Death of A Salesman

Death of A Salesman

The movie Death of A Salesman was released September 15^th, 1985. The movie was influenced from issues regarding American national values. Also, it involved traditional thinking of “The American Dream.” The genre of the movie is drama. The film was adapted from the play Death of A Salesman that Arthur Miller wrote. Though the film won over many film critics and received nominations for many awards, it was a box office failure. As I looked at the title, I thought it meant that a man’s that was a salesman was going downhill. So from the title, I expected the film to be showing a salesman dying and probably having a bad life.   The film starts off with the main character Willy Loman driving and then all of a sudden it looks like he started spinning on the road. As a viewer, it made me think what the heck is going on and why is Willy looking so plain? Also what happened that made him start swerving like that. The scene that is the climax is when Biff tells Willy the truth and Willy realizes that his family has been living a lie. Willy also realizes that Biff really does love him. That kind of illustrated the main idea because Willy was stuck on living ‘The American Dream” and when Biff told Willy the truth, it broke his dream of living “The American Dream.” I didn’t really see any loose ends because it was clear what was happening and what was said and done. The movie concludes with Happy following in the footsteps of his father Willy, after Willy commits suicide so that Biff can use the insurance money to start a business. The development of Willy Loman begins from the start of the movie all the way up to his death revealing how his sanity is declining. The purpose of Willy is to show how overworking yourself and betrayal of your family to achieve “The American Dream” can lead you to insanity and unhappiness. Willy wears business suits as well as some casual, not too-flashy clothes throughout the movie. Willy’s wife, Linda Loman comes in the picture when Willy comes home from work. Her purpose in the film is to be supportive and helpful to Willy even when he treats her very poorly. She also tries to get her sons Biff and Happy to help make Willy happier and to keep him from committing suicide. Linda wears casual dresses through the movie. Next is Willy and Linda’s eldest son, Biff Loman. Biff’s purpose in the film is to give the Willy a dose of reality. Biff wears mostly casual clothes throughout the movie. Then, there is the youngest son Happy Loman. Happy’s purpose  in the film is to carry on the dreams Willy had for Biff. Happy wore casual close in the movie. There are a few motifs in the film. First, there are the mythic figures and how willy used them. Willy’s tendency to mythologize people contributes to his deluded understanding of the world. He speaks of Dave Singleman as a legend and imagines that his death must have been beautifully noble. Willy compares Biff and Happy to the mythic Greek figures Adonis and Hercules because he believes that his sons are pinnacles of “personal attractiveness” and power through “well liked”-ness; to him, they seem the very incarnation of the American Dream. Willy’s mythologizing proves quite nearsighted, however. Willy fails to realize the hopelessness of Singleman’s lonely, on-the-job, on-the-road death. Trying to achieve what he considers to be Singleman’s heroic status, Willy commits himself to a pathetic death and meaningless legacy (even if Willy’s life insurance policy ends up paying off, Biff wants nothing to do with Willy’s ambition for him). Similarly, neither Biff nor Happy ends up leading an ideal, godlike life; while Happy does believe in the American Dream, it seems likely that he will end up no better off than the decidedly ungodlike Willy.  Then there is The American West, Alaska, and the African Jungle. Those regions represent the potential of instinct to Biff and Willy. Willy’s father found success in Alaska and his brother, Ben, became rich in Africa; these exotic locales, especially when compared to Willy’s banal Brooklyn neighborhood, crystallize how Willy’s obsession with the commercial world of the city has trapped him in an unpleasant reality. Whereas Alaska and the African jungle symbolize Willy’s failure, the American West, on the other hand, symbolizes Biff’s potential. Biff realizes that he has been content only when working on farms, out in the open. His westward escape from both Willy’s delusions and the commercial world of the eastern United States suggests a nineteenth-century pioneer mentality. Biff, unlike Willy, recognizes the importance of the individual. Miller’s purpose in the film is to inform and expose. There is a theme in the movie. The American Dream is the most prominent theme throughout Death of a Salesman. The main character, Willy, believes in the “promise of the American Dream”. This “promise” is that a “well-liked” and “personally attractive” businessman will be able to attain the “modern American Dream” and all of the wealth and possessions that come with it. Willy’s interpretation of “well-liked” is very shallow. For example, he dislikes Bernard because he considers him a dork. Willy’s childish faith in his corrupted version of the American Dream ultimately leads to his downfall. The director uses many symbols in the film. For instance, seeds represent for Willy the opportunity to prove the worth of his labor, both as a salesman and a father. His desperate, nocturnal attempt to grow vegetables signifies his shame about barely being able to put food on the table and having nothing to leave his children when he passes. Another is Linda’s stockings. Willy’s strange obsession with the condition of Linda’s stockings foreshadows his later flashback to Biff’s discovery of him and The Woman in their Boston hotel room. The teenage Biff accuses Willy of giving away Linda’s stockings to The Woman. Stockings assume a metaphorical weight as the symbol of betrayal and sexual infidelity. New stockings are important for both Willy’s pride in being financially successful and thus able to provide for his family and for Willy’s ability to ease his guilt about, and suppress the memory of, his betrayal of Linda and Biff.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

