Death of a Salesman Review-culm.activity

Death of a Salesman Review
Even after 50 years since Arthur Miller wrote the play,The Death of a Salesman is still modern and played troughout the world,in many different languages.The family drama,chasing the dreams ,generation gap,are universal topic and recognised by many different cultures.
The play is a very simple and yet very revealing,everyone can recognise either a little bit of themselves ,or someone that they know in the characters.
During the play we never know what Willy is selling.The whole point is to emphasize Willy's character,as a father and family first, and at the end as a salesman who had wrong dreams.When Biff says to Willy," I am a dime dozen ,and so are you! and 'I am not a leader of men, Willy,and neither are you" ,that is the best characterization of Willy.
When Linda says at Willy's funeral "we are free",it can mean also that they are free of wrong dreams,of illusion and lies they have been living with for many years.

Biff about Willy and reason for his failure,something that I think is important to understand Biff and his despair

Biff to Willy
"And I never got anywhere because you blew me so full of hot air I could never stand orders from anybody"
Those are pretty harsh words to tell to your father,but they explain the best relation between the father and the son, and reason for antagonism troughout the play.For Willy, the most important thing was that his sons were admired and likeable.He didn't care much about their grades,he never paid much attention to their success in school and that fires back.
He gave Biff false sense of importance and pride,but in reality he couldn't accept the fact that he is troubled man, and in his thirties, he is lost and confused.Willy badly wanted his dream about famous Lomans to become reality,he ignores all facts about Biff.Even after Biff's emotional breakdown and confession that he is nobody,that he didn't do anything successful in his life,Willy doesn't accept the truth.He goes on with the idea that Biff loves him and that Biff will continue what he didn't finish.Willy never changes in the play.Even his suit is the same and that is message that Willy lives in his imaginery world and one day he will wake up from his dream and will be too late to change his faith.

Connection between Holden Caulfield and George and Lenny from Of Mice and Man

The biggest similarity between these characters would be alienation and pursuing of the dreams.In Death of a Salesman is pursuing the dream of conquering consumerism and in Of Mice and Man is the dream about owning a piece of land and conquering a freedom.George and Lenny have a dream of changing their way of life in order to have their own place and work for themselves.Their friendship is questioned by the rest of the characters on a ranch,but they prove that they can survive harsh reality of the world they are surrounded and prove that even different, they have bond that keeps them together.
Holden is anti social and sees phony people everywhere,he is cynical and rebelling against what Willy dreams about;nice car,nice house and furnishings.In his eyes Willy would be the closest definition of "phony" behaviour.
Holden's young age and lack of wisdom and life experiences are pulling him back from blending in society ,in Of Mice and Man ,George and Lenny's lack of education are pulling them back from fulfilling their dream about piece of land and freedom.
Willy owns that piece of land,but still is not able to fulfill his dreams.He fails as a father and a husband and salesman ,because he never stops dreaming big.He is never honest to himself or his family,like Holden who tells us his story, but never establish himself as a trustworthy storyteller.
George is very aware of Lenny's past behaviour on a previous ranch,but as a friend and caretaker he refuses to accept signs that Lenny's understanding of how world is functioning will lead them eventually to the tragedy.

Similarities between Willy Loman and Sy Parrish from "One hour photo"

They are both salesman, and they are both fired from their jobs. They have bosses who are strictly business oriented and won't tolerate anything that is affecting work. They are not sentimental, and they want to see performance at work. Both Willy and Sy feel that they did a lot for the company and that they are not appreciative.
They do not like change,they stay in the same company for many years,that is their place of comfort and dreams,they don't keep up with the rest of the world. But Sy and Willy are both ignorant and not realizing that their actions will lead them in much bigger trouble.Willy stayed for 36 years in the company and has never been promoted. He betrayed his family cheating on his wife,Sy betrayed the company cheating with the films he was developing for himself. They are both delusional,Willy is hiding himself in the past and get lost in his dreams.Sy is dreaming about family he never had ,and starts living the lives of complete strangers that he knows only from photos.For betrayal of the wife of his favorite customer ,he wants to punish her husband revealing the truth to the woman ,but also to her young son.He doesn't think about consequences of his actions ,like Willy.They are both immature and taking the role of a saviour.In both cases it ends tragically,Willy kills himself to save his family and secure their financial future,in Sy's case he ends up in a prison for stalking and possible attempt murder charges.
They have family issues from the past,Willy's father left ,because of the job when Willy and Ben were small,so they do not have experience being close to their dad and that is why Willy is not doing good job with his boys.Sy had much more difficult childhood,he has been abused by his father and probably that is why he didn't start his own family and acting overprotective of the people he even doesn't know.

Death of a salesman quote 4

I've got to get some seeds. I've got to get some seeds, right away. Nothing's planted. I don't have a thing in the ground.
Death of a Salesman
Willy Loman, Act 2

Willy is getting desperate,his whole life and hopes crashed.He didn't achieve his dreams.Pursuing materialistic things didn't bring any satisfaction.Planting garden and watching it grows gives him an opportunity to see changes,something that Willy never accepted.He couldn't see changes in the job,in the family,at home.He is portrayed in the play in the same suit,emphasizing his inability to move forward with the changes of outside world.He lives in the past and frequently recalls happier times.His wife Linda is not helping him to be more realistic.Her only goal is make Willy happy,even if it means not telling the truth,she is the one that boosts his ego all the time.She is very tough to their sons,and is not consistent in treating them and Willy.She sees Willy's mistakes but never openly talk about them.

