Blog #17: Close Reading 4

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/opinion/sunday/extinctions-effect-on-childhood-toys.html?ref=contributors

With Christmas Eve and Day just around the corner, parents all around the world are searching for the perfect presents for their little ones, Lydia Millet discusses how the extinction of favorite animals may possibly affect the presents given to little ones. With comparisons to the dinosaurs of days long ago, the growing number of animals that are going extinct are sure to have an impact on future child. Millet proves her point that of through the use of imagery, diction, and details throughout the article. With these devices Millet convinces the reader that the extinction of foreign and exotic animals will affect child in many different ways.

Through the use of imagery Millet takes the reader back to their childhood days and makes them feel connect to the point that she is trying to prove. To capture the readers attention in the first paragraph the author sets the scene of a typical Christmas present that the readers have grown accustom to, "By then the regular troops were weary, though still stalwart, still brave. Some had lost limbs, others an eyeball" (para 1). This intrigues the reader to continue reading and sets the stage for the topics to come. Millet also uses the description of foreign animals to appear to the senses of readers and to acquaint them with the beloved animals that may cease to exist, "They had claws or shells or impossibly long necks; they had spotted fur, manes like halos. They had soft pouches to carry their babies in" (para 3). The familiar idea of these animals makes the reader feel, no matter what age, the familiar ping of their childhood memories creeping back into their minds. The author sets to prove that without these exotic animals, child will miss out on parts of the imagination that child before hace been able to access. 

The diction found in this article also helps persuade the reader toward believing the point the author is trying to make. The use of animals to teach lessons is one aspect that Millet believes children will miss if more animals face extinction. "We read our children stories starring elephants and monkeys and bears to teach them about nobility, curiosity and courage", by using the words "nobility", "curiosity", and "courage" the author choose these words that would evoke emotions from the reader (para 4). These traits are all traits that parents want their children to embody and to prove her point, this diction is used so that readers, as parents, can see the importance that these animals have to the character development of children.

Finally, the author uses several different details to makes the reader see the importance of saving animals on the verge of extinction. By comparing animals such as lions, tigers, and monkeys to a familiar extinct animal, the reader is given a distinct parallel that can be related to. "If the dinosaurs are any indication, there’s a place in our pantheon for the extinct" though this doesn't directly show negative effects, the implication that parents draw through this comparison proves Millet's point (para 8). This detail, shows firsthand what some possible effects would be if animals became extinct. Millet also discusses the alternatives to child playing with these warm and cuddly stuffed animals, "Will Barbies and robots be enough for those future children? The hybrid monsters of fantasy video games, the fossil-based reconstructions?" (para 10). These toys tend to have a negative connotation and not always a parent's first choice. This once again, makes readers lean toward the savior of exotic animals for the children of the future.

Through the use of details, imagery, and diction, Millet proves to the reader how important it is to save exotic animals from extinction. Through showing the effects that child could face from not being able to fantasize about these animals, the reader finds a new-found respect for the importance of creating a safe and diverse environment.

Blog #16: Open Prompt 4

1987. Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes in social or political attitudes or in traditions. Choose such a novel or play and note briefly the particular attitudes or traditions that the author apparently wishes to modify. Then analyze the techniques the author uses to influence the reader's or audience's views. Avoid plot summary.

    During the time in which Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice, marriage customs were much different than those of today. Young woman were expected to marry older men only for the purpose of reproduction and the accumulation of love. However, Austen sought to change this standard and create a marriage the contains love and a true desire to be with each other. By creating relationships between characters that are foreign and unusual of her time, Austen attempts to persuade readers that the marriage standards of her time needed to be changed. 

     One marriage custom of Austen’s time was marriage within families. Although this idea differs from that of our time, in the nineteenth century it was deemed acceptable for two cousins to get married to each other. This type of relationship can be found in Pride and Prejudice. In the novel, when Mr. Collins comes to town he decides to marry one of the Bennett girls, his cousins. After much thought and consideration, Mr. Collins decides to propose to Elizabeth, who ultimately rejects his proposal even though she had no other suitable prospects at the time. Mr. Collins goes on to marry Charlotte Lucas, with whom he was not related to. Although marriage between cousins was allowed at the time, Austen’s decision to have Elizabeth reject her cousin was deliberate in showing her disapproval of the custom and her tendency to agree with the need for change in marriage. Because Mr. Collins ends up with a woman that was of his own social class and that was not related to him Austen shows something that she may want to see in a marriage. 

