining sailors in order to bring out the effects of the sinking of the ship. Through sensory details, such as “It was a black night and the noise that had once signaled the thrill of the hunt now terrified them.” (Pg 162), the author demonstrates the disastrous hardships of the ship-less sailors. In addition, Philbrick uses telegraphic sentences for foreshadowing, getting straight to the issue, or forcing emotion out of the reader. The author shifts tone; comparing the tone from the beginning chapters to chapter eleven, there is a change from logical and reflective to frightening and surprising. The purpose of these particular chapters is to describe the lengths to which the sailors would go to survive in order to illustrate their spiral into madness. As the piece continues, it deals with more and more mature themes indicating that the author aims for an audience of young adults or an older crowd, in addition to readers of adventurous, yet startling tales of the sea.

Vocabulary

Brackish: somewhat salty, especially from being a mixture of fresh and salt water

Cataracts: a heavy downpour of rain or a great flood

Poignancy: causing a sharp sense of sadness, pity, or regret

Translucent: allowing light to pass through, but only diffusely, so that objects on the other side cannot be clearly distinguished

Unabated: still as forceful or intense as before

Veneer: a thin layer of a material bonded to the surface of a less attractive or inferior material

Voracious: desiring or consuming food in great quantities

Tone

Shocking, brutish

Rhetorical Strategies

• Shift in tone; “In the next four days the crew collected 180 tortoises on Hood.” (Pg 74)…“Chase told his men that they had no choice but to cut these half rations once again- to only one and a half ounces of bread a day.” (Pg 156)
• Telegraphic sentences; “The boats no longer leaked. In addition to hardtack each crew had some fish and birds. There were also three fewer men to support.” (Pg 150)
• Dashes; “Yet, given the complex range of factors- psychological as well as physiological- influencing each man’s health…” (Pg 167)
• Ravenous diction; “The saliva flowed in their months as their long-dormant stomachs gurgled with digestive juices.” (Pg 166)
• Sensory details; Paradox
• Foreshadowing; “But no matter how grim their prospects might seem, they were better than those of Hendricks’s boat-crew. Without a compass or a quadrant, Hendricks and his men were now lost in an empty and limitless sea.” (Pg 174)
• Personification: “…the wind deserted them. The sun beat down with the same withering force hat had so oppressed them prior to their arrival…” (Pg 152)
• Emotional appeal; “The lot fell to Owen Coffin. “My lad, my lad!” Pollard cried out. “[I]f you don’t like your lot, I’ll shoot the first man that touches you.” Then the captain offered to take the lot himself…But coffin had already resigned himself to his fate.” (Pg 176)
• Exemplification; “Autopsies of starvation victims have revealed a dramatic atrophy of muscle tissue and a complete absence of fat- replaced, in some instances, by a translucent gelatinous substance. (Pg 166)

Discussion Questions

1. What is the purpose of the author using emotional appeal when retelling a piece of history?

2. Out of the following, description, cause and effect, and process analysis, which style is the most appropriate for this piece, based on the story so far? Include examples.

3. Predict the number of survivors at the end of the novel.

*Is this considered a novel since retelling a factual event?

Quote

“With barely a pound of hardtack left to share among men, Hendricks and his crew dared speak of a subject that had been on all their minds: whether they should eat, instead of bury, the body.” (Pg 164)

In the Heart of the Sea (Assgmt 2)

In the piece retelling the tragedy of the Essex, “In the Heart of the Sea” (2000), particularly chapters five through eight, the author, Nathaniel Philbrick, appropriately conveys the desperation, inactivity, and hopelessness found in the characters after the destruction of their whaleship. Philbrick favors the use of telegraphic sentences to create suspense and indirect foreshadowing, e.g. “Pollard told them that his boat had been attacked by a whale.” (Pg115) Additionally, the author alludes to the social classes during this period using the clannish Nantucketeers as examples. With vivid and intense imagery, Phil;brick creates a vision of mental and physical suffering among the sailors. The audience targeted by the author at this point of the novel is a group of avid readers of nautical pieces and/or adventures tales. The purpose of this section of the book is to detail the loss of the ship, the interactions among the shipmates while in survival mode, and the inclusion of historical facts somehow related to the tale, in order to set up the most certainly remarkable survival in the following chapters.

