Close Reading #4

The Total Agony of Family Time

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/opinion/sunday/the-total-agony-of-family-time.html?ref=opinion

                Most people see the holidays as a time of joy, where you get to see family.  Ethan Hauser has a different take on the holidays; this is present through his cynical tone towards family time.  Hauser’s cynical tone is portrayed through his diction, imagery, and syntax.

            In this article it’s clear to readers that Hauser doesn’t look forward to the holidays, especially because it means he has to put up with his family.  Hauser uses some strong diction to portray his point of view; “It’s a crowded time, these several weeks, and you have to be a saint to make it through unscathed.”  The word unscathed is usually associated with making it out of a dangerous and harmful situation, or maybe even from a scandal, so Hauser is basically comparing time spent with family to a dangerous situation.  Another example of his pejorative diction is when he says “Once home, I honor a different kind of tradition: regressing into a petulant teenager…”  The use of the word petulant shows that family brings the worst out in people; this is evident because teenage years are stereotypically the worst years.  This shows that Hauser believes the only way to interact with his family is by “degenerating into a brat”, because acting like an adult isn’t dysfunctional enough.

            Hauser also uses imagery to portray his negative attitude towards family time; “At Penn Station everyone gets on with too many bags, all those meticulously wrapped presents, all the desperate sons- and daughters-in-law trying to impress intractable, tribal New England parents.”  This is an all too familiar scene, straight from many Christmas movies, where the daughter doesn’t have a boyfriend or fiancé to bring home or the son has dropped out of medical school.  Hauser uses this imagery to show that holiday time isn’t joyful, but instead stressful, and he uses the image of meticulously wrapped presents to exaggerate this point. 

            Last is Hauser’s use of syntax exaggerates his pessimistic views, and somewhat sarcastic tone; “Grab a beer and stay on this train until it hits Canada. Border crossings always bring a measure of relief.”  The second sentence is obviously a sarcastic joke or dig, and to emphasize that Hauser made it a separate shorter sentence, rather than connecting the two with a comma.  Now the sarcastic joke sticks out in a reader’s mind, and readers have a feel for what Hauser’s tone or opinion on holiday time is.  Another example of syntax is “Degenerating into a brat isn’t the only option. There are ways to cope with the holidays. You can take the dog for more and longer walks. You can explore the many pharmaceutical choices modern medicine provides.”  Once again Hauser wrote this last sentence as a joke and he emphasized it by separating it from the previous sentence.  The use of these short choppy sentences adds a sense of agony or hatred towards the idea of family time, and it’s very clear to the readers.

            Hauser uses many literary techniques to get his opinion across, and some of these are blatantly obvious.  Hauser could be a little bit more subtle with some of his approaches, but overall the sardonic tone is present, especially through his little sarcastic digs, pejorative diction, and negative images.

Open Prompt #4

1979. Choose a complex and important character in a novel or a play of recognized literary merit who might on the basis of the character's actions alone be considered evil or immoral. In a well-organized essay, explain both how and why the full presentation of the character in the work makes us react more sympathetically than we otherwise might. Avoid plot summary.

                In the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman is seen through multiple viewpoints.  Throughout the play readers feel anger and frustration towards Willy Loman due to his immoral and evil actions, but at other times readers feel guilt and maybe even sympathy towards him.  Willy Loman is a complex character who can evoke the desired emotion from readers when appropriate.  Readers feel anger towards Willy when they find out about his affair and his constant lack of authority when it comes to his son Biff, but readers feel sympathy when they learn about Willy’s situation.

                At the beginning of the play readers find out that Willy Loman has been having “flashbacks” that readers and his sons blame on Willy just being crazy.  As the play goes on Linda Loman explains that Willy’s salary has been taken away and he’s solely working on commission, Willy has been traveling hundreds of miles per week, and he is suicidal.  At this point Arthur Miller evokes feelings of sympathy from the readers, and also from Willy’s sons who now see Willy in a new way.  Miller conveniently added this piece of information right after readers find out Willy is having an affair, so they don’t feel like he’s only a bad guy.

                Adultery is definitely seen as an immoral action, and Willy Loman is guilty for cheating on his wife with another woman while he is out on his business trips.  Readers find out that this affair may be more than just for fun when the woman says “I’ll put you right through to the buyers.”  This means that Willy could be using her just to get ahead in the business world, and that would just cause more anger towards Willy.  Linda’s kind and understanding attitude towards Willy angers readers even more, because Willy is taking Linda for granted, and going off to fool around with another woman.

