The Unsuccessful Willy Loman Essay Example

The Unsuccessful Willy Loman Paper Fangmei Chen 20080100117 Class 05 Readings from 20th Century British and American Drama The Unsuccessful Willy Loman Willy,as a man of 63,is supposed to come to an age where everything should be settled down. However,he is still suffering in his job even before he commits suicide. His financial situation is unsecure. His wife has to repair her stockings instead of buying a new one. And he has to borrow money from his neigbour Charley,though he never returns them. What has led to Willy’s unsucess in life,and finally even the tragedy of killing himself,we may wonder. My personal opinion is that Willy’s own personality and his illison of success has caused the final unpleasant fact of being unsuccessful. PEOPLE’S OPINIONS Some critics say that this is due to the fierce competition of the society. He works all his life and when he gets old and becomes less productive,the society,represented by his boss Howard Wagner,still puts him on straight commission,and,when Willy asked for â€Å"not travel† on roads(61),he refused and fired him. We will write a custom essay sample on The Unsuccessful Willy Loman specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Unsuccessful Willy Loman specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Unsuccessful Willy Loman specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Even some pointed out that â€Å"Willy was a man who has worked all his life by the machinery of Democracy and Free Enterprise and was then spit mercilessly out, spent like a piece of fruit. †[1] Others say this is due to his blind belief in the American Dream. According to Matthew Warshauer, â€Å"Traditionally, Americans have sought to realise the American dream of success, fame and wealth through thrift and hard work. †[2] As for Willy,he has been on the road when he was only 19. He went through all the hustle and bustle all his life and still failed to success and get what he wants. In this case,he seems to be the victim of believing in the American Dream. But is it true? The answer will reveal itself later during the discovery of his personality. WILLY’S PERSONALITY When trying to find out more about Willy’s personalities,his job as a salesman can be regarded as an open sesame for us to know him. Old Dave is the man who makes an decisive influence on Willy when it comes to the moment of choosing his future career. From Willy’s remembrance of the past,Dave Singleman is a man of 84 who can sit in his room and pick up a phone and then make money. And also, â€Å"he died the death of a salesman,in his green velvet slippers in the smoker of the New York† and â€Å"hundreds of salesman and buyers were at his funeral. †(63)Because of the seemingly comfort and respect of this job,Willy made a final conclusion that salesman was what he wanted to be. Just simply seeing Old Dave’s success and then trying to make himself a salesman indicates Willy’s lack of self-reflection as a part of his personality. Firstly,Willy is different from Old Dave. Dave Singleman doesnt have a family and seems to enjoy his lifestyle as being alone(indicated byâ€Å"Singleman†) and being a salesman. He knows better of himself than Willy of what he is doing and is doing it successfully. Willy,however,deep in his heart,is in great need of love. In the flashback of the love affair in Boston,Willy said that â€Å" ‘Cause I get so lonely-especially when bussiness is bad and there is nobody to talk to. †(173) He can’t bear the loneliness of leaving his family and travelling on roads all the time while this is what a salesman’s job demands for. How can a person who can’t adapt himself well to his job be a successful person,or at least a happy person? We can see more details about how he feels about his job and find out how his own personality has an effect on his job,which is a failure in most degree. Sometimes he thinks lowly of himself and doing self-accusation. As he said to Linda, â€Å"My God,if businses don’t pick up I don’t know what I’m gonna do! † â€Å"I gotta be at it ten,twelve hours a day. Other menI don’t know they do it easier. I dont know whyI can’t stop myself—I talk too much. † â€Å"I’m fat. I’m very-foolish to look at. †(172) Although a salesman is supposed to be self-confident most of the time, Willy seems to lack self-confidence to assure himself. And that won’t help him with his selling work at all. He is also very mercurial about himself. He can feel upset about himself at one moment and turns to be very ambitious at the next moment,and vice versa. At scene I,he once said,â€Å"Oh,I’ll knock ‘em dead next week. I’ll go to Harford. I’m very well liked in Hartford. You know,the trouble is,Linda,people don’t seem to take to me. †(171) From what have been analyzed above,we know that