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Literature Analysis

Literature Analysis

Death of a Salesman

By Arthur Miller

​Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller is a tragic fiction play about the final day in the life and death of a salesman.  The main character, Willy Loman, is a traveling stocking salesman near retirement age.  Although he has had moments of success in his career, the recent years have been difficult and his mental condition has deteriorated to the point that he can no longer functionally cope with his condition/relationships and he takes his own life.  The story is tragic in that Willy is unable to resolve his relationship and economic issues and resorts to taking his life.  Willy’s emotions travel from highs to lows in a matter of moments, and he retreats into delusions and memories to escape reality.   The main theme of the story is that excessive pride, deceit, betrayal, and unrealistic expectations are contributors to the tragic demise of Willy, the salesman.

Willy is in a ridiculous competition to demonstrate his success in terms of money and outward appearances.  This alienates him from his sons as they cannot live up to his exaggerated expectations and deceitful interpretation of their accomplishments.  Willy has passed on some of his tragic traits to his sons, Biff and Happy, but they have moments of recognition and search for resolution to their emotional conflict.  They are both in their thirties and are home visiting on the last day of Willies life.  Biff had been athletic and good looking as a high school kid, so his dad made him out to be a huge success, even though he failed math and did not graduate. Happy has had to live in Biffs shadows, but at least he has been able to hold a job as an adult.  They admit in a conversation to each other in Act I that neither one is actually happy or satisfied with their lives, but they pretend otherwise. Willy excessive pride prevents him from working on his problems and he refuses to take a job from his friend Charley because he has always viewed himself as superior to Charley.  

Miller uses a lot of symbolism in the story to support his theme.  He sells women’s stockings and had had an affair while he was traveling.  He had given new stockings to his mistress, but his wife, Linda has an old torn pair which she mends.  Willy has betrayed his wife and he knows the pain of betrayal, as his own father had abandoned his family when Willy was young.  He also has trouble with his refrigerator and automobile, that serves as a kind of technological betrayal or betrayal of the belief in materialism as a measure of success. Linda, Willy’s wife has the most realistic view of everything that going on, but she is powerless to change anyone and ends up taking Willy’s abuse.  Linda’s lecture to her sons in Act 1 serves as a warning and foreshadowing of how both the business and the boys have taken advantage of Willy of the years and now abandoned him in his time of need. Miller uses Willy’s psychotic flashbacks as a way to introduce the past and develop how Willy has over exaggerated and deluded himself and his family for a long time.  This adds an element of self - responsibility to Willy’s tragedy.  He not just a victim of an emotionless profit driven industry, but he has contributed to his condition.  Miller uses foreshadowing in the title of the play, so we are prepared for the salesman’s death.  Linda is already aware that his recent car accidents may not have been accidents and that he was perhaps going to asphyxiate himself with fumes from the furnace when she fides a rubber hose connected to the appliance.  

Willy and his sons are all developed by direct characterization, and lesser characters like Bernard and Ben are developed with indirect and direct characterization.  Willy is very insecure in who he is because he lies to himself and other people about his success.  It is Biff and Linda who sees the truth about who they are and try to bring the others back into reality, but the task is difficult and they get caught up in the hope that Willy’s reality has a chance.  Biff is the most dynamic character in the play because he confronts the delusion and exaggerated image his father has created of him and there is hope that can break out of the family mold.  Happy on the other hand is a fairly static character.  He is superficial and pretends his job is more important than it is, but he is more financially successful than his brother who has spent time in jail for stealing from an employer, but he also seems more ingrained in self-delusion like his father.  The characters do seem like real life people.

