Arthur Miller
- Born 1915
- very Jewish
- wrote the “The Crucible”
- married Marilyn Monroe
Setting
- Brooklyn, New York around 1960
- Rooms are without ceilings and there are holes in the walls that are used when Willy is dreaming about the past
- The neighborhood used to be small with few neighbors but has expanded and now is very crowded represented by ominous angular shapes
Plot
- Willy comes home and is daydreaming, admits to difficulties driving (same day Biff came home)
- Willy argues with Linda about Biff, Biff and Happy discuss their crazy father and Willy daydreams again
- His vision is in the back yard with Biff, Happy, and Bernard, Biff admits to stealing football and Happy tries to gain attention by saying he lost weight, Linda talks to Willy about his sales, and you get hints that he flirts with another woman
- Charley enters because he hears Willy talking to himself, they play cards but Willy daydreams and yells at Ben who Charley can’t see and then Willy kicks Charley out
- Linda tells the boys about how Willie tried to commit suicide
- Everybody argues about jobs and responsibilities
- Willie gets excited because Biff says he will ask Bill Oliver for a business job
Characters
- Willie- trying to get approval from his son Biff (his pride and joy) commits suicide after losing all pride and dignityy
- Linda - Willie’s wife, strong woman who knows about Willie’s suicidal attempts, is willing to kick out her first born son Biff
- Biff - first born son, he is the favorite, does not like business, cares about his father but was broken when he discovered that his dad cheated
- Happy - seemingly content with life but hints at unhappiness when he fights for attention by lying about weight and marriage
- Ben - uncle who went to Africa and got rich
Ana,
ReplyDeleteI like this! The way you put everything into bullet points, really cut things down, and only included the really important things I think is really helpful if I just needed to know the very briefest summary and background on Death of a Salesman. As for getting an understanding of the story if I hadn't read it myself, I don't think I could get the whole gist by just reading this. The goal of this type of blog post is only to briefly get an understanding of the story and to use it as a review later in the year where if we read this, we could recall all the details of the story by just reading this, which I think I could do pretty well with this. One thing I do think you are missing however is some direct quotes from the text that are kind of essential to putting yourself back in the world of Death of a Salesman and getting those key motifs or the big and important theme statement. Other than that, great post Ana!
Ana,
ReplyDeleteGood job! The way you organized the post with bullet points made it really easy to read! You are however missing quite a bit of content. I always put a list of motifs into my summary and analysis posts so you can easily refer back to them when explaining the theme. You are missing the class theme of the book and the explanation which is really important because it is the meaning of the play. You are also missing direct quotes from the book and an explanation on what the mean. The last thing you need to add is the author, author style, and tone which all go together but are very important. The things that you did do are very well done and explained. The character section is very well done! It explains the important things to help understand the play. If you just add the missing material you are golden!
Though you are missing quite a bit of material, you still hit on the major topics. I liked your idea with the bullet points, so if you elaborated a little more, I am sure you could really get a strong yet still succinct study guide. Your character descriptions are also pretty good, but I would say that, especially in this work, the relationships between characters is definitely something to include. Also, the setting of the play is much earlier than the 60s, which is important to note, since this play is pretty different from The American Dream. You are also missing the theme statement. Anyways, add in what's missing and you should be fine.
ReplyDelete