Vocabulary

• Arduous: requiring hard work or continuous physical effort
• Iridescent: having rainbow colors that appear to move and change as the angle at which they are seen changes
• Incongruous: unsuitable or out of place in a specific setting or context
• Pine: the wood from an evergreen tree, varying from soft to hard. Use: furniture-making, construction, finishing material.
• Proverbial: expressed as a proverb, or resembling a proverb either in form or because of being widely known or referred to
• Provision: the act of providing or supplying something
• Reckoning: the act or a system of calculating something
• Relegate: to move somebody or something to a less important position, category, or status
• Repast: a meal, or the food eaten at a meal

Tone

Shifts from just logical and suspenseful to also fear-provoking and distressed

Rhetorical Strategies

• Telegraphic sentences; “Then it started to blow hard.” (Pg 114)
• Imagery; “The tongue swells to such proportions that it squeezes past the jaws. The eyelids crack and the eyeballs begin to reap tears of blood. The throat is so swollen that breathing becomes difficult, creating an incongruous yet terrifying sensation of drowning.” (Pg 127)
• Similes; “Like male elephants, bull sperm whales tend to be loners…” (Pg 88)
• Irony; “By spurning the Society Islands and Sailing for South America, the Essex officers chose to take their chances with an element they did know well: the sea.” (Pg 99)
• Allusion [to historical facts]; “White sailors often looked to blacks and their evangelical style of worship as a source of religious strength.” (Pg 132)

Discussion Questions

1. What significance does Nickerson play in the retalling of the historical tale?
2. Why does the author favor telegraphic sentences for this particular story to indicate upcoming events, rather than complex sentence structures?
3. What purpose does the inclusion of outside quotes serve in the novel?

Quote

“With every blow of his hammer against the side of the damaged boat, Chase was unwittingly transmitting sounds down through the wooden skin of the whaleship out into the ocean. Whether or not the whale perceived these sounds as coming from another whale, Chase’s hammering appears to have attracted the creature’s attention.”

In the Heart of the Sea (Assgnmt 1)

In the fictional novel, “In the Heart of the Sea” (2000), by Nathaniel Philbrick, the author vividly reiterates the tragedy of the whale ship Essex, through gathered historical facts from books detailing firsthand experience, in addition to quotes and excerpts from seamen of the ship, particularly Thomas Nickerson. The story follows a chronological order will presumably end in the aftermath of the tragedy. The author favors periodic sentences, especially when developing the oceanic imagery and delivering the concrete sensory details. He also takes advantage of nautical jargon to give the novel, e.g. identifying the ship as a woman, which ties into personification. Of course, the novel is also filled with historical allusions that keep it nostalgic. The author targets an audience of readers of sea tales and adventures, and/ or historical tragedies, in order to provide the audience with detailed explanation of the Essex tragedy in the form of dramatic entertainment. The purpose of the novel, based on the reading so far, is to restore this “epic tale” back in the prominence in history.

Vocabulary

• Disparagement: to refer disapprovingly or contemptuously to somebody or something
• Lucrative: producing profit or wealth
• Incessant: continuing for a long time without stopping
• Scruples: a moral or ethical consideration that tends to restrain action or behavior
• Cordage: the amount of wood in a stack, measured in cords

Tone

Perilous, logical, nostalgic

Rhetorical Strategies

• Nautical jargon; “As usual, three topgallant sails were pulling from the upper yards…” (Pg 37)
• Personification; “Immense block-and-tackle systems were strung from the ship’s masts to the wharf to haul the ship onto her side.” (Pg 18)
• Periodic sentences; “As he scrambled up the Essex’s side, then made his way aft to quarterdeck, Captain Pollard knew that the entire town was watching him and his men.” (Pg 29)
• Imagery; “When a ship is heeled over by forty-five degrees or more, her hull might be compared to a fat man on the short end of a lopsided seesaw.” (Pg 40)
• Historical allusions; “…privileged citizens of what Ralph Waldo Emerson called the “Nation of Nantucket.”” (Pg 7)

Discussion Questions

1. Because the subtitle of the novel- Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex- indicates a future death of a character (which are not always humans), predict the final outcome of the novel. Keep in mind that a few characters survive since their quotes can be found throughout the book.
2. How much belief would you have in Philbrick’s retelling of the tale, knowing it was not his firsthand experience?
3. Why does the author choose to use nautical jargon, knowing that his audience will not always understand its meaning?

Quote

“Living on a island that was almost the same distance from the mainland as England was from France, Nantucketeers developed a British sense of themselves as a distinct and superior people, privileged citizens of what Ralph Waldo Emerson called the “Nation of Nantucket.”” (Pg 7)

Elf Child

"But it was a remarkable attribute of this garb, and indeed, of the child's whole appearance, that it irresistibly and inevitably reminded the beholder of the token which Hester Prynne was doomed to wear upon her bosom. It was the scarlet letter in another form: the scarlet letter endowed with life! The mother herself--as if the red ignominy were so deeply scorched into her brain that all her conceptions assumed its form--had carefully wrought out the similitude, lavishing many hours of morbid ingenuity to create an analogy between the object of her affection and the emblem of her guilt and torture. But, in truth, Pearl was the one as well as the other; and only in consequence of that identity had Hester contrived so perfectly to represent the scarlet letter in her appearance. " (Pg 93)

The passage above surely illustrates a fiery red image of Pearl, a young lass who not only represents her mother's shame and guilt but is sort of an lively version of the actual scarlet letter. Hester cleverly and probably subconsciously dressed Pearl in this scarlet manner as a reminder of her deeds for herself and others. She has accepted her fate as one of the symbols of sin in her community, in addition to Pearl maintaining a her status as a mixture of demon child and lovable young girl.
This passage demonstrates Hawthorne's unique ability to convey an incredible sense of passion through his choice in diction and sentence structure; hopefully, both can arouse such intense emotion in the readers. The diction he chose for this paragraph allows each of the words to just pop and express itself completely yet blend in with each other. The syntactical structure makes use of complex, periodic sentences that bleed imagery and allegorical ideas.

