In chapter seven, the readers are immediately placed into the mind of a desperate car salesman on a ruthless search for profit and are introduced to the underlying themes, such as deception, dehumanization, and desperation. The car salesman goes to a far extent to deceive their customers to make profit. This desperate need to deceive people for profit is deeply rooted into the fact that the car salesman is distinctly middle class. These car salesman are not in a secure position as the rich are. As a result, the car salesman tries desperately to secure their position in a war of survival of the fittest. In this war of survival of the fittest, the salesman tries to remain in control of these frantic times, and does so by taking advantages of …show more content…
The main weakness that the poor possessed was their naivete, their ignorance, and their desperation to move west. Because the poor possessed these weaknesses, they were highly susceptible to being deceived and, as a result, the poor paid exorbitant prices for jalopies. The deception of one person was never enough for the car salesman. The idea of more jalopies was something these car salesman's fantasized about. The greed that came from the desire from more led into the dehumanization of these business owners. This impulse to dehumanize is a human trait that is deeply rooted into the idea of Darwinism, where we evolutionized to compete and survive in the world we live in. An underlying part of human nature is our animalistic nature or primal instincts to be the predator, rather than the prey. These owners are overwhelmingly blinded by their greed that they don’t ever come to realize their hypocrisy when they say they’re “ain’t out to stick nobody” (Steinbeck 64). In reality, the man was out to exploit the customers …show more content…
To begin with, Steinbeck tries to set a frantic tone for the chapter. Easily the salesman deceives the customers who, “are wandering in, bewildered, needing a car” (Steinbeck 63). The frantic tone we witness in this chapter set the stage for the desperation we see and the dehumanization of the owners in their plots to deceive the customers. To further support this theme of desperation, Steinbeck uses personification when describing the cars. Steinbeck does so with the intention to symbolize the people. Like the customers, the jalopies are worn out, where there’s “horsehair curling out of seat cushions” (Steinbeck 65). The customers are worn out and, as a result, they became ignorant and naive to the tactics of the car salesman's. Through his use of dialogue, Steinbeck was also able to display the nature of the car salesman. Repetitively, the salesman exclaims, “I wisht I had a thousand jalopies!” (Steinbeck 66). The repetitiveness in the dialogue displays the aggressiveness of the
Flink’s Three stages of American automobile consciousness fully express the progress of the whole automobile industry. From the first model T to the automatic production, it gives me an intuitive feeling of the automobile history from a big picture. On the other hand, Kline and Pinch focus more on a certain group of people--farmers or people who live in the rural area, they use it as an entry point to talk about automobile, alone with the role and duty transition between male and
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. 8th ed.Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford, 2008. 1908-1972. Print.
This man was dirty and poor, his circumstances likely induced by mechanization. The wealthy have virtual control over the poor. They reduced the salaries of the poor because there was no higher authority to tell them they could not. As well as this , the poor could not do much due to the fact that they needed to work in order to make at least some money to support their families.
The character, played to giddy perfection by Christopher Lloyd has a bombastic speech toward the end of the movie. "We'll create a fantastic network of superhighways called Interstates which will have interchanges with restaurants and full service gas stations with stores attached. It'll be beautiful!" The other characters recoil as they listen to him, as if they are listening to the ravings of a madman. As we all know, the madman's plot from "Roger Rabbit" came to explosive fruition in the 1950s and 1960s which gave birth to the car culture which is the United States of America. Despite the energy crises of the 1970's and the gas lines plus stern warnings about over-dependence on foreign oil, the car culture continued to grow. For awhile during the late seventies and early eighties it appeared that the automobile manufacturers were at least attempting to be sensible. Car designs became trimmer and leaner, with an obvious accent toward fuel economy. Remember the vastly downsized Ford Mustang II, Chrysler K cars and GM X cars? While initially promising, they all proved to be unsuccessful in the long run as Americans preferred comfort, performance and opulence, giving rise to the phenomenon of luxury sport utility vehicles and huge vanity trucks. To help keep the wolf from my door while I pursue growth as an author, I accepted a part time job as an auction driver for one of the largest automotive auction companies in southern California. For thirty hours per week my job is simply to drive dozens of different cars that are being held on the auction lot for bidding by hundreds of dealers that arrive for sales held two or three times a week. Did you ever wonder how car dealers acquire all those dozens of shiny vehicles on their lots? They bid on them at auctions such as the one where I work. How does the
... Death of a Salesman. New York: Penguin, 1996. Print. The. Sherk, James.
... stealing, and sleeping with random women, there was no way they could help make the United States a better place. The commercial class needed such people in order for their own business’s to prosper, yet they still disapproved how the lower class spent its free time. Instead of helping change the lower class’s lifestyle, the commercial class just complained about it.
The group of parasites, or as the novel labels them, “looters,” live futile lives. The looters are those who prefer not to think, not to act, not to truly exist if at all possible. They attend trivial social gatherings and follow, like a mindless herd, the latest fashion trends. In Atlas Shrugged, the primary social concern among these second-handers is that of equality in capitalism. They cannot provide, so they attack those that can. They pretend to act as champions for the underdog in an economy that seems to be falling apart. They believe that anyone who works solely for the sake of success is evil, and must be stopped. Those looters, who ride on the backs of such people, completely believe that they are owed a life because they exist. They feel they should be loved because they are alive, not for any accomplishment or display of worth on their part. To these people, the existence of anything innovative, strong, or fearless is a slap in the face, so they adjus...
...cial Darwinism. Darwin created the idea of natural selection, proposing that those best suited to live well in their environments and those who die off. A relation to this idea is the corruption of Packingtown. This starts off from when the family is scammed by the real estate company and when Jurgis is conned into an election scam, eventually leading to him joining it himself. These instances show that the only way to survive in Packingtown is to cheat those around you. Instead of the popular “kill or be killed” term, The Jungle transformed it into something along the terms of “making a living off of others or screw yourself”. Sinclair brings these ideals into his novel to connect yet another evil of capitalism. It suggests that if everyone was equal, there wouldn’t be a need to scam others to make money, but because of the hardships it is the only way to thrive.
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.
Miller, Arthur. “Death of a Salesman”. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. Dana Gioia and X.J. Kennedy.10th Ed. New York: Pearson, 2007.
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Seventh Edition. X.J. Kennedy, and Dana Gioia. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., 1999. 1636-1707.
His style of writing supports the idea that modern writing should always strive to establish the meaning, soundness and unity which has been lost in modern ways of life. Klages defines modernity as a period (era) where societal norms and values determine the social order. Resultantly, anything that goes against these norms is deemed immoral, and within the social realm, the truth is the absolute element. Nevertheless, in page 4 of Tragedy and the Common Man, Miller holds a varied stand when he claims that “if society alone is responsible for cramping our lives, then the protagonist needs must be so pure and faultless”. Even though the concept of relativism is not properly developed within this story, Miller captures all the essential elements. He judges capitalism basing on what his culture holds right or what he personally considers right. He uses a clear and transparent language, and he shares his personal feeling towards capitalism to the audience in an accurate and clear way. Therefore, we can ascertain that Miller’s Death of a Salesman is in line with the elements of
Miller, Arthur. “Death of a Salesman.” The Norton Introduction to Literature 10. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010. 495-506.
Miller, Arthur “Death of a Salesman” Literature: Craft and Voice. Ed. Nicholas Delbanco and Alan Cheuse. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2012. 205-13. Print.
Death of a salesman. : McGraw-Hill, 2007. Print. The. "