Outside Reading Set #4: Reflective Essay

2/21/11

“Make a Wish.”

Nancy Gibbs

Reflective Essay

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1957473,00.html

Nancy Gibbs’s tone in “Make a Wish” is highly nostalgic and thoughtful, flashing through some of her most memorable birthdays experiences. Gibbs expertly employs parallel structure, musical devices, and colorful imagery to draw readers into her musing mood. Listing birthdays, she says: “Sixteen was sweet; 18 was freedom” and “Turn 14 and grow five inches. Turn 17 and follow in love.” The simple parallelism in these sentences creates a definite rhythm, pulling readers back into Gibbs’s quietly wistful trip down memory lane. Throughout the piece, Gibbs consistently follows this syntactical format: “You get fire at 32 and feel 12 again, or you’re invited to teach for the first time and feel ancient standing in front of all those wide eyes. You circle back on certain ages, replaying them until you get it right.”

Musical devices such as alliteration help maintain the rhythm of reflection as well in this piece. The alliteration in “…moodiness, and mystery, when every day feels so suddenly rude and ripe with expectations and revelations” makes the “moodiness” and “mystery” mentioned feel more tangible to the reader; they become not just simple diction choices, but diction choices backed up by a communicative rhythm. Sprinkling numbers throughout her writing is another way Gibbs manipulates language. Not only do these numbers help establish the theme of dates and birthdays in the piece, they also help establish the tone. They are like nostalgic milestones; every time readers encounter one, they enter one of Gibb’s memories with her.

Imagery as demonstrated in “Ten felt very big—those two digits, one so straight and mature, the other so round and promising” and “…being able to watch the candles flicker, and marvel at how many birthday wishes past have already come true” bring life to the simple numbers and memories Gibbs recounts. Readers can nearly feel the physical warmth of the candles and the slightly more intangible warmth of the happiness emanating from all the wishes which have already come true. The vivid description of the number ten makes ten not only an abstract number, but a concrete segment of time in Gibbs’s life.

This piece’s ability to draw readers in emotionally is its biggest strength. It speaks from the heart and communicates a touching, thoughtful, and nostalgic feeling. In terms of a reflective essay, this tone is perfect. However, since AP writing is more geared towards concise, clear-cut tones, one weakness this essay may have is the slightly blurred and amorphous effect its particular tone creates. While that effect communicates clearly emotionally, the writing is not organizational enough to be well suited to an AP exam.

Class Notes: Weeks 16-17 (2/7/11-2/17/11)

Heart of Darkness Discussion:

· symbol system: Geography matters! (connection: Remember, we learned this in one of Foster’s chapters)

o various techniques Conrad uses comes together to create a map which guides us to a moral system

o by piecing together the symbols, we can obtain the map

o creates different layers of allusions: Eden versus Hell versus Purgatory

§ Is Eden actually Hell? Are they any different?

§ What’s the difference between Hell and Purgatory?

o Conrad uses language to create philosophical areas:

§ Inner Station versus Outer Station

§ syntax of descriptions of the jungle and Africans versus description of the “white sepulchre” and whites

§ river has certain color and atmosphere

· women in Heart of Darkness:

o there seems to be different types:

§ ignorant, acquiescent, the “proper” woman of the time: the Intended

· Marlow’s aunt seems to be classified within this group on the surface, but she might actually be Marlow’s intellectual equal; that’s why Marlow seems to feel threatened by her

§ woman who have more influence or powers than Marlow-make him feel very uncomfortable: the Fates, his aunt, the African woman

§ powerful women: the Fates, the African woman

· the African woman is the anima: female embodiment of the land

o like a goddess figure

o personifies Africa

o since Kurtz is involved with her, suggests that Kurtz’s true love is the Congo

· frame tale:

o formal narrator only introduces and sets up the story, but he is not the true narrator

§ Marlow is the true narrator

o Why does Conrad choose to insulate himself so much?