     Although Mr. Darcy has the option to marry whomever he wants, he chooses to marry Elizabeth Bennet even though she is of a lower social class than he. She has significantly less money, her family name is not one that is important to carry on to further generation and in the beginning, shows no interest at all in Mr. Darcy. Darcy fights to win Elizabeth, and in time he does. The love-struck couple soon decides to get married and not worry about the financial and social difference between the two. This was not like many relationships of the nineteenth century. Typically men of the time would marry rich women for their money and status in order to maintain their own family status and inherit the wealth of their wife.. Mr. Darcy however does neither of the two by marrying Elizabeth. With this relationship the key components of a modern day marriage are present. This is very similar to the relationship depicted by Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, showing a strong resemblance to marriages of modern times and Austen’s probable approval of marriages now.

      The relationships shown is this novel defy the standards of 19th century marriage and are a cry of help from Austen asking for change. Not only does Austen defy the standards, she creates many solutions as to what a marriage should look and be like. Though risky at the time, Austen work foreshadowed the marriage concepts of our time and possibly inspired the change.

Blog #15: Summary of "Death of a Salesman"

Death of a Salesman: Summary

Author: Arthur Miller

Setting: New York, partially in an apartment, other parts in various sites around NYC (Howard's office, a nice restaurant, and Charley's office). Parts of the play take place in the present, other parts in various memories of Willy's (unclear whether or not they are exaggerative).

Plot: The beginning of the play starts with Willy surprisingly coming home early from one of his traveling business trips, the reason for this is unclear. Once talking to his wife, Linda, she tries to convince him to leave his job as a traveling salesman and ask his boss for a job in NYC so he would no longer have to travel. Once deciding to ask Howard for the job in New York, the conversations moves on one of their two sons, the oldest Biff. Willy is disappoint that Biff has yet to settle and essentially become more like himself (this is one of the driving plots of the play). As Willy leaves to go get a snack, the scene flashes to Biff and Happy talking in their room. The boys discuss their father and how he is seemingly beginning to lose his mind and is talking to himself. They also discuss the glory days of the young and what they want from their future, moving together out West and owning their own farm.        

     Going back down to Willy, we now enter the first of many of Willy's memories. The memories starts with Willy and his boys when they were in high school goofing off in the backyard. The atmosphere is care free until Bernard comes in begging Biff to come study with him, so that Biff won't fail his math class. Willy quickly shoos him off in order to gain the full attention and admiration of his boys again. Almost right after Bernard leaves, the boys are once again interrupted, but this time by Linda who wants to talk money with Willy. Questioning how much he has made on his last trip, Linda finds out that Willy may not be a honest as she had thought. At first the amount of commission Willy claimed to had made would have be enough to pay the several sets of bills the Lomans have but the truth soon comes out that he has not made as much as originally thought. 

     As Linda begins to fiddle with her stockings, the laugh of a woman is heard onstage. This woman is assumed to be a woman that Willy is having an affair with. As the laughter gets louder, the memory shifts to one of the woman and Willy inside of a hotel room in the midst of a night together. After the woman brings up stockings, Linda's laughter mixes in with the Woman and the scene is transferred to yet another memory. This time Linda, Bernard, and Willy are discussing how Biff needs to begin to study in order to pass a set of exams. Willy however, doesn't understand the importance and yells at both Linda and Bernard to stop pressing Biff to succeed in school. 

     Now back in the present, Happy makes his way down the stairs after hearing his dad from his room, briefly causing a stir and waking the neighbor Charley. Once Happy goes back upstairs, the men begin to play cards, but this is soon interrupted with the intrusion of another one of Willy's memories, this time about his brother Ben. This memory was on of the first times that the family had met Ben and shows what Willy's life could have been. Ben had wanted Willy to come with him to Alaska but he had chosen not to. Each time that Ben appears in a memory we see Willy trying to convince him that his life is successful and that he is happy. We then learn that Ben actually went to Africa and found diamonds in the jungle.