Willy is inadequate for a salesman’s job. And his personality of being lack of confience contributes largely to that. Sometimes he seems to know that he oesn’t do his job well. â€Å"I get the feeling that I’ll never see anything again,that I won’t make a living for you, or a business,a business for the boys. †(173)Meanwhile,in the next line,he reveals his great ambitions: â€Å" There’s so much I want to make for—† . (173)And this is also mentione d before his flashback, â€Å" Someday I’ll have my own business,and I’ll never have to leave home any more. †(166) However,he makes himself feel like that he is doing a good job. When Linda asked if he had sold anything,at first he said, â€Å" I did five hundred gross in Providence and seven hundred gross in Boston. That number finally cut to a total number of seventy dollars and some pennies by the insistent questioning of Linda. In this way,he seems to cheat himself for feeling better. Finally,when Charley wanted to offer Willy another job as a solution to support his family,Willy refused. He is of too high self-esteem to receive it. In this way,he cuts out a way to survive himself in the competitive society. So,society shouldn’t be to blame in Willy’s tragedy. WILLY’S ILLUSION OF SUCCESS Willy’s view of success can be indicated in the case of Old Dave and later of the play. He believes that â€Å"to be well-liked is the means to being successful. † Not only he hinself believes in this motto,but he also teaches his son Biff following his concept. When Biff was a football star in high school with three scholarships to three universities,Willy thought his son had been successful. And it didnt matter even if he didnt work hard on his math and failed the exam. Actually, â€Å"Willy’s strong desire to be well-liked is what drove him to have an affair in Boston. The fact that she would go to bed with him promoted his ego after a hard day of being turned away by buyers. [3] Actually,Willy is the one who knows his own â€Å"dream of success† and sticks to it strictly and overactively. He totally involves himself in the illusion of success. We may find that Willy seems to be exceptionally proud of a ceiling that he had installed in the living room. It was a task that the successful Charley could not perform. †Still in scene I,Willy and Charley have this talk: WILLY:Did you see the ceiling I put up in the living-room? CHARLEY:Yeah,that’s a piece of work. To put up a ceiling is a mystery to me. (178) Willy is good at the carpenter job and he likes it but he wouldn’t admit. When Biff suggested him for being a carpenter, he said ,â€Å"Your grandfather was better than a carpenter. † Biff,in the process of finding himself,confesses to himself that he doesn’t like life in the prosperous east and would rather enjoy a more primitive life in the west. While Biff is more aware of his own willingness, illusion of success again gets in the way of Willy’s happiness. Willy’s wish is to â€Å"get rich quick† like his brother Ben,who,according to Willy’s memory,describes himself as, â€Å"when I was seventeen I walked into the jungle,and when I was twenty-one I walked out. And by God I was rich. †(182)Willy doesnt care about how his brother made his money as far as his being rich has already fulfilled his illusion of success. In the end, he â€Å"sells† his life for a twenty-thousand-dollar insurance policy in order to stake his sons fortune. As analysed by Paul Rosefeldt,â€Å"His death becomes merely another ‘get rich quick’ scheme. Charley and Bernard, Willys neighbors, prove that success can be achieved, but for Willy Loman, who has absorbed too many American Dreams, the system inevitably becomes destructive. [4]The way Willy persuits his success is as the way of flying moth rushes towards fire,which brings destruction upon himself. CONCLUSION Willy’s unsuccess is due to his own personality and his illision of success. The competitive society still offers him opportunity as presented by Charley and his belief in the American Dream has become obsessive. The illision scheme of success carries him far away from the ro ad of success and even promotes his death in order that his son could success in the way he wishes. This unsuccessful image of Willy did leave for us many thoughts and force us to review the definition of success. REFERENCES: [1]website:Homework Online Study Guide http://www. homework-online. com/doas/discussion. html [2] Matthew Warshauer,Who Wants to Be a Millionaire:  Changing Conceptions of the American Dream, http://www. americansc. org. uk/Online/American_Dream. htm [3] The Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District:English Resources: http://www. bellmore-merrick. k12. ny. us/death. html [4]Paul Rosefeldt ;Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition  © 2007 by Salem Press, Inc