§ maybe wanted to insulate his own opinion

§ Is Marlow himself racist? Is his attitude different from Conrad’s?

§ layers created by frame tale shields Conrad from readers

· economic versus cultural imperialism:

o economic: extract as many resources as possible

o cultural: military or economic means to impose own culture

o Marlow is definitely against economic imperialism, but evidence suggests that he is supportive of cultural imperialism

§ always describes the Congo and Africa as “savage” and “uncivilized”

§ portrays Africa as the heart of darkness which corrupts Europeans, instead of the other way around

§ Does this mean that Conrad supports cultural imperialism as well?

· Is Heart of Darkness a romance or irony?

o We established irony for several reasons:

§ circular ending of the story: in the end, everyone is headed into the heart of darkness again-in other words, the story started at the nadir and ended at the nadir

§ Marlow was enlightened, but even he himself says that his experience is “inconclusive”

§ the prevalent theme seems to be that the heart of darkness is everywhere; it lies dormant within the heart of each human

Apocalypse Now (Heart of Darkness in Film):

· reworking of Heart of Darkness through story about the Vietnam War

· excellent example of displacement-where essential structure and meaning of the story is retained, but setting and other details change

· very clever reworking, since many Americans can relate to the Vietnam War more than they can relate to something more far away and in the past, such as imperialism and Africa

Main Ideas of Homework:

· two Heart of Darkness forums:

o “The Psychology of Heart of Darkness”

§ analysis of a character, symbol, or event from a psychoanalytic critical viewpoint

o “Techniques in Heart of Darkness”

§ analysis of the imagery, syntax, diction, figurative language, etc. that Conrad uses to craft his theme

Overall Connections:

· Our analysis of the techniques Conrad uses to shape his theme again reinforces the AP idea of “form follows function.” Essentially, we’re picking out HOW (the techniques he uses) Conrad creates MEANING (the theme).

· Cultural imperialism is a major theme of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. It is no wonder that he condemns Conrad in the article we read. Because I read Things Fall Apart, I found the article and Achebe’s reasoning very compelling.

· In Heart of Darkness, the river is the single most important geographic feature. This reminds me of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In both, it seems like the story flows with the rhythm of the river.

Class Notes: Weeks 14-15 (1/24/11-2/4/11)

*General caution: When describing something which has the qualities of works within a literary period but is not written within the literary period, don’t capitalize: romantic versus Romantic *

Medievalism and Allegory:

Medieval Literature:

• texts written during Europe’s Middle Ages: c. 500-1500 C.E.
• religious texts predominated, but there were secular texts
• famous texts:
• Beowulf
• The Canterbury Tales
• Bible-based “Mystery Plays”
• society = paramount over individual
• many texts not attributed to specific authors-thought of themselves as conduits for passing down tradition rather than innovators
• creative = insult
• heroes in text often support social order
• Dante’s works = on border of Medieval + Renaissance lit.

Allegory:

• type of extended metaphor
• objects and persons within text represent meanings that lie outside of text
• one-to-one correspondence between representer and represented
• representations must work together to create unified message
• falls down when trying to appeal to wrong audience
• example: Animal Farm
• Medieval Allegory:
• allegory became hallmark of medieval lit.
• commonly represented:
• abstract qualities-e.g. envy, truth, gluttony
• personified events-e.g. death
• social institutions (e.g. Church)
• prominent persons (e.g. monarch) were
• usually concerned with important matters-e.g. meaning of life and death and route to salvation (or damnation)
• sometimes used for satirical purposes

Famous Medieval Allegories:

• Everyman (Medieval play):
• enduring figure “Everyman”-represents all of humankind
• Everyman figure = form of allegory
• modern texts: character who is unnamed or given vague and general personal characteristics
• when settings seem “mythic” or has fairytale quality or is somehow out of the time

