Response to Course Material #2
Death of a Salesman:Film
The 1985 version of Death of a Salesman, followed the 1949 play with accuracy and detail. The performance given by Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman and John Malkovich as Biff Loman was astounding and really spoke truth to Arther Miller's characters'. I had never seen an adaptation of the play before so I have nothing to compare the 1985 version to, but I do not see how it could've been done any better. The set followed the book description, as well as the flute music in the background, withered Mr. and Mrs. Loman, and the displeasing sons. An interpretation the film made was what Willy would be doing that triggered his frequent flashbacks/daydreams. Specifically, whenever Willy would flashback to the time Biff found Willy's mistress, or moments before, they were triggered by Willy looking at his reflection. This little technique did not disrupt the comprehension of the play's storyline;instead it helped the audience realize how bothered Willy was by that particular memory. Another interpretation that the film made that elaborated on the play was the white light that seemed to follow Ben. Ben was dressed very dapper and in all white which starkly constrained with Willy's slouchy tan colored work clothes. Willy's brother seems to appear almost like an angel with all the light that seems to radiate from him. On page 44 of DOAS in the stage directions, Miller describes Ben to have "an aura of far places about him." When reading this, I thought that far place was Heaven which makes sense since Ben had died years before the play took place. Overall, I thought the film was very powerful because it gave a real depiction of how the simple desire of wanting success for yourself and your family can destroy a person.
Poem
The poem we read in class about , presumably, a man reminiscing about his father and the story he told him as a child about a day he spent with his father (speaker's grandfather) harvesting corn. As a class, we analyzed diction and imagery used in the poem. My favorite image invoked by the poem was of the masculine hands scooping tiny pink mice from the fertile dirt. After we discussed how this image could symbolize how men played a fundamental role in the nurturing and care of their children was really beautiful to me. The connection made between fatherhood and nature stood in my mind and was revisited when I read Death of a Salesman. Biff had dreams of going West and working on farms because this made him feel more of a man, a human, than working in the city did. Also, I saw the idea again when Willy is planting seeds in the front yard. I do not think it is by coincidence that soon after Willy is planting vegetables, his beloved son Biff decides to abandon his own roots and leave...for good. I saw the link between the poem and the play the best when I thought about the passing down of traits from father to son. In the poem, storytelling was passed down by fathers to their sons, as well as the active prescene. The speaker's grandfather was a strong figure in his son's life, who grew up to be a strong figure in the speaker's life. In the play, Willy's father had a desire for success and in his pursuit, abandoned Willy. Willy spent his life trying to meet his father's expectations (although he probably never spoke with father). Once he had developed a load of insecurities being the the "unsuccessful son" and never becoming a prominent salesman, she goes on to sell the idea of success and adhering to his father's drive for commercial success to his sons.
I like and don't like this organization thing you're trying out, here--you know that I LOVE me some organization, Audrey. But even though you've done a great job synthesizing DOS with the poem inside the "Poem" section, limiting yourself to these two categories means you've left out a lot of stuff--learning about distractor and question types, the STIFS technique, "Promises like Pie-Crust," and so on. Maybe you need to add one more category to your posts: "Everything Else." =)
ReplyDeleteAudrey,
ReplyDeletei think you did a great job of explaining DOS, like myself i haven't had anything to compare the version to because i haven't seen this play before. i thought you pointed out really good points from DOS, especially about whenever Willy had looked upon reflections and Willy's recurring memory about the Mistress, but maybe you could add something about how that affected Biff and why Willy was so bothered by the scene? like, is it the thought that he got caught that's troubling him? or realizing how this is going to affect his son because of this and the results of that, he gets reminded of the memory. I would liked it if you added something about the telegram or the recording machine? and what we discussed about that. but maybe thats more a close reading analysis of the play haha.
Agreeing with what Ms. Holmes said, maybe you could add more instead of limiting yourself to just two categories because it leaves out a lot of stuff. Like what you think of the class so far? What new things have you learned? what did you feel about the Multiple choice practices?
First off, I think you may have a typo toward the end of the first paragraph. You write "constrained" referring to Ben and Willy's clothing, but I think you meant "contrasted." Also, I'm wondering where you are getting the idea that Ben died long before the play took place. Is that somewhere in the text and I missed it? My take was that Ben had just recently died, like a few weeks or so ago. I agree with you that the John Malkovich and Dustin Hoffman's interpretations of Biff and Willy, respectively, were near perfect! I also like that you compared the cyclical nature of "My Father's Song" with the cyclical nature of DOAS. There are a few errors here, for instance in the second or third sentence you refer to Malkovich and Hoffman's portrayals singularly when it should be plural, and also don't forget that DOAS should be italicized whether you are referring to the book or movie version! And, of course, as Ms. Holmes said, and as I'm sure you're aware of, you did leave out quite a bit of material from the class. I think you'll do much better next response period!
ReplyDeleteHi Audrey,
ReplyDeleteI like how you connected My Father’s Song to Death of a Salesman. I didn’t think the two had much to do with each other at first. Your post showed me that they do relate. I noticed that Biff wanted to go to West. I didn’t notice that Biff leaves soon after Willy is planting seeds. I agree that you can compare the influence of fathers in both pieces of literature. I think that they contrast really well. In the poem the grandfather, father, and son have a healthy relationship. While in the play Willy didn’t know his father and he fills Biff with delusions about reality. He does try to sell his views to his sons and is successful with Happy and Biff but his influence over Biff is gone when he learns about the affair. Good response to course material but you might want to include the different types of tragedies and the other poem Promises Like Pie Crust.