                Lastly Willy has no sense of morals when it comes to his favorite son; Biff.  Biff is a thief and doesn’t care about school, but Willy has no sense of authority, because he believes Biff will get ahead in the real world due to his looks and likeability.  At the beginning of the play Biff steals a football in one of Willy’s flashbacks and when Willy finds out he says “Sure, he’s gotta practice with a regulation ball, doesn’t he?”  This just shows that Willy doesn’t have a good sense of morals and believes Biff can do no wrong; this action evokes anger from readers because Willy isn’t acting as the authority figure, but rather as Biff’s friend.  Also when Biff tells Willy that his math teacher is only failing him because he doesn’t like Biff because Biff imitated him in front of the whole class Willy just asks if the other students thought if it was funny.  This proves that Willy doesn’t discipline his sons for their bad behavior, but just wants them to be well liked.

                Arthur Miller did a great job creating the complex character of Willy Loman who manages to be evil, yet still have readers cheering him on due to the sympathy they feel.  Willy Loman is a very different character who manages to be loved and hated at the same time.

Death of a Salesman summary/analysis

Author – Arthur Miller

 

Style/ Voice

·         There is no reliable narrator that we get the whole story from

·         Third-person omniscient narrator

Ø  Views the whole story, looks into many character and into the broader background of the story

·         Tone/mood

Ø  Jumps around throughout the play, because at some points it’s very light and hopeful (ex. Morning when Biff goes to see Oliver) and other times it’s depressing and evokes sympathy from readers

Setting

·         Main setting is the Loman house and due to population growth there are many other buildings surrounding it, and throughout the play we are taken to many other locations

Ø  Boston hotel

Ø  Restaurant in New York

Ø  Graveyard

Ø  In Willy’s mind – backyard of the house when it was an open space

·         Late 1940’s

Characters

·         Willy Loman – He is the father of Biff and Happy Loman and married to Linda.  He works as a salesman and is somewhat delusional about his success, and his wife and he are struggling with paying bills because Willy is working off of commission (and he’s not a good salesman).  Willy has these “flashbacks” where he acts out past memories, and as the play progresses readers realize all of his flashbacks deal with a pivotal decision he had to make.  Through hints and dialogue readers find out that Willy’s true calling was to become a carpenter, but wanting to live out the American Dream he chose the ill-fated life of a salesman.

·         Linda Loman – She is the only named woman in this play, and she is very supportive and tolerant of Willy.  In Willy’s memories Linda lives through Willy by making his decisions for him, but Miller shows this in a very subtle way, Linda never comes out and tells Willy “this is what you have to do”.  Whenever she appears in the play she is wearing an apron, holding a laundry basket, or mending stockings.  These actions portray her as a typical housewife. 

·         Biff Loman – He is Willy’s son, and is utterly confused with what to do with his life.  Willy has always put Biff up on a pedestal and told him the he could do no wrong.  Biff is a thief, and when he does steal Willy never reprimands him, so this leads to Biff stealing a suit and ending up in jail for three months.  Biff wants to work outdoors and do something with his hands, but Willy thinks that’s a job for commoners and wants Biff to follow his footsteps into the business world.  Biff and Willy don’t get along that well because Biff found out that Willy was having an affair.

·         Happy Loman – He is Biff’s brother, but he doesn’t get as much attention.  He follows his dad’s footsteps and went into the business world; he loves money, cars, and girls.  Throughout the play he either plays mediator to arguments, or tries to get Willy and Linda’s attention by telling them he’s getting married.  At the end of the play Happy is determined to prove that Willy didn’t waste his life by becoming a salesman, which foreshadows that Happy is going to end up just like Willy did.

·         Charley – He is Willy’s only friend, and neighbor, and he serves as a foil for Willy’s character.  He owns a successful business, and has a successful son.  Charley’s parenting was very different than Willy’ style, Charley never gets involved with his son; he just lets him figure out things for himself.  Charley is a very kind and humble character; he gives Willy $50 every month so that his family can pay their bills.

Plot Summary

·         The play starts with Willy coming back from a business trip, where he almost crashed many times

·         He is greeted by his worried wife Linda, and they go up to the bedroom where we find out that Willy has to travel a lot for his job as a salesman

·         Willy’s sons Biff and Happy overhear their parent’s conversation from their bedroom

·         Biff complains about he has no idea what to do with his life, and he feels like whenever he comes home it makes him feel like he’s a failure

·         Biff tries to convince his brother Happy to come work at a farm with him, out in the open, but Happy has a business job here in New York

·         Now we are back to Willy who is in the kitchen getting something to eat and then all of a sudden is wrapped up in a flashback

·         Willy’s flashback is of the “good old days” where Biff and Happy are throwing a football in his flowering yard, and he has just come back from his business trip with a surprise for his sons.

