The American Dream in Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman :: Death of a Salesman

The American Dream in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman Within the tragic play, Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman destroys himself trying to achieve a dream. Yet, the dream that destroys Willy is not one that he has chosen. Willy Loman does not choose this destructive dream because he does not know himself, Willy Loman does not choose a dream at all, one is forced upon him by society. Willy Loman spends the expanse of the play trying to achieve wealth, fame, and the like of others. These ideas epitomize the American Dream, to become a successful, well-liked businessman. Willy's true dream, however, was very different from this. Throughout the play you can see evidence that Willy feels trapped by this dream that he feels obligated to fulfill. Society has dictated to Willy that the American Dream is "the" dream, and no other dream is acceptable. Because of this dictation, Willy abandons his true dream of living on his own, in the country, where he can support himself by farming, and living from the land. The proof of Willy's true dream appears in short scattered bits. "God, timberland! Me and my boys in those great outdoors! Yes, Yes! Linda, Linda!" he cries exuberantly at the idea of moving away from the city. By the idea is quickly killed by the society surrounding him. "You wait, kid, before it's all over we're gonna get a little place out in the country, and I'l l raise some vegetables, a couple of chickens..." once again, society surrounding Willy crushes this dream, his true dream, forcing it back into the subconscious of Willy's mind, where it remains for the duration of the play, only surfacing at a few times, when the dream that Willy is trying to fulfill becomes so horrible that he remembers that he had another dream, or when the false dream is looking as if it might be coming to a close, and he will be able to move on to take on his real dream. In the climax of the play, when Willy realizes that he is loved by his sons, a slight awakening occurs in Willy's mind. He begin to understand that his true dream, of living in the country, is identical to that of his beloved son, Biff. Biff has never been able to follow his dream because of his father pushing him into the false dream of being a businessman.

To Hell With Dying as an Autobiography Essays -- Hell With Dying Essay

To Hell With Dying as an Autobiography  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚   When reading fiction, one can begin to wonder how much of a gap there is between the story the narrator is telling and the actual events that occurred to make the author decide to write the story. In Alice Walker’s "To Hell With Dying," one could say that this story is basically auto- biographical. Although some people may have thought that "To Hell With Dying" was completely fiction, evidence from the story and other sources suggest otherwise. The love the narrator feels towards Mr. Sweet parallels with actual events that took place in Alice Walker’s life. In the preface of Donna Haisty Winchell’s book Alice Walker, it is revealed that Alice Walker was "blinded in one eye at age eight by a careless shot from a brother’s BB gun" (ix). The shot left a scar that bothered Walker immensely. Winchell also writes that because of the BB shot wound Walker was "feeling ugly and outcast" (ix). This description of Walker’s accident creates the image of a young girl who has no feeling of self worth. In the story, however, Mr. Sweet is very fond of the narrator. He used to call her "his princess," and "he made [her feel] simply outrageously devastating at the blazing age of eight and a half" (1144). Perhaps this description of how Mr. Sweet makes the narrator feel pretty symbolizes the way Alice Walker felt about Mr. Sweet in real life. Alice Walker was eight when she got shot with the BB gun, and the narrator is eight and a half when Mr. Sweet is telling her how pretty she is. Although Alice Walker only has vague memories of th e real Mr. Sweet, she does remember that he never stopped talking about the things that upset him. Mr. Sweet’s talking and singing made Walker feel good. In Walker... ...e an artist as well. Walker explains in Alice Walker. "The love happened, and that is the essence of the story" (qtd. in Winchell, 12). Walker wrote "To Hell With Dying" in order to thank Mr. Sweet for what he contributed to her life. Winchell acknowledges that "the story is her [Walker’s] wish that she could have returned the favor" (13). Works Cited Walker, Alice. "Remembering Mr. Sweet." The Harper Anthology of Fiction. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. Walker, Alice. "To Hell With Dying." The Harper Anthology of Fiction. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991. Winchell, Donna Haisty. Alice Walker. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992. Works Consulted Short Story Criticisms. Vol. 5. Detroit: Gale Publishers, 1990. Contemporary Literary Criticisms. Vols. 46, 58. Detroit: Gale Publishers, 1990.      