• More on Everyman:

o written near end of 15^th century

o probably translation from Flemish play Elckerlijk (1495)-although there is a possibility that it is the other way around

o 4 surviving copies: 2 fragmentary

o best surviving example of morality play

§ evolved side by side w/ mystery plays

§ composed individually, not in cycles

§ allegory to dramatize moral struggle Christianity envisioned in every individual

o plot development:

§ Everyman is informed by Death of his approaching end

§ play shows hero’s progression from despair and fear of death to “Christian resignation that is the prelude to redemption”

· first deserted by false friends: casual companions, kin, wealth

· falls back on Good Deeds, Strength, Beauty, Intelligence, Knowledges-assist him in making his Book of Accounts

· when he dies, everything deserts him except for his Good Deeds

o grim point = we can take with us nothing we have received, only what we have given

• Dante’s Inferno

Dante’s Divine Comedy:

• some argue that it is the epic that most perfectly codifies, articulates, and promotes the traditional Western worldview-allegorical depiction of the Western cultural mind
• three-part epic written in terza rima: Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso
• entire plot takes place in a week’s time
• three beasts and their allegorical representations:
• leopard: self-indulgence
• lion: violence
• wolf: maliciousness
• ghost of Virgil appears at the request of Beatrice to guide Dante out of the wood
• pagan who is a permanent resident of Limbo-the first circle of hell
• allegorically represents both logical reasoning and the highest achievements of the pagan past-poem is warning us that “reason” can only bring us so far toward God-faith must carry us the rest of the way
• Gates of Hellàthree divisions of hell:
• “circles of hell” within each level
• lower the level, worse the sins
• at the very center = Lucifer (the Devil)
• other side of the earth = island mountain Purgatory
• Gates of Purgatoryàseven circular terraces
• each one is one of the “Seven Deadly Sins”
• once the sin is corrected, they can move upward-closer to God
• at summit = Garden of Eden
• Dante sees Beatrice here
• Beatrice guides Dante into concentric spheres of Paradise
• each of these nine spheres of heaven is populated by a separate group of souls-divided into a hierarchy based on their ability to love God
• at the end, Dante sees God himself:
• embodied by three equal circles of light: “three in color, one in circumference”
• poetic reference to the Holy Trinity
• dominance of circle
• valued as an ordered and eternal universe
• no beginning or end
• “center point” = ideal place to conceive of as “God’s realm”—hub of His power, equidistant from all other points in the circle

Archetypal and Mythological Criticism:

• study of connections among apparently disparate texts in order to understand how individual text is faithful to and how it deviates from common patterns
• common patterns = “archetypes”
• plot, character, setting, symbolic object, etc. that we see repeated over and over with its core meaning unchanged
• literary reflections of experiences widely shared by humanity
• reflect deeply embedded patterns in the human mind
• important people:
• James Frazer-noticed that myths tend to have striking similarities from culture to culture
• Carl Jung-Swiss psychiatrist who speculated that reason for recurring patterns in myth might be an underlying structure of the human mind
• “collective unconscious”
• Joseph Campbell-developed “Hero’s Journey” archetype and ”monomyth”-one myth so pervasive that it unifies almost all other mythology
• separation, road of trials, return
• Northrop Fyre-developed all these ideas into a working school of literary criticism
• essentially one story being told over and over
• vast majority of texts should be approached through Archetypal Criticism
• refer to diagram with Romance at the top, then in clockwise order: Tragedy, Irony (at bottom), Comedy

terms used by Archetypal and Mythological critics:

• narrative pattern: culturally learned expected sequence of events in storytelling; ideal form-may not match any real-world text perfectly
• romance: hero starts at high pointàhits low pointsàback at high point; reinforces value of the culture
• tragedy: hero starts at high pointàgets stuck at low point; often takes place in the realm of fate
• comedy: hero starts at low pointàrises up to high point; endorses values of society
• reward is usually materialistic and related to love
• common ending = marriage
• irony: hero starts at low pointàends at low point; parodies of romances
• condemn values of society
• tend to be latest in culture
• meaningless quest in meaningless world
• displacement: dressing up the same story to intrigue the audience