More Words Drawn from Trahere

More Words Drawn from Trahere More Words Drawn from â€Å"Trahere† More Words Drawn from â€Å"Trahere† By Mark Nichol A recent post explored tract and other words derived from the Latin verb trahere (â€Å"draw†) that are based on tract. Here, other words stemming from trahere that do not build on tract are listed and defined. The descendant of trahere that most closely resembles tract is trace. To trace is to discover or follow, to form or imprint, or to copy or record. A trace is a path or line (or a geometrical intersection), a barely detectable or measurable amount or a vestige of something, or a marking or plan. Someone or something that traces is a tracer, such as a substance that enables observers to chart a process or the progress of a condition in a medical patient; a tracer bullet is ammunition that gives off light or smoke to mark its path, helping the gunner determine accuracy of aim. To trail is to extend or hang down, to carry, drag, or tow, to lag behind, straggle, or plod, to dwindle, or to pursue prey. A trail is a course or path or a sign of progress along a course or path portray, such as a mark or a scent. It may also refer literally to something that is or appears to be drawn along or figuratively to an aftermath. Something that trails is a trailer, such as a vehicle that carries cargo or another vehicle or serves as a temporary shelter. In filmmaking, a trailer is an extra length of film attached at the end of a reel of footage or, counterintuitively, a short selection of footage from a film or television program that serves as a preview. Treat, from trahere by way of tractare, which came to mean â€Å"conduct oneself† or â€Å"manage,† means â€Å"bargain,† â€Å"negotiate,† or â€Å"deal with.† Extending the sense of â€Å"deal with,† treat also came to refer to medical attention, and from the other senses it eventually applied to food or drink offered to others. That sense resulted in the use of treat to refer to a delicacy (as in the Halloween expression â€Å"Trick or treat†) and, by extension, a pleasant experience. The noun treatment pertains to how something is managed or how one behaves toward someone or something, or to medical attention. (A medical condition is called treatable or untreatable based on whether there is a cure for it.) To maltreat or mistreat is to abuse; the noun forms are maltreatment and mistreatment. Meanwhile, a treatise is a methodical argument or exposition that treats, or deals, with a topic, and a treaty is a document that details an a greement resulting from negotiation. Entreat means â€Å"plead,† from the sense of negotiation; an act of pleading is called an entreaty and the notion of doing so is entreatment. To retreat is to draw back, literally or figuratively, and a retreat is such a movement, or an event at which one withdraws from one’s daily routine to study or reflect. American English directly borrowed trattoria, an Italian word for a small restaurant, to refer to such establishments, usually ones featuring Italian cuisine, in the United States; the word stems from the French verb traitier (meaning treat), which derives from tractare. To train (from trahere by way of traginare) is to literally or figurative draw along by directing, instructing, or teaching, or to subject oneself to such actions. One may train an aiming device at a target or objective, and train can also mean simply â€Å"drag.† A train is one or more of various things (or people) drawn by something else. It can consist of one or more connected vehicles drawn along a road or a railway by an engine, or simply a moving line of vehicles (or people or animals); it can also refer to a group of followers or attendants. (To entrain is to board a railroad train.) Train might also pertain to support vehicles and personnel for a military unit detailed for combat, to a series of mechanical parts that enable motion or a literal or figurative equivalent for achieving results, or to an order of occurrence or a succession of thoughts or actions. A train is also that part of a gown fashioned to trail along behind the person wearing it. One who trains is a trainer, and one who is trained is a trainee. Someone or something that can be trained is trainable, and the antonym is untrainable. (Something not or not yet trained is untrained.) To retrain is to train again, and training is both a verb referring to the action and a noun referring to the act or process (as well as an adjective). Portray (literally, â€Å"draw forth†) means â€Å"draw† or â€Å"paint†; the result is a portrait. (Both words also refer, by extension, to any characterization or description of one or more people.) Portraiture is the act of making portraits, though the word may also be synonymous with portrait. Trait, derived from trahere by way of tractare, means â€Å"characteristic† or â€Å"quality† or, less commonly, a stroke or trail. (Traitor is unrelated; it stems from tradere, meaning â€Å"deliver,† and is therefore related to trade.) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Grammar Test 1Does "Mr" Take a Period?Confusion of Subjective and Objective Pronouns

Perspectives on African Experience- Examine Ayi Akwei Armah's Essay

Perspectives on African Experience- Examine Ayi Akwei Armah's representation of the failures of decolonisation and national independence in The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born - Essay Example who is the main character in this story, is the protagonist, who seems to be the embodiment of good morals since he is not corrupt and has refused involvement in its gleam. The author wishes to communicate uprightness and good character through the Man, in order to awaken Ghanaians to the reality of corruption, materialism, poverty, political rhetoric and desperation. Promises made during the fight against colonialism were socialistic by nature, featuring equality and betterment of people’s lives, but none of them were fulfilled during the reign of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, or even after the coup. The novel brings out the reality of life in Ghana after independence, where people’s dreams of a better nation were shattered by the filth of corruption at that time. The Man’s dream was to go to the University of Legon, a dream that never came true just like most Ghanaians’ dreams of a better nation were shattered by the corrupt government system that came into power a fter colonialists had left. In this paper, I am to discuss in detail how the author uses symbolism to show moral decadence in the post-independence Ghana, and how it applies to other African states today. The theme of corruption covers the larger part of the novel, as witnessed by the Man on his way to his working place at the railway administration, when the conductor in the bus refuses to return the full change and keeps extra amount over the normal fare as his (Armah 1968, p.1). The conductor smells the cedi and says that it is strange that a man could have so many cedis pass through his hands and yet not really know their smell, implying that the conductor was money hungry. The bus in this case represents Ghana, the conductor represents its leaders, who are very corrupt and the passengers are the Ghanaians. The poor citizens in most African states participate in the economy through working but the money ends up in a few people’s pockets (Ferguson 2010, p. 170), no wonder the conductor is mocking the