Broken Family Essay

Family is the basic components of the society. And the parents are the most important source of youth’s behavior, which effect to their outlook in life. A home is where a family lives. It may be alternated to the word ‘house’ but a house is more appropriately referring to the material structure, whereas ‘home’ refers to the intangible things that bind together the family members. So if the parents are separated, how does it affect the youth and what can they do about it? When parents split up, there can be many emotions that a youth may have to deal with. These feelings, internalized or expressed, will result in certain behavior that will possibly affect to the youth’s outlook in life. And these feelings can cause a big impact in their performance study, socialization and personality. The most common dispute between a husband and a wife is the financial issue. This is rooted when the father, which should be the provider for the family, can’t give enough money for the sustenance of the whole family. Or early marriage could be the reason of the financial setback. Teen pregnancies are very much high in rate in the last decade. A couple that haven’t able to finish studies and started a family early would likely experience difficulty in monetary aspects. An undergraduate would have a hard time finding a lucrative job. Not mentioning that building a family needs a steadfast preparation particularly financially. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY What is a broken family? It is a family with the children involved where parents are legally or illegally separated and whose parents have decided to go and live their lives separately for several reasons/problems. It is one where the parents (mother and father) of a child or children have split up and no longer share a single family home as a family unit. This is also known as a broken home. â€Å"Broken home† is a term used to describe a household, usually in reference to parenting, in which the family unit does not properly function according to accepted societal norms. And we choose this topic to inform other people what are the possible things that they can do to help themselves and the others who are in the same situation to overcome their negative emotions brought about by having an incomplete family.

Investment Risk Essay

Supposed one owned a portfolio consisting of $250,000 worth of long-term government bonds, would the portfolio be riskless? Risk is defined as the probability that some favorable or unfavorable event will occur. Risk in investments is usually related to the chance that an unfavorable event will occur that will reduce the amount of one’s investment. U.S. government bonds are not completely riskless. Although the risk with a portfolio of government bonds is less risky than other types of portfolios such as long-term corporate bonds; there is still some level of risk with long-term government bonds. The best way to assess the risk on long-term government bonds is to evaluate the standard deviation of the portfolio. The smaller the deviation, the smaller the risk involved (p175). Long-term government bonds carry a standard deviation of 9.4% with an average return of 5.7% (p180). These numbers indicate that in any given year, the rate of return varies from the 5.7% average by positive or negative deviation of 9.4%. Essentially, the rate of return could conceivable be a negative 4.3%, where one would lose money. Therefore, long-term government bonds do carry a lower level of risk compared to other portfolios, but should not be considered riskless. If one had a $250,000 portfolio of 30-day Treasury bills (T-bills) and every 30 days the bills matured and the principle was reinvested in a new batch of bills; and the investor lives on the investment income for a constant standard of living, is this a riskless investment? T-bills are not truly riskless when contained in a rolling portfolio. If one invested in a single one year T-bill, regardless of economy, the standard deviation is zero. Yet, when a portfolio becomes a rolling profile, the investment income will vary depending on what happens to the level of interest rates for each monthly period in this scenario. In a rolling T-bill portfolio, the standard deviation is 3.2% with an average return of 3.9% (p.180). Therefore, stand alone T-bills can be considered riskless, but rolling T-bill portfolios will carry a very small risk of deviating investment income from rollover to rollover.

Should the Endangered Species Act be Strengthend Essay

Should the Endangered Species Act be Strengthend - Essay Example Species have an indescribable amount of benefits to humans-with some not yet discovered. â€Å"An antibiotic was discovered in the soils of the threatened New Jersey Pine Barrens Natural Area, a species of perennial corn was found in Mexico; it is resistant to several diseases of corn and an insect was discovered that when frightened produces an excellent insect-repelling chemical.† (Regina Bailey, about.com) The Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973 in order to control the fast rate of extinction for a variety of beneficial reasons discussed further in the paper. The Endangered Species Act In order to foster the Protection and conservation of endangered species, the Endangered Species Act was passed on December 28, 1973 by Richard Nixon. Presently, the Act is administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). According to the National Wildlife Federation, since 2009, 1361 plants and animals in th e US have been listed as endangered or threatened. The FWS carries out a multiple research on different species and they are organization responsible for listing a species as endangered. For a specie to be considered endangered, a number of factors are considered such as; the amount of its habitat destroyed, is it being over-consumed, is it being threatened by disease or other predation or are there other man made factors affecting its survival. The Endangered Act of 1973; authorizes the determination and listing of listing species as endangered and threatened. It prohibits the unauthorized taking, possession, sale and transport of endangered species. It provides authority to acquire land for the conservation of listed species, using land and water conservation funds; it authorizes the establishment of cooperative agreements and grants-in-aid to states that establish and maintain active and adequate programs for endangered and threatened wildlife and plants; it authorizes the assess ment of civil and criminal penalties for violating the Act or regulations; and authorizes the payment of rewards to anyone furnishing information leading to arrest and conviction for any violation of the Act or any regulation issued hereunder. (Cited from Fws.gov, May 7, 2011) Should the Endangered Species Act be strengthened? It is seen by some non-environmentalists as a weapon used by radical environmentalists and is the most wasteful and counterproductive laws in the books. In addition to that, they believe that it practically turned into a tool exerting political leverage. Some are even vouching for cancellation of the ‘critical habitat’ designation which limits development in the habitat of endangered species. With reference to some consulted literature- the majority of persons wanting to trash the 1973 legislation is more than the amount who want to strengthen the Act by 9%. The researcher is in total disagreement with the persons who want to the Act to be demolis hed and considers these actions selfish. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is one of the most important laws passed in America of all time. It’s had many successes and undoubtedly will have far greater success if and when strengthened. America has a fast rate of extinction and should the Act not be strengthened or demolished we will all be faced with the consequences. Considering all the benefits discussed in this paper, there should be enough reason for the act to be strengthened. There are