General Trends in the History of Western Literature (refer to chart):

• narrator has lost power over time; less omniscient
• Gods and Fateàmoneyàcelebration of common manàantiheroes
• breakdown of rules and rigid structure
• Renaissance: very structured, specific forms
• postmodernism: anything goes

The Novel:

• any extended fictional narrative almost always in prose
• 19^th century: flowering of the English novel as an instrument portraying middle-class society
• Jane Austen-novel of manners
• Scott-historical novel
• Victorian novelists: Dickens, Thackeray, Trollope-vast fictional worlds with abundance of social types and intricate melodramatic plots
• most critics consider anything under 50,000 words a novella
• novel is always fiction, but not always in prose-some are written in poetry

New Literary Terms (these look GOOD on the AP):

• forms of repetition (term and example):
• anaphora: “We shall not flag or fail. We shall go onto the end” (repetition of “We shall” at the beginnings of neighboring clauses
• antistrophe: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child” (repetition of “as a child” at the end of successive phrases)
• anadiplosis: “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” (repetition of the end of one sentence to the beginning of another)
• diacope: “We give thanks to Thee, O God, we give thanks…” (repetition with only a one or two-word interruption)
• epizeuxis: “Words, words, words” (repetition in immediate succession)
• polysydenton: repetition of conjunctions in a series of coordinate words, phrases, or clauses
• forms of parallelism:
• antithesis: “To err is human; to forgive, dine” (clear, contrasting relationship between two ideas)
• forms of inversion:
• anastrophe: “This is the forest primeval” (inversion of ordinary Western order of words)
• chiasmus: “He knowingly lied and we followed blindly.” (reversal of structure in two connected clauses-in this case, difference placement of adverbs)
• antimetabole: “I know what I like, and I like what I know” (repetition of words in successive clauses in transposed grammatical order

Homework:

• Read Heart of Darkness.

Overall Connections:

• The first thing I think of when I think of the beginning of the English novel is Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It’s no wonder that we’re going to be reading this soon as part of our study of the novel.
• Heart of Darkness makes so many references to Dante’s Inferno. In particular, he brings up Garden of Eden references early on with the allusion to the snake.
• It seems like Dante really employed the “power of three,” as we read in the Foster summer assignment. I wonder if rule of three started with him or existed earlier.
• “The Odyssey” is a very good example of the “Hero’s Journey” archetype.
• The many productions of Shakespeare’s Hamlet we saw are reminiscent of displacement. The modern one, especially, dressed the story up in its own cultural taste, resulting in slight variations which intrigue the audience. Now that I have watched Apocalypse Now though, I think it is definitely a much better and true example of displacement.

Outside Reading Set #3: Book Review

1/9/11

“Where's The Beef? One Man's Search For 'Steak'”

David Sax

Book Review

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129600724

In his review of Mark Schatzker’s book Steak: One Man's Quest for the World's Tastiest Piece of Beef, David Sax takes a primarily formalistic approach. In particular, Sax commends Schatzker’s style: “Much has been written about red meat in books like Betty Fussell's Raising Steaks, Beef by Andrew Rimas and even parts of The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. But Steak stands apart because of Schatzker's fun, accessible style and his willingness to slay the sacred cows of what supposedly makes great steak.” Sax also pays attention to diction, especially appreciative of Schatzker’s vivid descriptions. He often refers directly to Schtazker’s text, citing examples such as: “Grass-fed beef, all the rage with environmental and health advocates, may be more environmentally sound, but as the author finds out, it sometimes tastes like "an old, atrophied, abscessed organ left in the trunk of a car sitting in a Miami parking lot for two weeks in July.”