Proof of Heaven

Proof of Heaven, by Eben Alexander, M.D., is an inspiring and beautiful story of the author’s struggle and ultimate victory over a severe and rare case of bacterial meningitis.  The quick and violent onset of the disease left Eben in a coma for 7 days with virtually no hope for any recovery when he miraculously just snapped back to life and then fully recovered. The book is his recollection of the 7 days in a coma where Eben recalls his journey into a spiritual word more real than anything he had experienced in life.  Eben story is compelling and believable because of his scientific background and deep understanding of the workings of the human brain, but believable or not, the beautiful message he brings back from the “Devine Source” is just simply worth believing in.  The message is essentially: “You are loved and cherished, dearly, forever.”  “You have nothing to fear.” “There is nothing you can do wrong.” The story is a basic testimony to the existence of a truly unconditionally loving God and the existence of Heaven.  Both concepts are worth believing in despite any scientific discussion.  Eben Alexander had been a neurosurgeon for over 25 years and was well equipped with extensive scientific knowledge, but he is not able to scientifically explain his experience.  He also does not attempt to relate the “Devine Source” to any existing religion; he simply returns with the message and presents it to the reader as an uplifting, empowering and enlightened gift with no strings attached.  Such a message is not entirely new as it was also the message of some other books I’ve read like, The Consolation of Philosophy  (500 A.D.) and A Course in Miracles (1972).   The implications of such beliefs are actually very revolutionary as these beliefs form a foundation on which a truly sustainable society can be built.  It is the basis for a potential “Heaven on Earth” concept as opposed to the “controlled Hell” concept that most other belief system layout as the highest achievable standard for human civilizations. 

Literature analysis

Literature Analysis

The Grapes of Wrath

By John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is a fiction novel about a poor farming family’s very difficult migration from the drought stricken dust bowl of Oklahoma in the late 1930’s to the “promised land” of California where their survival was equally challenging and difficult.  The depressing theme of the novel was consistent from beginning to end in that difficulties and challenges followed the characters, with any hope and salvation in the novel abiding in the individual choices that each character makes and the struggle of the small (but perhaps more moral)communities against the overall oppression of the larger (but perhaps immoral) establishments.

The story begins as the main character, Tom Joad, is hitchhiking back to his family after being released from prison.  He had served four years of a seven year sentence for killing a man “in self defense”.  The unfairness theme of the novel begins, as we sympathize with the ex-convict, who seems like a decent person.  He meets up with an ex-preacher, Jim Casy,from his home town near the Joad family farm.  When they get to the farm, they find out the family has been forced from their land, because they had not been able to pay their mortgage during the drought conditions.  The family is at an uncle’s house preparing to head to California with the hope of better fortune. But even on the way and in California the Joad family faces difficulties and challenges.  Greed and abuse of power are the main antagonists and come in the form of big banks, large landowners, those that work for them including individuals and government entities like police; and even religion and nature.  With so many antagonists, Steinbeck appears to have a pessimistic view of society.  Steinbeck’s hope comes in the form of a few selfless acts of kindness within the disaster and a hope that the individuals who can act with empathy and compassion could unite without losing their empathy and compassion in the process.

An example of Steinbeck’s helpless disdain for big banks can be found in chapter 5, when he describes the bank as a “monster”.  “It’s the monster.  Men made it, but they can’t control it.” (P.33) Despite the recognition that the banks does stuff that the people don’t like, the people are helpless to change it. In contrast to the institutions that can’t seem to be controlled by the ones who created them, individually, Steinbeck creates characters that have deep flaws, and sometimes have trouble controlling their behavior, but at least have the ability to change and to be kind and compassionate.  Steinbeck introduces this theme of unity of individuals early in the story when ex-preacherCasy tells Tom why he doesn’t preach any more, but that he’s convinced that “Maybe all men got one big soul ever’body’spart of.”  Casy repeats this unity philosophy when he gives race at the Joad family breakfast in chapter 8. The Joad familystruggles to remain together throughout the story.  The theme of an individual’s commitment to something greater than himself works both ways in the story.   The commitment to something greater than you is used as an excuse to carry out orders that hurt other people as well as to help them; it just becomes the individual’s choice.  

Steinbeck uses many literary techniques to bring depth of understanding to his story.  He uses the conversations between Tom and the truck driver and Jim and Tom in the beginning as backstory to allow the reader to understand the Tom’s past experience in prison.  Tom sum’s up his prison experience in the passage “You don’t look for no sense when lightning kills a cow, or it comes up a flood.  That’s jus ‘ the way thins is. But when a bunch of men take an’ lock you up four years, it ought to have some meaning.” Tom’s speech style shows that he is not sophisticated by formal education, but his reasoning is sound and profound. By the end of the story, life in prison didn’t seem as challenging as the hard times afterward.  Steinbeck uses a lot of foreshadowing for example when Rose of Sharon worries in chapter 13 that seeing their dog be killed by a car is bad for her baby and then the baby is stillborn later.  The dark tone of the store is evident in the imagery and symbolism from the following

 passage describing a sunset on the drought ravaged landscape: “A large red drop of sun lingered on the 

horizon and then dripped over and was gone, and the sky was brilliant over the spot where it had gone, and a torn cloud, like a bloody rag, hung over the spot of its going.”  Steinbeck uses personification in the passage that “..darkness crept over the land from the east.” 