The Unnecessary Cost of the War in Iraq Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Unnecessary Cost of the War in Iraq - Essay Example The Bush administration, along with the urging of then Defense Secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld, woefully underestimated the number of soldiers it would require to secure Iraq after the initial invasion. Their number of approximately 125,000 troops was far too few to occupy the country and restore order. Paul Bremer, senior civilian administrator in Iraq during the first year of the occupation says he, "complained to President Bush and other officials that far too few troops were committed to the occupation in the first year after Saddam Hussein was ousted" (Shanker, A6). Bremer even wrote a formal letter to Secretary Rumsfeld requesting two additional divisions, but Bremer contends, "he had never heard back from Mr. Rumsfeld" (Shanker, A6). The fact that the Defense Department would not even respond to the senior administrator on the ground in Iraq shows the degree of arrogance, if not incompetence, that has led our country into a quagmire of ill-advised decisions. The decisions made at the White House have resulted in the unnecessary deaths and maiming of many of our finest young men and women. The death toll stands at almost 2,800 killed and another 10,000 wounded so severely that they will never be able to return to active duty (Shanker and Cloud, A14).

Final project part two Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Final project part two - Essay Example Data gathered will be analyzed and use this to assessed the hypothesis and prototype design. To be able to present clearly our hypotheses and aim of the project a new methodology will be presented that will involved the assessment of the prototype design. This interim report will also include details of the prototype testing, recommendations for linking full data collection and analysis with the final hypotheses or showing the objectives, review and assessment of project aims, methodology used conclusions, and further work and revision of the original planning timescales and stages. The project aims to develop an online shopping that will satisfy the buyers. In the first part of this project our objective is to be able to present the pros and cons of on-line shopping. Thru this we will be able to encourage the user to use the system. The effectiveness and safety of on-line shopping is one of the objectives. The two important things that we need to consider are the satisfaction and the privacy of the users. This interim report will provide additional support on online shopping. Another objective of this project is to create an agent based framework that will better enable shoppers to experience shopping online in a real space. One advantage of traditional shopping is that there is someone who assists you during your tour in the mall. While in online shopping you will do all the work such as checking the specification of the items you need, the selection of the colour that fits your items and others that can be done for you by merchandisers and salesperson. The prototype design will make shopping as convenient, easy and enjoyable as possible by collaborating with the customers and salesperson or among customers. This will make online shopping experience similar in real shopping environment. Advantages of the Design One of the advantages of this design is that it will make interaction between merchants and purchasers and between clients and visitors easier. This design will help storeowners to improve sales by giving real-time customer support, assistance on sales, cross selling, promotion and individualized care, the mentioned services has been proven to be effective in increasing the sales. The design is chosen to be able to help not only the buyer but the merchants and businesses as well. Since online shopping involves some information about the buyer, the design prototype will ensure that the protocols on on-line shopping are being followed and the identity of the person will not be sold or given to others. An opportunity to model intelligent agent behaviour along existing ethical and legal forms by applying a form of representation not currently applied in most existing e-commerce agents systems. Background Project Description A multi-agent architecture for collaborative e-commerce applications is one of the objectives of this project; this will enable shoppers to enjoy the social shopping experience offline and that respects ethical and legal notions such as personal privacy and protection. Increasing the sale is one of major objectives of E-commerce, to make this possible the prototype design will include E-commerce recommenders. Since gathering information about the products on-line are too large a personalized and customized browser will help the buyer to choose the item that suite