To show his approval of Schtazker’s fluid style, Sax incorporates his own smooth, parallel sentences: “We are taken from feedlots in Texas, where the wind carries dust storms of dried feces, to French cave paintings of prehistoric cattle. We smell the dewy grasses of the Scottish highlands, chase rare breeds in Italy and enjoy charcoal-grilled rib tips on the Argentine pampas.” In this example, he also makes sure to employ the power of three to drive his point home. Another aspect of Schtazker’s style that Sax echoes is diction: Sax often deliberately includes alliteration in his own writing to emphasize the importance of the diction that he values in Schtazker’s writing. To emphasize the unique nature of Schtazker’s novel, Sax makes direct allusions to other, similar pieces of work. Comparing the former to the latter, it is clear in Sax’s opinion that Schtazker’s novel stands out. Sax’s biggest praise of Schatzker’s novel is its original style and interpretation of a somewhat banal topic. This reminds me of the classic plays we’ve read, such as Oedipus Rex and Hamlet. People watch these plays not for the well-known stories they are derived from, but for the fresh interpretation they provide.

Sax’s careful, direct quotations of the Schtazker’s novel are the greatest strengths of this book review. Not only does Sax make clear, logical claims, he also makes sure to back up those claims with evidence straight from the source. In this way, readers “buy” his argument much more easily. In terms of literary analysis though, Sax could have discussed more elements. To begin with, he focuses primarily on one critical approach: formalism, which in and of itself is a little limiting. Furthermore, he only addresses style and diction. To create a more engaging book review, Sax should try to analyze the book from different angles.

Outside Reading Set #3: Editorial

1/9/11

“I’m Running Too”

Patricia Marx

Editorial

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1582313,00.html

“I’m Running Too” is a comical parody of the presidential candidate speech. Using heavy verbal irony and rhetorical questions, Patricia Marx crafts a witty, sarcastic voice which thoroughly captures my attention. From the start, Marx establishes a strong point of view through: “My fellow Americans: I’m a follower, not a leader. That is why I am declaring my candidacy for President of the United States.” Simply by injecting mocking irony into her statements, Marx pointedly criticizes presidential elections. She asks questions like “What do I stand for?” and gives ludicrous answers: “Universal health care, definitely. Or if not universal, then at least darn good coverage for any and all female candidates from Manhattan who have straight, dark hair, because what if I get hit by a bus driven by someone else in the race?” She reiterates this question-answer format throughout the essay, particularly emphasizing the hypocrisy of the presidential race.

Diction is another technique Marx plays with to shape her comical voice. She often uses puns, such as “For instance, what if, at the end of the year, the government sends you a bill? Not a bill as in “The Senate passed the McCain-Marx bill,” but a bill as in ‘Excuse me, is the tip included in this bill?’” In order to point to the pettiness of the elections, Marx uses a method that is almost the opposite of using a hyperbole: she leads with a relatively important topic, but then immediately trivializes the topic. A good example of this is: “How else am I qualified? When I was a little girl, I dreamed of becoming President. Or maybe I just dreamed that I was president. When I’m President, you can depend on me to roll up my sleeves and do something about that.”

The mocking and satirizing are the main strengths of this piece. Marx uses her strong, opinionated voice to describe herself as a weak presidential candidate. This deliberate contrast sharpened my understanding of her criticisms and drew me into her argument: candidates are not leaders at all, but followers. In this piece, Marx assumes that readers can catch every political reference she makes. This may be a weakness because sometimes, her point is lost on the reader if the reader does not actually catch the reference. Although this essay has a clearly developed voice, it is not suitable for an AP exam because the language is informal and sentences are fragmented. Furthermore, organization is minimal, since the speaker erratically jumps from topic to topic.

