DUE BY TUESDAY, MARCH 10 AT 7:40
Please post your reflection from today's discussion here. You may respond to one or more of the following questions:
**Who said something that made you think during today's discussion? Explain.
**What would you have like to have added that you didn't get a chance to say?
**Did you change your perspective in any way regarding the play or the characters? If so, explain.
16 comments:
I don't remember what Kaity and I were talking about, but she said something that made me re-think what I was talking about.
One thing I didn't get a chance to say was that I think Miller shows sympathy for the family. In Linda's graveside speech she keeps saying, "We're free. We're free." That leads me to believe that Miller wants the audience to know that the family will be okay without Willie.
Coleigh made me think when she suggested that Linda was stuck in "mommy mode." I found that interesting, and it wasn't something I had thought of before.
No one mentioned the irony of Linda's graveside speech when she mentions that she made the last payment on the house that day. Willy was looking forward to that the whole play, and if he would have waited instead of killing himself, he could have experienced it with her.
During the discussion I did not get to discuss my attitudes toward Willy. Although I do not completely sympathize with him, I do feel bad for his downfall. I feel that Willy did not know any better. He was left at an early age by his father, leaving him to make his own accusations about the American Dream. The memory of the successful salesman was the only idea Willy had to base his American Dream.
Also, I sympathize for Linda. Although many people seemed not to like her in the play, I related to her the most. Linda stayed positive and loving throughout the whole play even though she faced a depressed, unfaithful husband, unsuccessful children, a pile of debt, and a dysfunctional family. Although she did not face these problems head on, she did what she knew best.
I was kind of surprised when I heard that everyone seemed to be completely against Willy. He wasn't my favorite character in the story, but I didn't absolutely hate him either. Yes, he was completely stupid for having the affair and turning down Charley's job offers. Yet, there were still times when I felt bad for him. The fact that he seems to live for Biff's love and affection, yet Biff despises him was depressing. Also, I agree with the couple of pages after the story that we read on Friday when it said that even though Willy was wrong, he at least put everything he had into it. Most people do things half-heartedly, but Willy went all out on his dream, and I do respect him for that.
Guys.....these reflections are great! I'd also like to say that I thought the discussion on Friday was very thoughtful. I think that you all posting so much of our discussion online (and using textual evidence for support) has really improved our classroom discussions.
Friday's was one of the better discussions we've had, and I noticed that some who ordinarily don't say much were contributing. I am impressed by the substance of your comments, in class and on the blog.
You really ARE scholars!
My opinion of Linda completely changed. At first I sympathized with her a little, but once we got into the discussion i realized she made a lot of mistakes. Linda just let Willy get away with acting crazy, and let him push her around. I think Linda was very supportive, but that may not be what he really needed at the time. I think she should have called him out.
Ben really made me see a different side to Willy, how he sympathized him. But i still don't feel bad for him =). It was just good to see a different perspetive.
I changed my perspective on Happy. I didn't really think that he might just follow in his father's footsteps, but now I think he might.
I thought it was interesting that Ben was the only person in the class to admit having sympathy for Willy.
I would have liked to talk about Bernard and Charley more. More specifically, how their idea of the American Dream differed from that of Willy. I think the effort vs popularity debate could have been interesting.
I changed my perspective on Linda towards the end of the play. Throughout the entire play I really disliked her because I thought she should help Willy instead of sugar-coating everything and pretending it was ok. She never spoke her mind and she always let him rule over her. For example, when they were in the kitchen and Willy was talking to Biff and Linda kept interrupting Willy wouldn't let her speak and spoke harshly to her. But at the end of the play during the funeral I felt that she was more independent and she was going to be able to provide for herself without Willy.
One thing that I didn't get the chance to share during the discussion was that I wondered if Willy's relationship with his father had an effect on his relationship with his son's.
Also, Ben talked about how he sympathized for Willy. This was a perspective that I had not looked into. While it didn't really sway my opinion it was just interesting to see someone else's outlook on Willy.
Our discussion in class went over pretty well. I think the only additional thing that I would ahve pointed out was the way Willy has high expectations for his sons. Sometimes it seems that he is living through them. It was never brought up, so I thought I'd mention it.
I wanted to talk more about Linda, but we segued into something else before we had covered everything I wanted to cover about Linda. I wanted to ask who thought that Willy's lifestyle would improve if Linda had given him really blunt suggestions or complaints about his current way of living.
Max made me think about how everything Willy did seemed to be his fault and that you cant feel much sympathy for him because of this.
One thing i would have liked to have said during class was what i thought the theme of the play was which is that the American dream isn't all that it's cracked up to be.
I don't feel so much sympathy for Willy anymore, i realize that everything he did was his own fault,he even had chances to save himself but didn't.
Wes made me think that having some sympathy for Willy would not be a bad thing, that maybe he was just blinded by his own ambitions. One thing that I did not get to say during the discussion would be that I think that Biff would have to be the strongest of all the characters in the novel, he is the only character that comes clean with himself and the others in the family.
I thought what stuck out to me the most was not only bens comments about how he felt bad for Willy, but also Mrs. Harl's personal comments that made me see that will was normal and just a human.
What I wanted to say was that I thought willy was just human. Its easy to call him ignorant or selfish, but he did try and if he didnt care for his family he would never have struggled so much for him working as a salesman.
The thing that made me think in the discussion was the symbolism durring willys funeral. I never thought much into it but it seems that it was about Happy learning wrong from willy's death and Biff learning right.
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