In class, we have been reading and analyzing Death of a Salesman. Personally...I mean I can see why many people like it, and I can appreciate it...but I don't necessarily like it. The characters all annoy me- Linda is too passive, Willy is too hypocritical and blind, and Happy doesn't like to look at issues past the surface. Biff is okay, but he can't redeem the whole play. When I was annotating it and thinking back to The American Dream, I found the symbolism more subtle, but I also felt that interpreting the whole story as an allegory for the American Dream in general was kind of a stretch. Internal issues tied together in beautiful circles, but I couldn't see how you could explicitly reach the conclusion that it meant something more externally, because I'm sure you could fit the ideas into multiple different puzzles to come up with different pictures.
Sunday, 4 November 2012
Response to Course Material
In class, we have been reading and analyzing Death of a Salesman. Personally...I mean I can see why many people like it, and I can appreciate it...but I don't necessarily like it. The characters all annoy me- Linda is too passive, Willy is too hypocritical and blind, and Happy doesn't like to look at issues past the surface. Biff is okay, but he can't redeem the whole play. When I was annotating it and thinking back to The American Dream, I found the symbolism more subtle, but I also felt that interpreting the whole story as an allegory for the American Dream in general was kind of a stretch. Internal issues tied together in beautiful circles, but I couldn't see how you could explicitly reach the conclusion that it meant something more externally, because I'm sure you could fit the ideas into multiple different puzzles to come up with different pictures.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Short and sweet. Nice job! I agree with you on the "not necessarily liking Death of a Salesman". I found it interesting how my opinions on the characters evolved as I got more and more into the reading. My opinions on Biff, especially. I started out thinking he was one of the weakest, and with all the annotating and movies and discussions I've come to...understand him more. I still think he's a bit weak, and I don't really like him, but I think I respect his character a bit more.
ReplyDelete(Sorry of the sidetrack. Back the response!) Following up on your American Dream vs. DOS comment - I think it's interesting how DIFFERENT the two plays are. DOS seemed to have more details and stage directions. I liked different things about both plays but I noticed in DOS I sometimes got really mixed up about what was going on. With the "realities" and "flashbacks" and references to the past sometimes I didn't know where to begin to look for examples!
I like your final point about finding different puzzles --> different pictures. Well said!
Quick question (and you don't need to answer) but maybe give more thought to what you specifically you liked about one play over the other? What techniques did the authors use that you liked/didn't like?
You have good reflection on the in-class Death of a Salesman. I agree with what you're saying about the characters. For me, when I watch/read Willy's lines, I almost feel a faint sense of disgust, but it's also just kind of sad, the way he's so desperate to cling to the past. Is there anything you learned/think about the blogs we've been doing?
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see you guys looking through notebooks, assignments, and planners, and glancing over the Spruz calendar before you write these so that your memories are fresh and you can be thorough in covering the things we do in the textbook, the in-class assignments and activities, and so on. Also, remember that the primary aim of this assignment is to synthesize old and new material and to synthesize new material with material from other courses and the "real world."
ReplyDelete