Death of a Salesman

  Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman is the story of a man, Willy Loman, gone deaf to the outside world. Even though many try to help him, he shuts them out and creates his own reality in which he is successful and loved by everyone. In Death of a Salesman, Willy has many influences both good and bad attempting to direct his life.

   One negative influence in Willy's life is the inability of his friends to confront him about his problems. It is Willy's wife that causes him the most harm; in her vain attempt to protect Willy, she actually allows his eventual death. The first sign of her negligence comes in one of Willy's flashbacks. Willy brags, "I did five hundred gross in Providence and seven hundred gross in Boston". However, as Linda begins counting his commission, the value rapidly diminishes to "roughly two hundred gross on the whole trip"(35). Linda sees what is happening but dos not say anything. A very similar situation occurs later in their life when she finds out that Willy is no longer on salary, but borrows money every week from Charley. By not saying anything, Willy in either of these, Linda allows him to sink further into his false reality. But Linda makes an even worse mistake that allows for Willy's suicide. She acknowledges his suicidal tendencies when she says, "He's been trying to kill himself.” She tells the boys that she has found the rubber hose in the basement, but she still will not confront Willy. Another character who is unable to be straight with Willy is Willy's boss Howard Wagner. Howard allows Willy to keep his job, but does not pay him. If he had just fired him right out; it would of forced Willy to find a new job. By stringing him along, Howard allows Willy to maintain his fantasy world unchallenged. These areexamplesofthemostnegativeinfluencesinWilly'slife
       To start off, the only people who want to help Willy are those who he least listens to. In fact the two best influences on Willy come from the same family. Bernard grew up with Biff and Happy but chose a much different path. At a key time in Biff's life, Bernard warns "If he doesn't buckle down he'll flunk". In this scene Bernard is trying to tell Willy that he is influencing the wrong values in his sons who are destined for failure. Willy however does not want to listen to Bernard because he has the most popular and athletic son in town. But even later when Willy sees Bernard's success he will not listen. Bernard sees that Willy is still holding on to a job that is not working for him and tells him "sometimes, Willy, it's just better for a man to walk away". Willy can only respond by asking "But if you can't walk away?" Charley, Bernard's father, even takes trying to help Willy a step farther. Charley sees early on that Willy's job is not working out and begins offering him a job. Charley continues to offer this job until the end. And even though Willy refuses to take a job from Charley, Charley continues to loan Willy the money he needs every week knowing he will never get paid back. In this play Charley and Bernard are the only characters from the beginning to the end that truly do everything they can to help.
       Because Willy does not want to listen to the outside world, he is forced to create his own sources of guidance.  Ben appears to the audience in the form of Willy's flashbacks. He excites Willy with tales of self-made fortune. Willy uses Ben in order to explain his own sources of guidance. This guidance comes in the form of Ben his brother and Dave Singleman. Ben appears to the audience in the form of Willy's flashbacks. He excites Willy with tales of self-made fortune. Willy uses Ben as a nuisance  in order to explain his own failures. He makes himself believe that if he had gone with Ben, he too would be rich. By doing this he avoids facing his own failures as a salesman. Though we never see Dave Singleman, he is the single most powerful influence on Willy. He is Willy's personification of the perfect salesman. Willy hopes to gain the respect and success that Dave Singleman had. All of the good qualities that Dave Singleman possessed were superficial. Nothing is said about his family life or character.
By creating a mold of the ideal man in his head, Willy sets himself up for disappointment. When he is unable to be the ideal man he wants to be, he loses his will to live and deems himself as a failure. But because he has shut himself off from those around him, no one is able to reach him before it is too late.

their eyes were watching God

 

Whenever a books turns into a film, it is very predictable. Their eyes were watching God was a movie with Halle Berry, Terrance Howard and Michael Eally in it. Every character, setting, and event in this movie had a significant meaning. Their eyes were watching God was released March 16, 2005.  The genre of this movie was fiction and the setting was in rural Florida.

First off, Their Eyes Were Watching God describes the life of Janie, a black woman who experiences different men and love. She was raised by her grandmother and spends her life traveling with different men until she finally returns home. In her journey she finds that she has to depend on different people, two of those people were her grandmother and Logan kellicks. Janie’s marriage with Logan Killicks was arranged by her grandmother; it was by force not choice.  Her grandmother wanted her to marry a decent man before she died, so that Janie would not have to depend on her and would not have a hard life. However, Janie was unhappy because her marriage was not what she wanted; it was what her grandmother wanted. She was just married to be married and the first chance she got to find someone that she thought was worth marrying, she took that chance.

Secondly, the men she dated had a great influence on her look of life. The next man she married was Joe sparks; she met him while she was with Logan. Logan was a well dress black man who was looked highly upon at the community Eatonville. Janie found him as the perfect man until one day the perfect man became the abusive controlling man.  For example, as time passed he wanted Janie to only serve him all three meals each day and wear her hair up because he saw and knew that he was not the only man that wanted Janie; he controlled her by telling her that she could not have the best without him.  It made Janie feel like she was not anything without him

Lastly, Janie found teacake, a young man that was younger than her. She saw things in teacakes that she haven’t seen in the other men she was with; he showed her life, youth, and true love.   For example, he took her to a soul club and she hasn’t been around anything like that. The music and people around her made her feel younger than what she really was and that made her love teacake even more. However, the movie shifts when she has to kill him because he got rabies from a diseased dog that tried to attack Janie in the big hurricane. That showed he sacrificed his life just for Janie.  However, it was still a melancholy scene because the one person who she truly loved, she had to kill.

             In conclusion, the significant parts of the movie shift many times. The setting of this movie changes the mood of the scenes. Janie experienced different men to find herself and was pleased at the end of the movie because she found herself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane  is a 1941 American Drama film.  The movie was the classic masterpiece, Citizen Kane (1941), is probably the world's most famous and highly rated film, with its many remarkable scenes, cinematic and narrative techniques. Within the jumble of its own artistic, Citizen Kane develops two interesting themes. The first concerns the humiliation of the private personality of the public figure, and the second with the crushing weight of materialism. Together, these two themes comprise the bitter irony of an American success story that ends in useless melancholy, loneliness, and death. The fact that the personal theme is developed verbally through the characters while the materialistic theme is developed visually, creating a unique stylistic counterpoint. Its theme is told from several perspectives by several different characters and is thought provoking. The tragic story is how a millionaire newspaperman, who idealistically made his reputation as the champion of the underprivileged, becomes corrupted by a lust for wealth, power and immortality. The apparent intellectual superficiality of Citizen Kane can be traced to the shallow quality of Kane himself.. His clever ironies are more those of the exhibitionist than the crusader. His second wife complains that Kane never gave her anything that was part of him, only material possessions that he might give a dog. His best friend, Jedediah Leland, was a separated observer functioning as a conscience remarks to the reporter that Kane never gave anything away; he left you a tip. In each case, Kane's character is described in materialistic terms. What Kane wanted, love, emotional loyalty, the unspoiled world of his boyhood, symbolized by rosebud, he was unable to provide for those around him, or buy for himself. The film's first sight is a no Trespassing sign hanging on a giant gate in the night's foggy mist, illuminated by the moonlight. The camera pans up the shackle-link mesh gate, which changes into images of great iron flowers or oak leaves on the heavy gate. On the gate is a single and wrought iron K initial. The gate surrounds a distant, forbidding-looking castle with towers. The same shots are repeated in reverse at the very end of the film. The initial and concluding clash of realism and expressionism suggests in a subtle way, the theme of Citizen Kane.