  

  

Their Eyes Were Watching God

          
     The film Their Eyes Were Watching God was released on March 15, 2005. The strongest inspiration from the film came from Zora Neale Hurston’s own personal love affair that is just like Janie and Teacake’s in the film. The town Eatonville was also based off of Hurston’s own hometown. The genre of the film is drama and romance. The film was adapted by the Zora Neale Hurston novel she published in 1937. When the book was released it received critical responses, such as “Miss Hurston seems to have no desire whatsoever to move in the direction of serious fiction… [She] can write; but her prose is cloaked in that facile sensuality that has dogged Negro expression since the days of Phyllis Wheatley... Her characters eat and laugh and cry and work and kill; they swing like a pendulum eternally in that safe and narrow orbit in which America likes to see the Negro live: between laughter and tears." (Richard Wright). I thought that the title meant that there were people looking to the sky for God's help or something like that. I expected the film to be religious, dramatic and theologically based. The film starts off with Janie (Halle Berry) walking in the sun barefooted wearing dirty overalls saying “There’s two things everybody got to find out for theyselves. They got to find out about love and they got to find out about living.” As a viewer, it affects me in a serious way. When she said that, it made me more interested in watching the movie. As she walks through the town, people are gossiping about her badly. I also began to think what happened to her? Why are they talking about her like that? Why does she look so worn-out and run down. There are three important scenes in the movie. The first one is when Janie was in the water having her own time to herself as she “watched God.” It’s important because she was able to be free of everything and just relax. The second one is when she talks to her husband Logan about how she didn’t like the lifestyle and marriage they had. That was important because Janie was able to reveal how unhappy she truly was in the marriage like she was in her first marriage. The third one is when Janie and Teacake are going by his job to pick up some cucumbers. That was important because it shows the first time Janie is truly happy and in love. The scene that constitutes the film’s climax is when the hurricane comes and Teacake saves Janie from drowning but gets bit by a rabid dog. Then, Janie has to debate on shooting the man she ever truly loved because the bite made him delusional. There were no loose ends because everything was explained and told. The movie concluded with Janie Floating in a body of water because that was her escape throughout the movie; the place where she felt at home and at ease. Janie’s friend Phoebe Watson is introduced in the beginning of the movie when Janie comes back. Her purpose was to be there for Janie when she vents to her. The character Logan Killicks was introduced when Janie's nanny wanted her to marry him because he had money and a lot of acres.  His purpose was to display Janie first piece of unhappiness in her marriage.  Then, Joe Starks was introduced when she met him after setting free the pigs of her husband.  Then, she meets this man he offers her to run away with him, he felt flattered and took his offer.  The purpose for Starks was for Janie to develop as a person and to feel a short piece of happiness before she realizes what she really wants. Then, Teacake was introduced to Janie after Joe Starks died. His purpose was to bring her the happiness and love she really wanted and to drive her towards her goals. Logan Killicks was a bad husband. He left Janie at home to do work all day like a slave and he never even took the time out to actually get to know her, love her or even like her. He wore dirty shirts and pants all the time. Joe Starks was a good husband when it came down to having good finances. He thought he could just buy Janie happiness instead of actually giving it to her himself instead of just with material things. He wore classy wardrobe. Teacake was the best husband to Janie. He gave her the happiness and love she wanted. His wardrobe looked very rundown. There are some motifs in the film, such as how in both Eatonville, and the Everglades, Janie constantly interacts with the community around her. In Eatonville, the novel focuses on the people sitting on the porch gossiping. In the Everglades, Janie wishes to be part of the social life where at times it offers comfort, warmth, and security. Then at other times, Janie finds the gossip that the community does is petty because it is often about her due to jealously because of her independence and strong will. The message in the film was that no matter what life takes you through, you can look to God for serenity. Janie was always watching God and that showed how close her connection was with God and that’s how Janie related to the film. There are also a few symbols in the film like Janie’s hair. It symbolizes her strength and identity in two ways. First, it shows her independence and defiance over the community's standards. Secondly, since Janie's hair is long and straight, it symbolizes whiteness. Mrs. Turner loves Janie because of her hair and the other white qualities that she has. Janie's hair disrupts the normal traditional power (males over females and whites over blacks). Also, there was The Pear Tree and The Horizon. It symbolizes Janie's ideal views about nature. Janie is able to witness a perfect moment of life, full of energy, passion, and harmony. The horizon symbolizes the far off mysterious world that she wants to interact and connect with.

