Sunday, April 12, 2009

Dying the death of a salesman

Until reading the assignment, I had never made a connection between The Great Gatsby and The Death of a Salesman. However, after reading the thoughts that were expressed in the post, I can see how the two works do have some similarities that can help us answer whatever questions we are left with.
How do we define our dreams of success?
This question is an interesting one, because not everybody has the same dream in life. Everybody wants to be successful, but there are different definitions of success and different ways to attain it. Some people want to be rich. For those people, Charlie is right, we are only worth what we can sell. But does the same hold true for people who want to teach? For these people, wouldn't it be more wise to judge their worth on what they say, and how many people hear? What does the idea of teaching have to do with sales? There are those who use their teaching for gain, but there are others who would be content to teach, and only teach. I don't think the definition of our dream of success are the same, and I don't believe Charlie is necessarily right when he says people are only worth what they can sell.
In this view, our hopes, dreams, and visions can only be limited by our imagination and motivation. I think that is where Willy went wrong. He pigeonholed himself into the notion that Dave Singleman was the essence of perfection, and the only way to reach success was to follow his footsteps. Willy never once asked himself what good Dave Singleman was doing for anybody but himself, and how many true friends Mr. Singleman truly had. Was Mr. Singleman actually happy with his life? I found the author's choice of a name for this character very interesting- single man. To me, this may be alluding to the fact that the man Willy saw as perfection was alone in the world, and Willy was already ahead of the game by having a family. Unfortunately, Willy threw that advantage away by cheating on his wife, a choice that helped his life to crash down around him. Its important to note that Willy cheated when he was at the top of his career. Did he think he earned the luxury of another woman because he was well known? I think its plausible to believe he thought he earned the right to do what he did, because he was on the road to being a successful man. If that was his belief, then it is ironic that such an idea led to his downfall, as his family fell apart and his son Biff, whom he had raised to be a famous ball-player who would one day sign that big contract, disowned him.
I think meeting Mr. Singleman, whom Willy revered as an idol, was the worst thing that ever happened to Willy. He began to think that he deserved the life Singleman enjoyed, regardless of the changing times. He treated himself to pleasure he shouldn't have, and gave himself a false sense of pride. I see this is the reason he couldn't accept the job offered to him on multiple occasions, and possibly the reason he took the easy way out. Maybe dying "the death of a salesman" means to die with as much pride intact as possible.

I would like responses to focus mainly on the last ideas presented in the 2 paragraphs.

1 comment:

  1. Andrew, this is excellent. I think you've done an thorough job thinking through some essential character flaws in Willy. You also ask a number of big questions about life and work, in general, and how that work is/should be evaluated from the perspectives of the individual and of others in society. I think this blog would make a great starting point for a more formal analytic essay that seeks to answer one or two of these 'big questions'. For next year, I'm thinking about asking each of you to submit one larger easy each marking period that draws on the blogs you write. This, in my opinion, would be an excellent candidate for such an assignment.

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