1. Describe the tone and mood Hawthorne implies through this passage.
2. Using your knowledge of the story, create your own idea of the attitude an adult Pearl would have towards her Hester, after being seen in this way from birth.
3. What does Hester want to accomplish by dressing Pearl in a bold scarlet gown?
FB me if you have questions.

It's All Lollipops and Gumdrops

"The days of the far-off future would toil onward, still with the same burden for her to take up, and bear along with her, but never to fling down; for the accumulating days and added years would pile up their misery upon the heap of shame. Throughout them all, giving up her individuality, she would become the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody their images of woman's frailty and sinful passion. Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast--at her, the child of honourable parents--at her, the mother of a babe that would hereafter be a woman--at her, who had once been innocent--as the figure, the body, the reality of sin. And over her grave, the infamy that she must carry thither would be her only monument." Pg 73 (Bantam Classic)

This wretch of a woman committed a deed so foul, so injust, so disgusting that she must now bathe in an everlasting hell on earth, looking towards a bleak future full of lonely days, with the exception of her sinful babe, Pearl- what a charmingly horrid name. She deserves whats coming to her because she is the only one in this entire Puritan community to have sinned. No matter what, this woman needs to be ostracized, isolated, stripped of any human contact, because someone in her position shouldn't even be given the time of day. Let her become the face of sin because only she is to blame for what is wrong in the world. It is wrong to have passion, any longing for a joy that is not considered a joy to the rest of us. Do not have sympathy for the one who decides to go against our impossible-to-please standards; instead throw rocks at her, gossip about her within her presence, leave her emotionally scarred because you and I have never sinned;thus she should stand on the pedestal of guilt and shame.

In this passage, Hawthorne effortlessly and concisely describes the trials of Hester, including the present and future. In the eyes of her Puritan neighbors, she has become the manifestation of guilt and sin, the devil's concubine. Through repetition, it seems that Hawthorne is garnering sympathy for Hester from the audience. In addition, he begins to lead us towards an idea of guilt and sin for this particular community.

1. Why does this scarlet letter A, which is "burned" onto her chest, have such an adverse effect on Hester and the people around her (Yes, yes very broad, but roll with it and answer in the most comfortable way possible.)
2.Using your background knowledge of Puritan communities, what can we understand and predict about Hester's stay in this region of Massachusetts?
3. As implied by the novel, it is possibly acceptable for children to ridicule Hester, to attack her with tangible objects words unfamiliar to them but painful to her. Based on your experiences and opinions, why are children conditioned to act like this, both then and now?

Hmmm...

[A Jumbled] Passage
"The young pastor's voice was tremulously sweet, rich, deep, and broken. The feeling that it so evidently manifested, rather than the direct purport of the words, caused it to vibrate within all hearts, and brought the listeners into one accord of sympathy...

"Woman, transgress not beyond the limits of Heaven's mercy!" cried the Reverend Mr. Wilson, more harshly than before. "That little babe hath been gifted with a voice, to second and confirm the counsel which thou hast heard. Speak out the name! That, and thy repentance, may avail to take the scarlet letter off thy breast...

"Never," replied Hester Prynne, looking, not at Mr. Wilson, but into the deep and troubled eyes of the younger clergyman. "It is too deeply branded. Ye cannot take it off. And would that I might endure his agony as well as mine!""

Pg 64 "The Scarlett Letter", by Nathaniel Hawthorne [Bantam Classic]

Significance
Well, this passage, along with a few others parts, boldly imply the strength and will of Hester Prynne, who endures the pain associated with committing a high crime, a crime she of course did not commit alone. When most would almost immediately confess to an accomplice, she did not and continues not to. It shows a fierce pride and strong will in her personality, knowing that she can have the symbolic letter removed from her clothing if she were to confess. Secondly, this passage also indicates Hawthorne's constant use of sensory details in describing mostly characters and their relation to Hester, e.g. eloquence of the Reverend- obtaining attention of crown- gaining of sympathy (for Hester) from the crowd.

Questions
1. Hawthorne rarely takes a simplistic route when describing characters, often using plenty of sensory details? Why?
2. Although Hester Prynne has an opportunity for the scarlet letter to be removed from her clothing, she chooses not to take it by absolutely refusing to name her lover? Explain, in your own opinion, why she would take this road?
3. Why does the author often uses complex, cumulative sentences throughout the chapters?