Steinbeck uses mostly direct characterization to develop the main characters.  Tom Joad and Jim Casy spend many pages talking a philosophizing and although they don’t have a lot of formal education they say some deep and profound thins.  For example Jim experience as a preacher left him wondering about Jesus and God, but when he just spent more time reasoning about Jesus and God, he was able to come up with concepts for them that gave him more comfort.  Characters like Uncle John are developed using indirect characterization.  We understand Uncle John from Tom’s story about how his wife died after he down played the stomach ache she complained about.  Uncle John was not able to forgive himself for her death. Tom is a dynamic character.  He is able to adapt to the negative circumstances of his life and really learns to connect to the present and to other people.  Tom matures throughout the story becoming more connected and involved in helping the oppressed migrant workers in California. Tom’s mother is also a strong and dynamic character.  She holds the family together in the tough times.  

Steinbeck does an excellent job of eliciting emotions from the reader and his style makes the story real and believable.  Despite the general darkness of the story with so much suffering and hardship, there are moments of hope and salvation.  The story is about a specific set of event in America’s history, but the theme, that an individual’s purpose involves believing and behaving with the conviction that you are working for something bigger than yourself, is timeless.  

In class essay #4

In class essay #3

In class Essay

    Throughout the novel The Poisonwood Bible, the main character Mr. Price experiences a huge cultural change.  After being born and raised in a wealthy American suburbs, him and his family's move to Africa in order to spread their beliefs and end up learning more about themselves along the way.  These effects that the change in surroundings play on Mr Price and his family help to portray the author's theme of figuring out your beliefs through experiences over tradition. 

    Mr. Price experiences an awakening in Africa when he discovers many harsh aspects of the world he had been unaware of in his life in America.  These discoveries helped to develop his role in uncovering the theme throughout the novel.  Mr. Price being a devout christian father was always family oriented and loving.  The experiences he encounters in Africa affect him and his family much differently.  Mr. Price remains strict on his morals and ideas and excepting of anything else.  Mr. price begins to push away from not only those villagers but his family.  Mr. Price also begins to develop more anger and this makes him less and less appealing to his own family.  Ironically, Mr. Price's mission to spread Christianity in Africa ended up with his own family leaving him. 

   The change in culture experienced by the family in The Poisonwood Bible played a large impact in helping to reveal a theme of the novel.  Experiencing new ways of life and beliefs can change a person's own if they are accepting to question their own.  The beliefs of some change due to these experiences while others sometimes stay constant in the things they believe and choices to be accepting of anything else distant them from many others with opposing views.

1999 Essay question 3

Throughout Shakespear's play Macbeth, the main character, Macbeth, experiences much internal conflict.  His mind is pulled in two conflicting directions.  Macbeth wants power but at what cost.  He begins to contemplate and then decide on the murdering of those who control the power he is destined to have.  By shakespear using these internal conflicts of Macbeth he helps to reveal some of his themes in the novel such as the power struggle and how power affects a person.  Macbeth was pushed by his wife to quicken his line to ultimate power by killing which left him with feeligs of guilt and remorse but still that want for power grew stronger.  The internal conflict that Macbeth faces also is well used by Shakespear to convey the theme of pursuation and influence others have on you.

1999 Essay

In the passage from  Cornmac McCarthy's novel The Crossing, McCarthy used many techniques in order to convey the impact of the dramatic experience the main character experiences.  McCarthy used elements such as metaphors and personification in order to give the descriptions of the experience more life and more impact to the reader.  He also used pathos in order to allow the reader to feel a little for the main character in his loss.  McCarthy also used a lot of imagery in order to make the reader most easily picture this dramatic experience.

