How many still die 'the death of a salesman'? (Post for the week of 3/30/09)

I'm thinking about how Miller's play connects to our reading of The Great Gatsby, especially since I've never taught these two texts back to back before. It's been an interesting experience for me, I must admit. I'm reminded of Ric Burns' film and the emphasis he places on New York during the 1920s as the place where advertising was born. The billboard image of the the eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleberg in Fitzgerald's novel is, I think, symbolic of the increasingly capitalist and consumerist culture of that decade. I'm thinking of a specific line from The Great Gatsby: "Over the ashheaps the giant eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleberg kept their vigil" (p. 124). For me, this description represents the god-like and restless nature of advertisement and consumerism that looms over the poor of the valley of ashes. The billboard is both enticing and frightening. Eckleberg's stare holds the power to draw the masses to it with the promise of financial and professional success that this new America holds, but it simultaneously rejects those who fall short of the mark. It is both inviting and cold.

In my mind Willy Loman is the archetypal fallen salesman, a man who thinks he has found his own version of the American dream in the life of buying and selling (a dream he and Nick Caraway shared). But rather than see the business of sales for the material reality of what it involves, his romantic vision of being 'well liked' crashes when he can no longer keep up with the changing times. Willy recalls in Act II the image of success he had as a young man that formed, in part, when he met the salesman Dave Singleman and saw the apparent notoriety he had achieved. As he says to Howard: "And old Dave, he'd go up to his room, y'understand, put on his green velvet slippers--I'll never forget--and pick up his phone and call buyers, and without ever leaving his room, at the age of eighty-four, he made his living. And when I saw that, I realized that selling was the greatest career a man could want. 'Cause what could be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four, into twenty or thirty different cities, and pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people" (p. 81)? This encapsulates what I see as the 'get rich quick with as little work as possible' American dream of the '20s, one that persists even in our time. But as Charlie points out, the business world cares little for the salesman who Willy describes as being able to create "personal interest" (p. 33). At the end of the day it's a about "what you can sell" (Charlie, p. 97).

So what does all of this mean for us as an audience for Miller's play? As for me, I wonder how many Americans are still stuck in the same system that breaks Willy Loman. This leads to a number of questions for me: How do we define our dreams of success? Is Charlie right, are we only worth what we can sell? If so, how does that limit our hopes, dreams, and visions of a better life? What about Willy's hopes and dreams? Where did he go wrong? Can we blame him for wanting to be respected? What stood in his way? How do we explain why Willy cheats on Linda and his approach to raising his sons? Who has power in the play and in what ways do Miller's characters navigate the worlds they live in? What does it mean to die the death of a salesman?

A shift in my approach...

For the rest of this year (and leading into next year) rather than ask you to respond to a question of my creation or to write about a particularly narrow section of the texts we read, I'd like you to write approximately one page a week on a topic of your choice.

I'm trying to shift my own position in the class away from that of leader/writer/teacher to that of reader/writer/teacher. Each week I will post my own blog in response to the readings. My blog entries will be based on my own thoughts, ideas, questions, and critiques about the readings, and you are welcome to continue the conversation I begin or to go off in your own direction.

If you have difficulty getting started, you might read some of what others have written to see what has interested them about a particular text. Another blogger might ask a question, raise an issue, or make a comment that inspires you to write. You might consider commenting on that person's writing to let them (and us) know that they inspired you to write. That way, we can keep track of the conversations we're having about our readings.

(See above for this week's post.)