Outside Reading Set #3: Reflective Essay

1/8/11

“It’s Inconvenient Being Green”

Lisa Takeuchi Cullen

Reflective Essay

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1686805,00.html

In “It’s Inconvenient Being Green,” Lisa Takeuchi Cullen reflects on her growing concern over her lack of eco-consciousness. The musing, wry tone of the piece suggests that Cullen is not the only one afflicted by “eco-anxiety.” Immediately in the title, Cullen alludes to Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth.” She implies that there is a new inconvenient truth: oftentimes, it just takes too much effort to be environmentally friendly. Therefore, when Cullen describes extreme examples of “green” actions, her tone is gently mocking, since she knows that the average person does not go to such lengths to combat eco-anxiety. In particular, she paints a slightly foolish picture of her own inadequacies: “Like the bear in the commercial, I squeeze it tight. I like my toilet paper. I like it a lot."

Cullen’s effective use of parenthetical remarks, such as “(or 52 square meters, which sounds a lot better)” and “(or 55,636 km, which sounds a lot worse)” add to the feeling of “eco-anxiety” that she describes. Cullen thinks a loud in a series of examples, employing the power of three to emphasize her point and add to her musing tone. In addition to using metaphors such as “Mine is the Sasquatch of carbon footprints. Anxiously I ponder the ways I might reduce my shoe size” to create comic effect, Cullen plays with sentence structure to maintain her dry, humorous tone. In particular, she tends to lead with a clause that sounds serious, but immediately follows that clause with a somewhat silly comment, as demonstrated by “I have seriously considered banning Christmas gifts this year to avoid the senseless consumption of sheer stuff, but I don’t want my kid to say she saw Mommy dissing Santa Claus.”

Cullen’s casual, lighthearted comments draw me into her piece. Though she seems to be mocking the futility of rousing everyone to environmental action, her sarcasm is more playful than dark; this makes her seem much more approachable to the reader. Cullen’s effective communication of her reflection is another major strength of her piece. Often in reflective essays, authors tend to lose readers by adopting a much less focused, musing tone. Cullen’s writing, however, has a very good balance between reflection and analysis; as a result, her point is always fairly clear. The weakness of this piece is its occasional repetition of sentence structures. While this repetition sometimes helps clarify the point, it becomes a little boring after a while. Cullen’s writing is probably not suited for the AP exam because it has many fragments and colloquial terms. The casual tone works for this piece but probably not for the exam.

Class Notes: Weeks 12-13 (12/13/10-1/7/11)

Stoppard Article:

· traditional drama:

o human actions in social context

o action moves from normal situation which is upsetàseries of conflicts as characters seek to cope with upsetàfinal conclusion-something is resolvedànormality = returned

o overall logic

o discernable shape: beginning, middle, end

o consistent logic

o “horizon of significance”: world ordered by certain normative understandings-enable audience to understand what is going on as coherent and accessible vision

§ establishes sense of moral meaning

o confusion at Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is a lack of these traditional elements

· Theater of the Absurd

o refers specifically to the works of a number of modern playwrights: particularly Beckett, Ionesco, and Pinter

o dramatic world seems to have become empty of any horizon of significance

o nothing is reliable

o absurd, without logic, without comfortable reminders about time, space, and memory

o setting = often featureless

o absence of anything that might help one to understand oneself, one’s purpose, or one’s place in the social scheme of things

§ why Rosencrantz and Guildenstern keep asking what they’re doing/where they are

o even protagonist’s identity is problematic

§ why no one (including themselves) seem to be able to tell the difference between Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

o difference between existential and absurd drama:

§ existential-to achieve the dignity of being human, we must act upon our freedom to choose and launch ourselves into the world

§ absurd-no dignity; heroes lack whatever it takes to act confidently in the world; essentially grotesque clowns

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead Discussion:

· Why the insistence on the sameness of the characters?

o audience can clearly see the differences

· Player has the most knowledge

o most mobile character

· “Life in a box is better than no life at all” (71)

o huge thematic statement

o there is actually a knock at the beginning of the play

o stage = box

o Guildenstern is mad in this scene because Rosencrantz strikes a little too close to the truth; the latter, however, just rants without any idea of the insight he is actually spewing

· take notes on Stoppard article (to be updated)

Death of a Salesman Discussion:

Why does Miller use nonrealistic techniques? What are they and how do they follow the important precept “form follows function?”