Poetry Essay Prompt #2 (2007)

In Philip Larkin’s poem “Here”, the poet takes us on a journey, using many literary elements to travel from the busy city to the quiet rural land “beyond a beach of shapes and shingle.”  The poem is itself a paradox in that the places in the poem are described with vivid imagery and detail, but without judgment as to favor, and the “here” ends up somewhere else that is “out of reach”.

The poem contains four stanzas, each containing eight lines, with an alternating rhyming scheme where mostly every other line rhymes, but occasional adjacent lines rhyme, giving the poem both structure and informality.  The structure and informality is consistent with the mostly nonjudgmental nature of the poet’s descriptions.

The first stanza contains description of moving with the word “swerving” used a couple of times, implying an element of both surprise and urgency to get past the industry and traffic and through the fields that aren’t well enough kept to be meadows.  The journey takes a final “swerve” past the people to get to a quieter landscape of “skies and scarecrows, haystacks” and hares”.  The poet uses this alliteration to add an element of contrast, highlighting the change in the sounds of the landscape he is describing.  

The next stanza gives additional description and imagery of the rural to urban transition.  In this stanza, the poet does judge the urban life a little unfavorable as he uses words like “crowded”, “dead” and “stealing” to describe the activity of the people getting to their “desires” to buy “cheap suits” and other kitchen and household appliances. 

The third stanza gives more physical description of the city to include “the slave museum”, “tattoo-shops”, and “consulates”.  As we pass out of the city the “loneliness clarifies” and we get to the “here” that the poet obviously prefers. 

The final stanza uses paradox like “hidden weeds flower” to give the idea that beauty can be hidden in what someone might consider a weed implying that one’s perspective is important in the discovery of significance in the things around you.  The possibilities of the undeveloped landscape give it an awe inspiring quality that the developed city has lost. The “unfenced existence” is liberating.  The poet uses the contrast of shadows in the first stanza to the sun in the last stanza to demonstrate his preference for the rural liberating “here”.

Peotry Essay Prompt #1

The two poems “To Helen” by Edgar Allan Poe and “Helen” by H.D. demonstrate the opposite esteem for the subject Helen.  The Helen of Poe’s poem is described with high regard as a very beautiful and inviting woman, whereas, in stark contrast, the Helen of H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) poem would be beautiful and inviting only if she were dead.

Poe’s poem is written in three stanzas of five lines that have definite rhyming patterns where two of the three lines rhyme and then the other three rhymes.  The first stanza has the pattern a/b/a/b/b.  Poe uses a simile to compare his Helen’s beauty to that of Helen of Troy, who was considered one of the world’s most beautiful women. Her abduction by Paris caused the Trojan War.  The reference to the “Nicean barks” is the war ships sent to retrieve her and the “weary, wayworn wanderer” is likely Odysseus who voyages took over ten years during his return from the Trojan War. The classical references are used to capture the timelessness of Helen’s great beauty.  Poe describes Helen’s hair as “hyacinth” or reddish-golden with the allure of a graceful “Naiad” or nymph.  She is so inviting that she welcomes him home with “the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome”.  In the final stanza, Poe’s Helen is immortalized, transcending time like a statue with an agate lamp symbolizing the connection to the Psyche, or soul.  The poem is a tribute to a beautiful woman, held in high regard.

On the contrary, the Helen of H.D.’s poem is hated by all of Greece.  In this three stanza poem, a couple of the lines in each stanza rhyme and the stanza length increases by a line as the poem progresses. This disregard to form highlights the disregard the author has for the Helen of the poem. Like Poe, Doolittle describes Helen’s appearance, and even though she has qualities of beauty like white skin and olive eyes, she is too hated to be considered beautiful.  As the poem progresses, Helen is blamed for past tragedies and the description of her appearance changes to the appearance of a pale unmoving form, resembling death.  There is no regard or sympathy for the Helen who was so widely accepted as a symbol of beauty and love.  The Helen of this poem has been blamed for all the Greek casualties of the Trojan War. 

The portrayals of Helen in these two poems are examples of two extreme interpretations of the physical appearance and symbolism of a historic figure.

Fahrenheit 451 Multiple Choice Questions

1. “It has features. This book can go under the microscope. You’d find life under the glass,

streaming past in infinite profusion.” (pg. 83)

What is the theme of this book?

A. Books make up life.

*B. Look deep down in a book to get the true meaning.

