David Mamet's “Glengarry Glen Ross” is postmodern not modern. However, post-modernism follows and shares many of the same ideas as modernism. The play takes a US real estate company as its background. In order to motivate the morale of the staffs, the company lets four salesmen facing a fierce competition: to see who will sold a pieces of worthless land. The first will get a high-level car; the second will obtain a set of steak knives; while the remaining two were fired. The old salesman Shelley Levene, his daughter is ill in hospital, his economic is very difficult. He wants John Williamson to give him a list of customers that might have a deal with him. Another old salesman George Aaronow seems to have lost his exuberant energy, willing to …show more content…
He also looks at the world of men. He utilizes some elements of postmodernism to create a postmodern commentary on the world of sales. According to the document “Modernity/Modernism/Postmodernism” “Late capitalism. There is also a general sense that the world has been so taken over by the values of capitalist acqusition that alternatives no longer exist. One symptom of this fear is … This fear is, of course, aided by advancements in technology, especially surveillance technology, which creates the sense that we are always being watched.” Since 1776, generations of Americans are convinced, as long as through the efforts of unremitting struggle will be able to get a better life. People have to through their own hard work, courage, creativity and determination to move towards prosperity. This play through the people’s failure to denial of everyone can success in the “American
Within the drama, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the Lowman family is presented within the post war economy trying to achieve the American Dream. The father, Willy Lowman, represents a well-off salesman that demonstrates a persistent husband and father figure throughout the late 1940s and early 1950’s. Throughout this piece, Willy desires for his two sons, Biff and Happy, to follow in his footsteps as a salesman and to represent themselves throughout the economic decline. Throughout the storyline, Miller demonstrates the theme of success and failure, the representation of a tragic hero and the symbolism of seeds.
Richard Louv attempts to question the modern consumer culture of the United States by juxtaposing the complexity of purchasing a modern “Mercedes SUV” with the simplicity of staring out the window of a car. Louv uses a multitude of images to remind his audience ¬¬ who are likely the same age as he is ¬¬ of their childhood experiences. Louv also uses personal anecdotes to promote the drastic differences between simple wholesome actions and the modern consumer culture. His use of rhetorical questions also helps the reader in his/her attempt to understand that, “people no longer consider the physical world worth watching.” Louv’s use of technically specific words like, “municipalities” helps him to qualify his statements. The use of rhetorical
Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, and Arthur Miller, author of Death of a Salesman, both tell the stories of men in the costly pursuit of the American dream. As a result of several conflicts, both external and internal, both characters experience an extinction of the one thing that they have set their sights on.... The American Dream.
Since the beginning of the Industrial Age, Americans have idealized the journey towards economic success. One thing people do not realize, however, is that journey is not the same for every individual. Media often leads its viewers toward a “one size fits all” version of success that may help themselves, but will rarely help the viewers. This is seen in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Miller includes multiple instances of symbolism and personification to reveal to the reader the situational irony in Willy’s life, underlining the theme of self-deception in regard to the American Dream. This American Dream, fueled by money, is the main source of anxiety in Willy’s life. The anxiety of income is reflected today in the issue of minimum wage. James Sherk, a writer of the Tribune News Service, plots thoughtful points against raising the minimum wage. However, his use of over-exaggeration and odd comparisons leave his argument less than convincing.
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is quite a captivating piece of literature. I really thought this book was fantastic, even reading it for a second time. Since this is a play, the majority of the characterization had to be done through dialogue, but the astonishing depth of development that Miller achieved with his characters was astonishing. I truly felt that I intimately knew the characters by the end of the play despite how slim the volume was. Miller's play is an expose of the harsh reality of the American Dream, and while his play's message may not be hopeful, the honesty of his work will resonate with middle-class America even today. Miller's play showed me that not much has changed since post-WWII America. Average people are still struggling to capture the dream that we all feel this land offers us. Happy and Biff are the tragic characters that I hope never to become, but who can blame them for aspiring for something greater? Most disturbing of all, I truly hope that my parents' generation never fall victim to the same destructive hopes that possessed Willy Loman. Perhaps the scariest realization is that any one of us can get caught up in the delusion of what we believe we deserve.
