1990. Choose a novel or play that depicts a conflict between a parent (or a parental figure) and a son or daughter. Write an essay in which you analyze the sources of the conflict and explain how the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work. Avoid plot summary.
Deceitfulness and betrayal are the central conflict in Death of a Salesman. In the story, before we know the ending to the story, we see that Biff constantly scorn at Willy, most people will think Biff’s action are very disrespectful, and that he is very ill-mannered in almost every way possible. But as we read on, we begins to see that the reason behind Biff’s action was the deceitful life he had to live under, and the feeling of being betrayed by his own father, caused Biff to seem like the villain of the story.
The Lomans are almost all extremely self-deceptive, and in their respective delusions and blindness to reality, they fuel and feed off of one another. Willy, the main focus of the story, convinced himself that he is successful, well-liked by all, famous everywhere, and that both of his sons are destined for greatness. Unable to cope with reality, he entirely abandons it through his vivid fantasies and ultimately through suicide. Linda and Happy similarly believe that the Lomans are about to make it big. Not connected with the reality, and believe that Willy truly is famous. But the other members of the family, Biff, grows to recognize that he and his family members consistently deceive themselves, and he fights to escape the cycle of lying.
Biff went away from home for a few years. He wants to get away from Willy, and get away from these lies. He knows he is not good enough of a person or worker. And he knows he cannot be successful in the world of business. He wants to be himself and not the person in his father’s dream. Biff knows the lies his family is living under, he tries to convince everyone in the story, but he was accused for being lazy and not trying. While Biff is the only one that sees the reality, he was cast away from the rest of the family, causing conflicts to happen within the Lomans.
Death of a Salesman is full of betrayal. Willy betrays Linda’s love and Biff’s trust with his affair. As the chief betrayer himself, Willy is preoccupied by the fear of betrayal. His frequent accusations that Biff is spiteful reflect his understanding that Biff’s failure in business is a rejection of Willy’s own dreams of success, and that Biff’s inability to keep a job is related to Willy’s love affair. Even outside of his family, Willy feels that his boss is betraying him by firing him, but Howard says that there’s no room for feelings of betrayal in the business world.
No one else but Biff knows the story behind Willy’s betrayal. Biff was the only one at Boston when he caught Willy having an affair with a young woman. He immediately loses all of his respect toward his father. Unable to accept the truth, Biff left the family without saying a word to the rest of the family. After he came back, Biff said Willy was a fake but refuse to tell why, causing conflicts between Linda and himself. Willy feels everything that went wrong is a betrayal toward him. And Biff is the only one that knows the wholes story, he is also the only one that understand the Lomans are living under a lie, so Willy feels Biff is betraying him in everyway.
Biff went away from home for a few years. He wants to get away from Willy, and get away from these lies. He knows he is not good enough of a person or worker. And he knows he cannot be successful in the world of business. He wants to be himself and not the person in his father’s dream. Biff knows the lies his family is living under, he tries to convince everyone in the story, but he was accused for being lazy and not trying. While Biff is the only one that sees the reality, he was cast away from the rest of the family, causing conflicts to happen within the Lomans.
Death of a Salesman is full of betrayal. Willy betrays Linda’s love and Biff’s trust with his affair. As the chief betrayer himself, Willy is preoccupied by the fear of betrayal. His frequent accusations that Biff is spiteful reflect his understanding that Biff’s failure in business is a rejection of Willy’s own dreams of success, and that Biff’s inability to keep a job is related to Willy’s love affair. Even outside of his family, Willy feels that his boss is betraying him by firing him, but Howard says that there’s no room for feelings of betrayal in the business world.
No one else but Biff knows the story behind Willy’s betrayal. Biff was the only one at Boston when he caught Willy having an affair with a young woman. He immediately loses all of his respect toward his father. Unable to accept the truth, Biff left the family without saying a word to the rest of the family. After he came back, Biff said Willy was a fake but refuse to tell why, causing conflicts between Linda and himself. Willy feels everything that went wrong is a betrayal toward him. And Biff is the only one that knows the wholes story, he is also the only one that understand the Lomans are living under a lie, so Willy feels Biff is betraying him in everyway.
Thesis
ReplyDeleteAgain little introduction to the topic. You don't identify a source of the conflicts with Biff and Willy. You don't have any meaning in the thesis. You did not answer the prompt at all.
First Paragraph
I don't know to what extent you can call Linda and Happy disconnected to reality. I think they, especially Linda, is very aware of the current situation. Don't get hopeful and delusional mixed up.
Second Paragraph
Lots of plot summary going on with too few connections. You turned your thesis of Biff and Willy having problems into Biff and the rest of his family having problems. Stay consistent.
Third Paragraph
Too much plot summary. Why does this matter? You need to link this back to your thesis
Fourth Paragraph
Just more plot summary....with a little more anaylsis
OVERALL
The thesis is flawed. It in no way answered the prompt. There was too little analysis of the conflict between Willy and Biff and no explanation for how it contributed to the meaning of the work. In fact there was no mention of meaning or DIDLS anywhere in the piece. This essay was essentially all plot summary.
"we see that Biff constantly scorn at Willy" -> "we see that Biff constantly scornful of Willy"
ReplyDelete"most people will think Biff’s action[s] are very disrespectful"
"and the feeling of being betrayed by his own father, caused Biff" -> "and the feeling of being betrayed by his own father, causing Biff"
Those are just a few examples of some grammatical/spelling errors. I can understand if English is not your first language, but the AP examiner cannot, and it sucks if this is the case. It is, however, an AP (English) literature course, and you may do well to really double up and study English grammar/vocab along with the AP lit course material if this is the case.
This essay, however, did a better job than the previous ones in answering the question of meaning and answering the prompt. Your thesis is similarly lacking in specific answers to the prompt, especially the question of meaning. Your conclusion and supporting evidence, however, seem to indicate that the American dream is an illusion, and that this might be Miller's message/theme/meaning. If that is your intention, you may want to specify that this is the meaning of the piece in both your thesis and in connection to your supporting evidence.
You do have a bit too much plot summary here, and if you aren't going to substantiate your claims about the rest of the family being deluded, maybe just don't mention them and focus on Biff and Willy. Also, you really do have a LOT of usage errors in this essay. AND you never connect all of this to the play's overall meaning (theme). So there are some serious issues with this piece that would cause it to probably be scored low.
ReplyDeleteBut the good news is that it's actually the bones of a really great piece. You're really on the right track here. If you just added one element to the thesis--a statement of how Miller is using this conflict to illustrate his overall meaning in this play--and then added a paragraph at the end that supported that claim, and cleaned up some of the usage errors, you'd be home free =)