    As Ben leaves the Loman's house, the play goes back to the present with Willy in the kitchen and Linda walking into the room. After a few minutes of talking, Willy goes outside for a walk and the two boys come down to talk to their mom. Biff talks about his concerns regarding his dad and Linda blames him for not becoming successful and disappointing Willy. Linda then reveals shocking news to her boys, Willy has been trying to kills himself. This causing the boys to rethink the problems that are faced in their house. Willy comes back to the house and begins to fight with Biff. To diffuse the situation, Happy tells his father that the two boys have a plan to ask for money in order to begin a new business. This news excites Wily and helps mend the drift between him and Biff. After heading to bed, Biff removes a nozzle on the gas pipe (put there by Willy) so that he could not kill himself. 

     The next act starts out by Linda telling Willy that the boys want to meet with him for dinner after Biff meets with Bill Oliver. Leaving in good spirits, Willy goes to meet with Howard to see if he can begin to work in the New York office. The scene starts off with Howard showing Willy his new recording device, uninterested Willy asks if he can work in the NY office. After being rejected Willy causes a scene and is fired by Howard. There are two memories after this, first another involving Ben asking Willy to go to Alaska and the next before Biff's big football game in high school. Still  in the memory, Willy leaves the office and goes to Charley. Now with no job, Willy goes to Charley to borrow money to pay bills. There he sees Bernard and they discuss Biff and his failure in life. Willy begins to blame himself and get upset. Once Charley comes into the scene, he gives Willy money and offers him a job. Taking the money, but not the job, Willy leaves to go meet his boys. 

   Once getting to dinner Biff tells Willy that he had no luck with Oliver and stole his pen. Willy can't believe that happened and refuses to face the truth. Biff storms off and Happy (with two girls) follow after him. Willy locks himself in the bathroom at the restaurant. Once in the bathroom, another one of Willy's memories begins. After failing math, Biff goes to meet his father in Boston. Biff walks in on Willy and the Woman and can't believe that Willy would cheat on Linda and looses all interest in making up his credit to graduate. After going back to the present, Willy realizes that his boys are gone and leaves to go buy seeds to plant. 

     Back at home, Linda yells at the two boys for leaving their dad and kicks the out of the house and out of their lives. Once knowing that he will have to leave, Biff goes to say one final goodbye to his dad. After a huge fight and hashing it out, Willy learns that Biff is only doing it out of love and finally realizes that Biff has found is place in life and puts him at ease. After one final flashback with Ben, Willy gets in the car and kills himself to provide the insurance money for his family.

Significant Characters: 

-Willy- seemingly going insane, sporadic, specific moments in the present trigger his memories, exaggerative, pushes all his hopes and dreams on Biff, treats his wife more like his mother, struggles to maintain control of his life, wants to be successful, equates success with being liked, sacrifices his life in order to save his family, lives with the guilt of his affair, 

-Linda- only relatively sane character, wants to protect her husband, only one that shows emotion, treats Willy like a child, resentful toward her children's lack of respect for Willy, naive to the issues surrounding her family

-Biff- expected to be like his dad, wants to defy the standard, rejects his dad after finding out that he has an affair causes him to no longer go to college or graduate, equates success with being happy, hasn't found his place in life, doesn't want to be like his dad, lost confidence in himself after he didn't go to college, overall not successful in his life

-Happy- not as important as Biff in his parents eyes, has a mediocre life, parallels Willy, wants to carry out his dad's dream after his death, does and says pointless things in order to get the attention of his parents, lives in Biff's shadow 

-Charley- foil of Willy, is successful, Willy is jealous and resentful, seen as the voice of reason, provides money for Willy to provide for his family, Willy rejects his job offer due to embarrassment, Willy's only friend

-Bernard- foil to Biff, graduates high school, becomes a successful lawyer, though seen as a nerd ends up becoming everything Biff could have been, ridicule in his childhood led to his success, tried to look out for Biff but every attempt to help is blocked by Willy