·         They talk about a big upcoming football game that Biff’s playing in and then Bernard enters trying to get Biff to study for math so he won’t fail

·         Then Linda comes out and she talks to Willy about the money he has earned and they go into the kitchen calculating their expenses

·         Willy confides in her that he believes people make fun of him/laugh at him, but then Linda tries to console him, and at this time Willy flashes to a different memory

·         Now Willy is in a hotel room with another woman who is laughing and talking about how she picked him

·         We find out she works for a buyer and she’ll put him right through next time

·         Now we are brought back to the previous flashback with Linda and hear Bernard trying to get Biff to study

·         Now we are back in the present and Happy has come downstairs to see what’s wrong with his dad and Charley enters and signals Happy to go back upstairs

·         Charley and Willy play cards when Ben appears (only in Willy’s imagination) and they have a conversation about their mother

·         Now Willy is back to his flashback in the backyard and is introducing Ben to Biff, Happy, and Linda and telling them how he walked into the jungle poor and walked out rich

·         Then Linda comes down and snaps Willy out of his flashback and then Willy goes for a walk. 

·         Biff and Happy come downstairs and learn about their father’s condition, and that he has tried to kill himself.  They also learn that he is only working off of commission so money is tight.

·         Willy comes back in and after he and Biff yell at each other a little bit they make a plan that Biff and Happy will go into business together to sell sporting goods

·         The next morning there a very happy mood, Biff and Happy go to see Bill Oliver and Willy goes to work to ask his boss if he can stop traveling and just work in New York

·         Things take a bad turn when Willy goes and gets fired from his job

·         Willy meets his boys at a restaurant and Biff tells him that the meeting with Oliver went badly and he ended up stealing his pen

·         Then the two boys leave Willy there and go off with women

·         Willy has another flashback to the hotel room with the other woman, and Biff comes in and realizes his father is having an affair

·         Willy snaps out of it and ends up walking home alone

·         When Biff and Happy come home Linda is very upset at them for ditching their father and kicks them out of the house. 

·         Biff and Willy finally have a huge blowout and express their true feelings, where Biff calls out Willy for giving him a big head and tells him he’s not going into business

·         In the end Willy ends up killing himself so Biff can get the $20,000 insurance check and be successful in life

Symbols

·         Africa – Down south symbolizes the long and hard journey to self-discovery

·         Stockings – represent money, and since Linda is always mending stockings it shows Willy doesn’t make enough money to provide for his family

·         Seeds – It could be seen as missed opportunity because the time when Willy could plants seeds and see them grow was before the population increased and his open backyard was replaced by buildings, and he missed that time period

Themes

·         Being well liked won’t take you everywhere in life, a good education is important to success

Ø  Ex. Biff doesn’t end up being successful, but the nerdy Bernard ends up successful

·         Don’t deny your true passion in life, because you will kill yourself trying to succeed in something you weren’t meant to be doing

Ø  Willy’s true calling was to be a carpenter or to do something with his hands, but took the path of a salesman which led to his suicide

·         The American Dream

Ø  Willy is obsessed with money and success and tries to live out the American Dream, and that is what is causing him to go crazy

Important Quotes

·         “You know something, Charley, there’s more of him in that front stoop than in all the sales he ever made.”

Ø  Once again readers see that Willy took the wrong path in life.  Instead of being a carpenter he went out and became a salesman, and that’s what killed him.  It also shows the love he had for fixing up the house, and lack of it he had when making sales.

·         “He was liked, but not well liked”

Ø  This is Willy’s mantra throughout the play; to succeed you had better be well liked.  Willy is liked and his dream is to be well liked because he associates that with wealth and success.  Willy passes this idea on to his son Biff and promotes his immoral action as long as it increases his popularity.

·         “I got a job, I told you that. [After a slight pause] What the hell are you offering me a job for?”

Ø  This quote shows Willy’s immense sense of pride, and the fact that he thinks he’s better than Charley and never wants to beneath him.  When Charley accuses Willy of being jealous he was exactly right, but Willy would never want to admit that. 

 

Response to Course Materials #4

                This week was mainly focused on discussing Death of a Salesman and through the discussion I realized how similar it is to The American Dream.  Mommy and Willy are very similar, in that they are materialistic and obsessed with money, and I saw this in DoS when Willy kept telling Linda to stop mending stockings because he can afford to buy her new ones.  I also thought it was interesting to see the movie a second time after annotating the play, because I caught some stuff that I never noticed before, for example Charley stood out more the second time and I could see how different he was from Willy.  Overall I have a better understanding of the play, but I am still not sure how I feel about Willy’s character.  At some points I can sympathize for him (like when he was abandoned by his sons at the restaurant), but at other times I just feel anger towards him and wonder why his character is so dumb (for lack of a better word), like when he wouldn’t accept the job Charley offered him.

                We have now started reading Hamlet and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to understand Shakespeare’s writing, but it isn’t bad, and it’s definitely helpful that Ms. Holmes stops at the end of each scene to explain what’s happening.  I didn’t realize how much background information and history you had to know to fully understand the play, for example the whole King marrying his brothers ex-wife, and how Ophelia’s closet is only her space and it’s scandalous that Hamlet entered.  I definitely think this play is going to be the hardest to annotate, because the language is a little bit different so the DIDLS will be harder to pick out, but  I’m excited to finish the play and see how it turns out!