Literature Analysis #1 Death of a Salesman

1)  Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, is a story of a father Willy Loman, who is a struggling salesman who is constantly commuting long miles for his salesman job. He is always in an argument with his son eldest Biff who is throughout the book made to seem like failure. Willy gets along pretty well with his youngest son Happy. Willy is constantly getting harassed by his wife Linda about his job, and when Willy finally goes to talk to his boss about changing where Willy works, his boss fires him. Willy throughout the play is getting harassed by Linda and Biff. His wife linda finds out he has been trying to commit suicide but he always denies it. Willy constantly day dreams of talking to his older brother who is a richer man and is always offering Willy a job, but Willy takes this offer to offense. The end of the play concludes with Willy diving off and getting into a car cash and dying.

2) One of the main themes in Death of a Salesman is "betrayal" because throughout the play Biff is constantly butting heads with his father Willy who is only trying to help his son out. He does not take his advice and shuns his dad off showing no respect for him, and doing what he wants to do.

3) The tone in the play at times is very harsh or disrespectful. Biff whenever he talks to his father never shows him any respect and it is always an argument. Harsh because Willy always thinks of his son as a failure so the tone to the audience is often very harsh.

4) One literary technique is hyperbole Willy often exagerates how much of  a failure Biff really is when in reality he is not that much of a failure. Imagery is used when Willy day dreams of his life years back with colorful descriptions of his dreams. Its also very ironic that willy dies in a car crash instead of him committing suicide, in the story he tries to commit suicide many times but fails so its ironic that that was not hte way he "kicked the bucket." Symbolism is used in the story when Willy's brother talks about making money and describes diamonds, it represents Willy's lust for wealth and material items. the story uses flashback when Willy daydreams about when Biff was back in highschool as a star football player.