· memories/visions of Ben

o Ben = symbol of American Dream; therefore, the death of Ben implies the death of the American Dream for Willy

o Ben goes to Africa and Alaska to exploit-emphasizes that an inherent part of the so-called American Dream is stripping others of their resources

o “A man is not a piece of fruit”: point of play-Willy is a piece of fruit; the company strips him of all of his resources and then just tosses him aside

· choppy scenes/transitions from past to present, reality to visions

o shows Willy’s own erratic state of mind

o shows that Willy has no firm grip on reality

o shows that Willy is in denial about what is real and what only exists in his memories

· memories of the past

o the “Golden Days” archetype

o they have 2 cars: Chevy symbolizes the American Dream

§ Willy tells his sons to polish the car-symbolic of encouraging the dream

o Studebaker symbolizes the pipe dream-it’s the car Willy actually drives

§ symbolizes that Willy can never be happy with his current dream of becoming a salesman

How does Linda “mother her husband?” Is this a healthy dynamic? Do her sons have to compete for her maternal love?

· Linda does not demand anything of Willy; instead, she treats him more like a baby

· dairy motif symbolizes breast feeding

· treats his violent outbursts more like temper tantrums

· Linda does not actually respect Willy; she just wants to pacify him

· everyone calls Willy a “kid”-emphasizes his lack of manhood

· Biff and Willy are neglected

o Happy tells her repeatedly that he’s getting married; Linda just tells him to “go to bed”

o Biff laments that he can’t find himself; Linda just calls him a “bum”

loved versus well-liked

· Willy doesn’t understand romantic love or family love

o places more emphasis on being “well-liked”

o brushes off the whole affair with “the woman” as a case of his loneliness

o at the end, says Biff “likes him” when Biff clearly loves him

success versus happiness

· Willy confuses success with happiness

o doesn’t realize that in order for any shot at any happiness, he needs to be true to himself

o only Biff realizes the importance of self-identity in the end

o Happy follows in Willy’s footsteps-wants to “finish what Willy started”

· Ben is happy because he follows his nature

o he is ruthless and ambitious, so he follows that dream

Is it possible to have the wrong dream?

· definitely-Biff makes a reference to Willy’s “phony” dream

· a dream that goes against someone’s nature is the wrong dream for that person

· Willy renounces his joy in working with his hands; instead, he strives to be something he will never be happy with: a salesman

Overall Connections:

· The whole discussion about dreams reminds me of Langston Hughes’s poem “Dream Deferred.” I think the different outcomes of a dream deferred can also apply to the wrong dream. The wrong dream may also “fester” and ultimately “explode,” as Willy’s does.

· When we discussed Oedipus Rex, we also mentioned the theme of “Know Thyself.” Kreon knows himself better than Oedipus Rex does; therefore, he meets a better end. Similarly in Death of a Salesman, Willy dies still not knowing himself, while Biff stays alive and finally figures out that the only thing to do is to stay true to himself. Therefore, at the end of the play, Biff seems to be the only one with a bright future.

· Linda’s nobility reminds me of Penelope’s faithfulness in The Odyssey. However, as a whole, I think Penelope is more pure. Linda is the picture of the devoted housewife, but at the same time, she is a deeply troubled mother. She does not give her kids the maternal love that they need and she does not give her husband the respect that he deserves.

· Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is essentially an absurdist re-interpretation of Hamlet. This reminds me of the discussion we had about audiences watching plays for the new, fresh point of view as opposed for the original story line. For example, people watch Oedipus Rex for Sophocles’s new spin on things, not to find out what happens.