Reflections:AP English/Composition

  When I found out I was put in AP English and Comp.,I thought this was going to be great but I also thought, "Oh lord we are going to be doing a lot of work." In my first day of class,I was kind of hesitant and a little scared of what I was in for. I was happy to be in a class with all my friends of course,but I was still a little frightened.So,as class went on I started to hear the teacher, Ms.Day,talk about the work my peers had over the summer. The first thing that popped in my head was,"Oooohhh noooo,Summer work? Noooo, no ma'am." That started to convince me that this class wasn't for me,but I said to myself "boy you can do this work.". So I decided to stay in the class. As the days of class went by, I started to get more and more intrigued by the class and i started to learn how to do things. I learned how to do a rhetorical and literary analysis,which turned out to be not really complicated at all. I learned about rhetorical tropes and schemes, more fluent diction and etc. I mean this class really helped me expand my English skills a lot. Doing the synthesis', arguments, analysis', syntactic variety exercises and many more things were helpful to me in the class. Also some of the passages we read helped me to pick up the skill of annotating passages to help with the understanding of them. Overall, the class was a great success to me and I'm glad I was enrolled in there, even when i did get lazy and tired of working. Also I'd like to thank my teacher Ms.Day for pushing us to learn all these terms, strategies and etc.that are going to help us in the near future. I can honestly say I enjoyed this course.

Football

  As everyone knows,I'm pretty much a guy who loves to be involved with music or performing arts but I also like to try different things because i'm multi-talented. So, I decided to try football for the 2013 season to see if I'd like it. I mean I watched it all the time and I figured why not experience the real thing. I knew that it was going to be challenging when I signed and i'm always up for a challenge,so I figured why not.
So when I started football,I figured its actually not that bad. I mean we did weightlifting,running and a few drills. However,my body wasn't really feeling all of that. The weightlifting wasn't really a problem,it was mostly the running because I'm out of shape. Adding on to that,my shins were constantly in pain because I walk everywhere from school to home and anywhere else and since I was going to be running,I knew that was going to be putting more pain on it. But I just kept trying to push through it. Then, we started to go out to the football field and practice different positions and stances and it was definitely interesting. Since I got put as an offensive lineman,I had to squat down into these very uncomfortable positions and learn how to fire off from that position to block,pass and tackle. Since my shins were in pain most of the time,I'm tall and I'm big,those positions were challenging to get in. Luckily with some help from the coaches and some practice,I'm able to get in the stances a lot better now. I'm actually doing things a lot better since I've started being on the football team. Even though,I have gotten kind of discouraged at times from knowing that I keep ending up being a screw-up at times,I didn't let that phase me and I still stayed on the team. Eventually,I'm gonna be known as a great football player Of course,I still need a lot more practice and coaching but I'll fully catch on sooner or later. Besides,this is my first and last year playing football for high school so I really have to make it count and I'm willing to go the extra mile to do that.