Willy feels that his sons are failure,he didn't do good job like his neighbour Charlie with his son Bernard,so planting the seeds has a metaphoric meaning.He comes to the realization that Willy and Buff won't succeed in life and he takes blame on himself.He is desperate to end family drama as he can't take anymore of humiliation from his sons.He feels guilty about involving with another woman,although that is never mentioned in front of Linda,but there is possibility that will surface.Willy starts to change his dreams from being a salesman that everyone will remember to doing some work that produces result and satisfaction.But for Willy is too late.At his funeral no one shows up except his family,Charlie and Bernard.His dreams are again shattered and his idea that personal attractiveness and likability will lead to success.

Death of a salesman quote 3

I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been.
Death of a Salesman
Biff Loman, realizing his father's illusions of success for him are just that - illusions, Act 2
Biff spent many years not knowing what he will be in his life.He was confused between his father's ambitious for him to be successful and his own abilities and preferences.
He saw a hero in his father,someone to admire and trust,but after realizing that his father had an affair with other woman he gets confused.His dream about perfection that he saw in his dad crashed,and all things he was taught by him ,he starts questioning.
He is the first one to realize that Willy would be doing much better if he did something different in his life.He also realized that his whole life, he was trying to be something he didn't like.When he stole a pan,he question why he needs it.He is the man who should work outdoors,he admired the nature,for him business world is strange and unfamiliar place.Biff is struggling to prove to his father that he is not what he wants from him and doesn't want to live lying to himself and others.
He grew very mature when we compare him from the beginning of the play.He is an athlete,carefree ,affectionate ,enthusiastic and has promising future in football.Many years later we find him at the same stage,no achievements and no direction in life.
He has troubled life,he is betrayed by his father and searching for the meaning in life.He is also able to comprehend what happened to him and why and is on the road of discovery and recovery.He will move forward,he got mature and honest at least to himself.That is first step in healing and the beginning of different life for Biff.

The Catcher in the Rye video-culm.activity

From these three videos concerning The Catcher in the Rye,we can understand a little bit more about controversy surrounding life of J.D.Salinger and The Catcher in the Rye.
In first video we can see what effect a book can have on people,in this case young people.Girl appears in the video very serious and calm in the beginning and then she gets very upset about the book.She is trying to be very respectful of the opinion that other people have about book.Then she goes into the rage and she is stubbing a copy of The Catcher in the Rye.Camera is showing also magazine National Geographic for kids,not accidentally.It is kind of message that she likes reading,but more scientific stuff and more realistic.Nothing that will trouble her or make think about issues of many adolescents.She never explains why she doesn't like the book,but after stubbing she is involving her father to help .He is supportive of his daughter. He is also cutting the book,and eventually girl is burning the book and flushing ashes down the toilet.
In other video we learn more about mysterious life of J.D.salinger.Since 1953 he never showed up in public,he became reclusive and since 1965 didn't publish .Being away from publicity he became even more interested for people and his fame increased.
I understand his wish for privacy.He is an author and his books tells everything,there is no need to explain himself or his private life to anyone.

How might Holden and Willy Loman have used a blog,Twitter,Facebook to change their own outcome-culm.activity

In the era of modern technology,Internet and reality TV shows,audience is more acceptable of different social behaviour,basically there is not much that can shock audience any more.The question is would social networks change the faith of Holden and Willy and in which way.
In Holden's case he couldn't connect to the movies,he sees phony behaviour in and around the movies,so social network would be maybe another place of promoting such a behaviour.In my opinion they do not help people in their loneliness,it is only helping people being alone more bearable.Holden would be able to find someone with the similar problems and difficulties,but he had many opportunities learning a lesson from people in his surrounding and he wasted it by his ignorance. I think real knowledge is in the books,and Holden liked to read but still couldn't find the comfort in the books.
For Willy it would make his situation even worse,because he would feel more detached from the reality of the world.He also wasn't familiar with the technology and couldn't accept changes in business world.

Mental health and The Catcher in the Rye and Death of a Salesman-culm.activity

In both books there are suicidal characters.The Catcher in the Rye is about young person who is going trough turmoil of teenage years and has suicidal thoughts.In the Death of a Salesman main character is going trough frustration of not achieving his dreams as a salesman and as a family man too.Unlike Holden,Willy succeeds in the idea of killing himself.
Both books are from the era of American pursuit of prosperity and bliss,and also era of rising consumerism,communist witch hunts and communist paranoia led by Senator Joseph Mc Carthy and also growth of psychoanalysis which had an influence on literature too.
In the beginning of The Catcher in the Rye we realize that Holden is in a psychiatric institution.He doesn't say why, but reading the book we can see how Holden is depressed and becomes suicidal. He is alienated toward the world,he doesn't see much purpose in his life and has negative attitude toward everything.He is also a compulsive liar.
Willy is mature man who comes to the realization that his whole life he spent chasing materialistic things and keeping up with others.He starts having flashbacks and interacting with imaginary people and talking to himself which leads him to killing himself. We can see his mental deterioration,like with Holden,their behaviour is progressing more toward the point that they can't control things anymore.
The Catcher in the Rye led some people even to killing,they identified themselves in their illusions with Holden ,and felt they are the ones to protect the society from evil.

Video relevant to The Catcher in the Rye