Supplementary texts & other ideas for writing

Supplementary texts & other ideas for writing To review other texts we could use to inform our discussion of ‘Whose Reality?’

Personal anecdotes Your dreams, your parents dreams for you Things that define your reality- culture, family, a traumatic experience Or experiences in your life that relate to key ideas: unfaithful/betrayal, financial pressures etc

The weak are forced to create alternate realities • Sometimes when I hear her crying I’m forced to realise that deep down she knows. She knows he’s not working back late or in Sydney on ‘business’. My mum has always been made of strong stuff and she does what she has to in order to keep our family together. Some people might view her as weak but I understand why she does it. • Later in the piece: It’s when dad comes home that I find it the hardest. Listening to the lies he tells about making it big in Sydney, talking himself up like he’s some big shot, when I bet he hasn’t even left the hotel room. At these moments I despise him.

Articles on wiki Rural vs city living Depression and suicide rates in America during the recession(s) Young people feeling entitled/not learning about working hard & failure Can use these explicitly eg. A study shows that people living during recessions are more likely to suffer.... just as Willy does in DOAS, or implicitly- to inspire your ideas for writing (see next example)

We construct reality from stories we tell ourselves • I remember how when I was a boy and we moved from the country to the city I used to laugh at the men in their business suits, dressed up like big shots, when underneath it all they were just ordinary men. • Back then I promised myself I’d never get caught up in the race but when you’re a child the world is black and white. As a father and a husband your responsibilities have to come first. Some of my friends call me a sell out but it was my choice to give up my music career and embrace the dream I had for my family.

The author

Arthur Miller (personal life). • His father’s clothing company S.Miller &Sons was wiped out in the stock market crash during the depression. • He took his time to figure out what he wanted to be- many knockbacks in Hollywood first. (Like Biff)

Arthur Miller - Read the notes • What did Miller set out to do when writing DOAS? • What about his own life influenced him? • What did he try to show about society at the time?

The society we live in informs our reality • Like Willy in DOAS, Miller’s own father, Isidore, also faced the pressures of being a father and husband during a recession. The expectations placed on men, in this era, as the sole breadwinner of the family and for Isadore, as a Jewish immigrant pursuing the American Dream, would have meant that....

Quotes from Miller about his work • "I understand his longing for immortality … Willy's writing his name in a cake of ice on a hot day, but he wishes he were writing in stone." • "He wants to live on through something — and in his case, his masterpiece is his son… all of us want that, and it gets more poignant as we get more anonymous in this world."

We need to hold onto illusions in order to cope with reality. I’ll prove it to you, Pop. By the end of the year I’ll be married, I’ll run the department, even better than that I’ll be the best darn salesman between here and New England. Loman, our name will be known because it’s vital that a man make his name known in this world. Listen here, come in close, we have to leave something behind, and not something in sand. Sand that crumbles or gets washed away. Oh no Pop. Loman will be written in stone, on a plaque, by god a statue in our name. Wouldn’t that be a marvellous thing? And Biff, when he sees that statue. I’ve got the right dreams now, Pop, you hear? No more philandering or false promises. We salesman, we’ve got to dream... It comes with the territory. Remember you ruled these lands, I won’t just chase them anymore. I’m gonna do it, Pop. I’m gonna make it big. Bigger than Biff now he’s gone off out west. Why did he go, Pop? He’s always been so flighty but not me, no more. Imagine when Biff comes home and he sees that statue.

“There's too much of an attempt, it seems to me, to think in terms of controlling man, rather than freeing him. Of defining him rather than letting him go. It's part of the whole ideology of this age, which is power-mad."

A study on America’s portrayal of the American Dream • Examples of success: Rocky, Godfather, Pretty Woman, Forrest Gump • Examples of failure: American Beauty, Citizen Kane (actually kind of both), Of Mice & Men. • Just remember DOAS deals with what the American Dream means to an ordinary family… Any discussion must filter through this idea.

Classic texts for Allusions • Alice In Wonderland • Peter Pan • A Christmas Carol

Other quotes • Nietzsche: “Please don’t destroy people’s lies, their illusions, because if you destroy their illusions they will not be able to live at all; they will collapse.” • Google quotes about reality or illusion or fathers and sons.

Creative 2 approaches • Writing from perspective of character(s) in the play • Writing own creative piece based on ideas from the play eg. a woman pretending she doesn’t know her husband is cheating on her

Writing from a perspective • Linda writing in her journal about Willy being out on the road • A lost letter from Biff to Willy/Linda • Biff’s (or someone else’s) eulogy at the funeral • Ben in on a ship/train/in Africa (possibly remembering Willy and the life he leads) • An obituary • A suicide note from Willy to Biff

Writing about a character • Willy surviving the car accident at the end of the play being treated in a psychiatric facility. You could write an evaluation (remember that you still have to be writing to the prompt) • An oral history of Willy Loman. • Capture perspectives of different characters (Biff, Happy, Linda, Charley, Bernard, Howard, Ben) and how they feel about Willy

Writing your own piece • A character who has failed to achieve a goal and is now descending into delusion and fantasy. • A conversation between two characters about failed potential • A story about parental-children relationships and expectations

CREATIVE? • You can also use devices from the play in your work eg. flash back • Research ideas from the play and use them as themes of your writing eg. hallucination, nostalgia, conflicting realities

Read the sample • What is the contention/message? • What arguments are there? • Highlight parts that deal with the text • Label illusions • Label quotes (text and otherwise)

Supplementary texts & other ideas for writing