Saturday, April 7, 2012

Author's Argument: Death of a Salesman

In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949), the main idea achieving the "American Dream." Because this is a play, the author uses a heavy amount of dialouge to convey the emotions of the characters, he also adds questions, some rhetorical some not, to keep the reader at suspense and lastly he uses italics show the actions of the characters. The audience is pretty general as the story could apply to everyone. The purpose is to show how families try to achieve the typical "American Dream."

The tone of this play is familiar and a little frantic

1. jovial- endowed or characterized with hearty, joyous humor or a spirit of good fellowship
2. mercurial- changeable; volatile
3. trepidation- tremeulous fear, alarm, or agitation
4. incipient- beginning to exist or appear
5. surlily- churlishly rude or bad tempered
6. indignantly- feeling, characterized by, or expressing strong displeasure at something considered unjust
7. valises- a small piece of luggage that can be carried by hand
8. elegiacally- expressing sorrow or lamentation

1. metaphor- "I'm tired to death."(2)
2. telegraphic sentences- "He won't starve. None a them starve. Forget about him."(29); "It's an accomplishment."(54)
3. dashes- "Give my best to Bill Oliver-he may remember me."(48)
4. questions- "What're you doin' home?"; "You want a job?"; "You want me to go?"; "Then what have I got to remember?"(29)
5. epigraph- "Kid, I can't take blood from a stone, I-.."(61)

  • Why did the author choose to write about someone obsessed with trying to become successful in sales?
  • Why did the author format the play to be only two acts?
  • Is the "American Dream" truly achievable? Was it ever truly achievable?

" 'Cause what could be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four, into twenty or thirty different cities, and pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people?"
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1 comment:

  1. ZamzamApril 7, 2012 at 3:39 PM

    1. I don't think that Willy was obsessed with trying to be successful in sales. He was just trying to make enough money to feed his family. Miller choose to write about this topic because it is something that many Americans can relate to.

    2. Act One was more of a background while Act Two was the climax. Splitting the play into only two acts made it less complex to read.

    3. Miller would say no, it isn't. The way that the American system is portrayed in the play, it is difficult to be a part of of, uses people up, and then throws them aside when they are no longer of use. However, I think that the American Dream is mostly achievable. There are many hard working people that have achieved success. Although, as we read in Outliers, there are more factors at play than just hard work.

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