2003.
According to critic Northrop Frye, "Tragic heroes are so much the highest
points in their human landscape that they seem the inevitable conductors of the
power about them, great trees more likely to be struck by lightning than a
clump of grass. Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of
the divisive lightning." Select a novel or play in which a tragic figure
functions as an instrument of the suffering of others. Then write an essay in
which you explain how the suffering brought upon others by that figure
contributes to the tragic vision of the work as a whole.
In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is a
tragic figure. Readers see that a
capitalistic society leads Willy to stubbornly keep trying to fit into the
elite class. As a result his philosophy
for succeeding in life, and the choices he makes hinders his sons’ development
in life.
Willy thinks that if one is
well liked then he surely will succeed in life.
While Willy is a part of the American dream he is missing one keep
component, working hard; he wants to become wealthy without having to
work. Due to Willy’s thinking about
being a part of the wealthy class and being on top of society, he encourages
his sons to develop the same mentality. Throughout
Biff and Happy’s life Willy has taught them to be popular, because as he says,
“personality always wins the day” (Miller, 65).
Subsequently Biff doesn’t work hard in school; he copies the answers
from his friend Bernard. Biff believes,
as his father has told him, that as long as he is thought of well he will go
far in life. This philosophy is a
misconstrued derivative of capitalistic theory, which encourages hard work which
then leads to success. However, Willy
misses the fact that he must work hard; he has an idea of being wealthy and
providing for his family but he cannot stop thinking that success is derived
from being well liked, and subsequently his teachings hinder his sons’
opportunity for success because they don’t know how to work hard.
The actions taken by Willy
also lead to his family’s suffering.
Willy decides not to follow his brother, Ben, to Alaska where he can
make more money, and instead his stubbornness causes him to stay in New York
and try to win in the epicenter of capitalism.
This hurts his family as they struggle to pay the bills. Again when Biff catches his father cheating
on his mother, he decides to give up on life.
Biff still believes that he will be able to succeed because he is well
liked, but he has lost all respect for his father. As a result Biff is unable to keep a steady
job and earn a living because his father’s actions prevented him from pursuing
a career in life, which could have led to success. The choices Willy makes in life cause his
family to break apart and suffer as they are always arguing over why they
haven’t experienced prosperity.
Willy’s teachings to his
children and the choices he makes in life lead to the tragic end of the
play. Readers feel sorry for Willy as
they realize that his dream to succeed in a capitalistic society fails. All of his effort to reach the top leads him
to an unstable mental condition and eventually his death. Not only is Willy’s death tragic but the fact
that his son Happy wishes to follow in his footsteps and try to reach the top
in such a society so all will know that his father did not die in vain. Willy is the catalyst to his family’s failure
to thrive in a capitalistic society.
I think your conclusion should be a bit different. Instead of talking about Willy as the catalyst to failure in a capitalistic society, talk about how the piece overall becomes more tragic. However, this is just my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI would kind of merge your second and third paragraphs, and then separate them based on the evidence you use. The evidence in your second paragraph should be used to make your third paragraph's point. You really don't need to add more in the third, or -- at the very least -- you should cut out some evidence in the 2nd.
Look more to analysis and responding to the prompt than finding evidence. I found there was a lack of response to the actual prompt in here.
Oops, this post is actually a prompt.
ReplyDeleteIn the first paragraph, there are some grammatical and spelling errors. For example, I think you meant: "one KEY component" not "one KEEP component".
In your second paragraph, the phrase: "decides to give up on life" is much too vague. Instead, you can talk about how Biff refuses to take the summer math class and doesn't how wish to go to the University of Virginia anymore.
I agree with Sam, you might want to write your conclusion about "that figure contributes to the tragic vision of the work as a whole". Just as the prompt says. :) Oh, and you should restructure the second to last sentence the last paragraph that begins with: "Not only is Willy's death tragic...". It becomes a run-on sentence very quickly.
I think you should also address how Willy's actions hurt Linda. The husband's impact on the wife is just as important as the husband's impact on the sons.
You have plenty of evidence to support your points, but you need to explain and tie each example back to the prompt.