Lion Kills Intern

  Do you ever get a feeling something bad is going to happen when you see someone cleaning a wild animal's cage at the zoo or on tv? Like they're going to get bitten or killed? Well unfortunately that bad thing has happened. Less than 72 hours ago,a young woman named Dianna Hanson was killed by a lion that had escaped it's cage at an exotic animal park in California where she was a volunteer intern. The Fresno County Coroner’s Office says the 550-pound lion used its paw to lift a partially open door and escape a smaller cage before attacking and killing Hanson, who was cleaning a larger enclosure at Cat Haven, about 45 miles east of Fresno. She was on the phone with a co-worker in the moments before she was killed, and the co-worker became concerned when the conversation ended abruptly and Hanson failed to call back, Coroner David Hadden said Thursday. Investigators told Hadden the 5-year-old African lion had been fed when he charged Hanson, breaking her neck and killing her with an apparent swipe of a paw. Sheriff’s deputies responding to an emergency call from the park found Dianna Hanson severely injured and still lying inside the enclosure with the lion nearby, Fresno County's Sheriff Lt.Robert Miller said. Another park worker had been unsuccessful in trying to lure the lion into a separate pen, so deputies shot and killed the animal to reach the woman, who died at the scene, he said. And although they shot and killed the huge animal and deemed the attack as an accident,Diana's father is still suing them for the murder of his daughter. They feel he shouldn't do that because it was just an accident and they have been incident free since 1998.
Like Seriously,what type of explanation is that to a man who just lost his daughter while working at your animal park?? That man has every right to sue the animal park for his daughter's death. Just because you've been incident free doesn't mean you can unexpectedly have one. Then for one,you're dealing with exotic animals and you have to be careful with them and you ALWAYS have to watch them. For all you know,the animals could be plotting to get you alone and kill you for years and you wouldn't have a clue. With this case,it appears that that could've been what the lion was planning to do. The evidence shows that the lion mauled Dianna and sunk it's teeth right into her neck to kill her. And oh if you don't know,lions do that to kill their prey when they're in the wild. So,he could have been plotting to kill Dianna from the moment he laid eyes on her or he could have just snapped and went out to kill Dianna just because she was there. All I am saying is,just because they haven't had any accidents like that,doesn't mean that they weren't bound to happen. They should ALWAYS keep a close eye on those animals.

Political Cartoon Analysis

  What strikes one first about cartoon is the relative difference in size and fuse length of the two ``bombs.'' One also notices a difference in the person depicted as the bombs' ``heads.'' The likeness of George W. Bush acts as a means  of further distinguishing these two signs; he lights the fuse of a distant bomb turning his back on the one. Thus he creates a both in contrast between them, terms of a spatial relationship and a mode of interaction. Together these contrasts form part of the meaning of this cartoon, is a contrast between between contrast a nations,policies towards nations, and a contradictory matching between nations and policies. But how exactly are these images and signs related to nations and policies To answer this question, we turn to a structural study of the meaning of complex metaphorical signs known as blending.
  The most basic intuition for identifying a blend in this cartoon is to notice that while the images of the bombs play a metaphorical in describing geopolitical relationships between the United States,North Korea, and Iraq,what is seen cannot be a simple geopolitical a from projection space to a metaphorical ``bombs with fuses'' space. This is because elements of the source space are visible in what is supposed to be target space. The natural explanation for the coexistence of elements from both the source and target spaces is that a new blended space has been created.

Being off my grind

Do you ever get overwhelmed by everything sometimes? Sometimes you just want to escape from the world? Do you just want to give up? Well that's how I've been feeling lately. I've been wanting to just throw in the towel and move on.I'm a guy who's usually on my grind. I usually stay focused on my music,studies,assignments,organizations and etc. However,lately, I've been very off of my grind. I've been behind on assignments, having an "I don't care attitude" about a lot of things that are usually things that are important to me,I've been lacking a little passion and drive in my music and etc. I mean I've been doing terrible. I believe I've been too stressed considering that before I had to help my mom with my grandfather's funeral in January, I was fine. After the funeral,nevertheless, I learned I had missed and was behind on some work and I also had other things I had to do. While catching up on work and other things,I kept getting more and more work to do and responsibilities that I had to take care of. All that has caused me to just get tired of doing all this work and having to take care of a great amount of tasks. Unfortunately that's caused me and my priorities to be really off and me to be kind of irritable. Nevertheless,that's about to change. I'm about to get things back on track and get back on my grind,because I'm really not liking this change that's been happening. I mean honestly,even though I get a little overwhelmed sometimes,I've never been this overwhelmed or stressed this long and it's really affecting me and my music and i'm hating it. I'm usually able to feel the music I sing.write or arrange and I've been not really caring about it. It's also affecting my work habits and being in AP courses and etc.,that's not a good thing at all. That's why I need to get back on my grind or return things back to normal.