... on the demise of true hard work and how it slowly turned into greed through the example of Jordan Baker. Jordan Baker is continually portrayed as the "modern woman" throughout the novel insinuating that she is a representation of the general populous in the 1920s.She is obviously a successful woman who became rich as she is a professional golfer. The greed she portrays in this scene is hinting that the fact that she used the ideal of greed instead of hardworking to achieve her success.Her willingness to attain what she wants at other peoples expenses is what makes her succeed.This shows how her personal American Dream, and in turn the general American Dream of the 1920s, is flawed.
The pause unveils the self-awareness of the inadequacy to teach anybody by committing a crime and killing. This assumption is reinforced by the Don’s question, which encapsulates his ability to deviate the conversation from these terms and move forward to other issues. All in all, we can assert that Mamet strives to show what is hidden behind the language, therefore, he must get rid of the conventional language in order to grasp the essence of reality. In this account, the use of the inverted language stands as an attempt to grasp reality but at the same time, he is striving to unveil what is hidden behind it, that is, Mamet has a critical agenda towards the American society and capitalism, with the conventions of American society.
...’s bleak words to Jack represent the human condition he face. In the postmodern American Dream, consumerism serves as “white noise” to forget our death.
Gioia, Dana, and X.J. Kennedy. "Death of a Salesman" Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, Compact Edition, Interactive Edition. 5th ed. New York: Pearson; Longman Publishing, 2007. 1212-1280. Print.
The book White Noise by Don DeLillo traces the protagonist-narrator Jack Gladney’s gradual and astounding progress in life as he tries to conform to the postmodern world to which he belongs while trying to retain his moral and ethical principles. The book discusses the postmodern and cultural explorations in an open and Western living system that incorporates within itself a consumeristically dominant culture vibrant with supermarket-grocery shopping, globalization, mass media dependency, and anticipation towards establishing a concrete, dynamic, and self-created individuality.
Murray, Edward. “The Thematic Structure in Death of a Salesman.” Readings on Arthur Miller: Death of a Salesman. San Diego: Greenhaven Press Inc., 1999.
Introduction Death of a Salesman and Glengarry Glen Ross are two plays which attempt to validate the key values that have been strongly advocated for by capitalism. The two plays dwell on somewhat similar themes, but these themes are presented in different styles. Both Miller and Mamet hold a similar interpretation of success in that the success of the main characters in the two plays is measured from a material standpoint. According to Miller and Mamet, these characters will do anything within their reach to stay ahead of other members of the society (the system/principle of capitalism), but as fate would have it, tragedies befall them in the end. Nevertheless, Miller and Mamet interpret these themes from different perspectives.
Eisinger, Chester E. "Critical Readings: Focus on Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman: The Wrong Dreams." Critical Insights: Death of a Salesman (2010): 93-105.
What we experience in this passage, particularly the last sentence, is an insight into the search of the real meaning of life and the unveiling the “fog” that does not allow the individuals to live the life. This “discovery” or unveiling of the unspoken has triggered a turning point of his life and Edmond wants Glenna to undergo the same process, but she is scared and tells him, “[d]on’t hurt me. No. No. I can’t deal with this” (Edmond: 77). In short, Glenna is not prepared or does not want to be enlighten either by the unspoken or the truth, because she knows that she could not deal with this. The point is that ometimes living in the darkness as if we are not alive is less painful and comfortable than living in the light. It is my contention that all plays come very close to saying something unacceptable about society, something that is very hard for people to hear and internalize because it makes tremble the foundations of our existence. That is the reason why we can postulate that “it is in the interstices between the broken pieces of its discourse that the plight of Mamet's humankind is to be perceived.” (Piette: 174).
...the increasing improvement of technologies and our continuing efforts to work towards accumulating those commodities will be rewarded in a completely affluent, and therefore happy, state of being. The misunderstanding of our situation as being always increasingly good on account of making our material lives bigger, better, and in greater availability is the very undoing of the fabric of our lives. Arthur Miller is effectively able to illustrate how this American myth is a depraving force in the lives of Americans in his drama Death of a Salesman. His illustration of these destructive beliefs is made real in the actions and thoughts of Willy Loman and his family, and it is a message which should make us question our own existence in that it is not so far removed from this portrayal.