Narrative Voice: none, this is a play

Author's Style: Some techniques used include diction, details, several uses of figurative language, anaphora, andiplosis, antistrophe, parallelism, symbolism, and strong imagery that creates the premise of the memories that Willy has. Since this is a play, there is no specific point of view create. This play has several different tones. Each tone is reflected by a different character. Biff's tone is very harsh and hopeless, this comes from looses his ideological complex of his father and his failure in life. This tone reflects how he feels about life and the American Dream that he should have achieved by now. Willy's tone however is different. When Willy talks his tone can very from angry to awestruck showing his childish side and how he is almost regressing through his life. These two tones showcase Willy's changing opinion on his success and happiness. Imagery is used to create clear distinctions between the past and the present, along with detail in order to help the reader follow along. Symbols also are an important part of Miller's style. One important symbol used is the stockings. Each time the stockings are mentioned, the scene transfer either from Linda to the Woman, or from the Woman back to Linda. Other symbols include football, the Chevy, the seeds, and dairy products. 

Quotes:
-Quote 1-"We're free and clear. We're free. We're free... We're free..." This closing line of the play spoken by Linda is one of the most important quotes of the play and can be interpreted in many ways. Linda could be feeling relief that her husband in no longer suffering in a unhappy life, figuring that death was the best option she can be showing her knowledge that this was the only option for Willy. Another way could be the insurance money aspect. A few lines prior Linda speaks about how she had finally paid off the house, this may not have been possible without the money. Now, she has the financial freedom that should have been provided through Willy while he was living. The final way this quote could be understand is that she and her boys are no longer stuck in the limbo of choosing between Willy's happiness and the happiness of the boys.
-Quote 2-"The jungle is dark but full of diamonds, Willy." Spoken by Ben, this quote can be directly compared to Willy's life. Though his life seems like it was hopeless and empty, there were bits and pieces that stood out and that were important to him. These pieces can be seen in the flashbacks that Willy has throughout the play. Once reliving these moments, Willy then feels that his life is "all out of diamonds" and that he no longer has anything worth searching for.

Theme: One theme found in this play is the typical American Dream has be deluded and diluted, needing some serious change in order to make families happy and healthy.

Support of Theme: Willy equates being successful with being well liked and making a lot of money. This is shown as the typical American Dream, Willy being the key symbol of this. As we see Willy struggle throughout the play, it is directly related to the struggle in achieving what people believe is the American Dream. Willy's death shows how the American Dream is fading and dying off. Biff however represents the second part of the theme, change. Biff essentially breaks the cycle of being a salesman. Though he is unsuccessful in his life, towards the end of the play we see him breaking free and given the opportunity to look for what he really wants in life. The set of the play doesn't seem to have much effect on the play, other than the roof in which Willy in constructing and the constant remarks about opening windows or feeling trapped. This represents how Willy feels like he is trapped into striving to achieve the American Dream even though it may not really be what he wants. The title has a significant effect on the theme. Death of a Salesman should really be called Death of the American Dream, since the salesman is referring to Willy and his death is essentially the death of the American Dream. Lastly, the tone effects the play in a subtle but strong way. The differing tones found in Biff and Willy showcase the two opposing views of the theme and help strengthen the theme throughout the play.

     

Blog #14: Response to Course Materials 4

     Watching the film Death of a Salesman before reading the play was a unique way of beginning our study of the play. At first, I didn't understand what was happening and I didn't understand why we would watch the movie first. But when reading the play, I realized that watching the movie first helped me understand the tone and the structure of the play. It made reading the play easy especially with the flashbacks since there is no clear way to tell what it a memory and what is in the present. This also helped with my close reading. I also used The American Dream  as a comparison to what we studied with Death of a Salesman with both plays focusing on the American Dream it was easy to find similarities and differences between the two. Both plays focus on the change in the American Dream, for the worse. However, each play goes about proving this point differently.

     We also began our study of Hamlet. Normally, I don't like reading Shakespeare plays, but I have found this one particularly interesting. This time while reading I have been annotating as we have been going along. This makes it easier for me to comprehend what we are reading and finding the underlying meaning of the play. Finding the connections between characters helps me understand why things happen and the motives of the actions of the characters.