C. Put a book under a microscope to find its features.

D. There is an infinite amount of aspects of a book.

2. When the firemen tell people that if you are caught with a book, your house will be burned

down, what type of propaganda is this?

A. Repetition

B. Loaded Words

*C. Appeal to our basic Needs and Desires

D. Loaded imagery

3. When the people are not allowed to read books. It shows that they are…

*A. not knowledgeable (stupid)

B. believing in nothing

C. lazy

D. easily manipulated

4. “The Boulevard was as clean as the surface of an arena.” What literary device was

used in this quote?

A. Metaphor 

B. Personification   

C. Simile 

D. Foreshadowing

5. “Montag approached from the rear, creeping through a thick night.” What

character trait was shown in this quote about Montag? 

A. Sneakiness

B. Bravery   

C. Incompetence 

D. Intelligence 

 

6. “When I leave, burn the spread of this bed that I touched.” What common

character trait was shown in this quote about Montag? 

A. Bravery

B. Nervousness   

C. Intelligence

D. Sneakiness

7. The cities won’t do well over the next few days,” is an example of 

a- personification

b- propaganda

*c- foreshadowing 

d- metaphor

8. “I’m not worried,” said Mrs. Phelps, “I’ll let Pete do all the worrying. Not me. I’m not

worried.” The repetition in this quote gives the feeling that 

*a- Mrs. Phelps is worried

b- Mrs. Phelps is confident

c- Mrs. Phelps is happy

d- Mrs. Phelps loves Pete

9. “The real reason, hidden underneath, might be they didn’t want people sitting like that,

doing nothing, rocking, talking.” shows the idea that

a- It is bad to relax

b- When people think, bad things happen

*c- Thinking breeds change

d- The government is evil

10.  “That’s the good part of dying, when you’ve got nothing to lose, you run any risk you

want,” shows the theme that

a- Everybody needs to die at some point

*b- Doing what is right is more important than one person’s life

c- When one has nothing to lose, they should die

d- When one is going to die, they should do anything they want

11. “It’s fine work, Monday burn Millay,  Wednesday Whitman, Friday Faulkner, burn

‘em to ashes, then burn the ashes.” is an example of what kind of propaganda 

a- repetition

b- appealing to fear

c- loaded words

*d- slogan

12. The real reason, hidden underneath, might be they didn’t want people sitting like that,

doing nothing,” is an example of the government controlling the information. What

incident in history can this be retaliated to.

a- The Boston Tea Party

*b- The Red Scare

c- The Cold War

d- WWII

13. In the quote, “But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of ashes, he got himself born all over

again,” who/what is Granger talking about?

a) The city

b) Phoenix

c) Montag

d) The Hound

14. Granger says, “And it looks like we’re doing the same thing, over and over,” what is he comparing us to.

a) Clarisse

b) Human kind

c) Beatty

d) Phoenix

15. “He waded in and stripped in darkness to the skin, splashing his body, arms, legs, and head with raw

liquor; drank it and snuffed some up his nose,” why did Montag do this?

a) As a substitute for showering.

b) To get rid of his scent so the Hound can’t track him down.

c) To go suicide and burn himself to death.

d) To use as a disease repellant.

16. What device is used in this quote, “Leave that stuff in the blood and the blood hits the brain like a mallet,

bang. A couple of thousand times and the brain just gives up, just quits.”

a) Foreshadowing

b) Metaphor

c) Simile

d) Diction

17. In this quote, what is the characters tone’s: “Mildred kicked at a book. Books aren’t people. You

read and I look all around, but there isn’t anybody”(73)?

a. excited

b. disappointed

c. frustrated

d. decisive

answer is c.

18."Pride, dammit, and temper, and you've junked it all...", shows Montag's _________?

a. enlightment

b. self-pity

c. happiness

d. disgrace

19. The book continuously mentions something that helps find books in people’s

homes. What item are they talking about?

a. Montag’s car

b. Their fire truck

c. The Hound*

d. The city bus

20. In the quote, “So now do you see why books are hated and feared? They show

the pores in the face of life,” what theme is shown?

a. Books explore detailed feelings and aspects of life

b. Books scare people

c. Pores on a face are hated and feared

d. Books who you what you really look like

ANSWER: A