I have been thinking a lot about Bif, and I know a lot of people have been mentioning how sucessful he was in comparison to his father. However I have to disagree, I think he knew how much potential he had lost by not passing math. During the book he tells Happy how he could make a "go of it" in the country if only he would go with him. He tells him how he feels like he isn't living a decent life which is what draws him back to the city, yet once he is there he isn't happy. He wasn't really sucessful either way. It seems to me that the American Dream is to be content, and the characters of "Death of a Salesman" prove this. Willy's wife was content despite all the hardships faced, and the faults of her husband. On the other hand Bif couldn't seem to control his own life which lead him to rebelious behavior such as stealing. "The Pursuit of Happiness" seems to drive people to the American dream. I think it's just better to live life and see where it takes you based on the choices you make. If you live in an abstract world of defining things than you are limiting yourself. Isn't that what Willy did? He had set definitions of sucess and lifestyle that he could not break away from which really lead to his demise.
On another note I found it very interesting how you can really feel the opinions of T.S Eliot about religion in his poem. Specifically in this stanza:
"Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death's twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men."
I interperet this as his critisism of people who he seems to think are blind to the fact that God has abandoned them. It seems so strange to me that he would become a devote Christian later in his life. I tried finding out what lead him to religion but I wasn't sucessful. Does anyone know why?
3 comments:
To answer your last question, I found this website (it's too long to quote here): http://www.trivia-library.com/b/
famous-religious-conversions-
t-s-eliot.htm
Additionally, I agree with your analysis of the T.S. Eliot poem fragment. In the previous verse, he makes mention of people praying mindlessly to idols ("Here the stone images/Are raised, here they receive/The supplication of a dead man's hand"). In this verse, I believe that he extends this idea into the idea that praying will not guarantee salvation.
Hey, it's Grace.
Ian, that link wouldn't work for me =[. However, the first thought that came to mind when Mr. Laz mentioned that Eliot turned back to Christianity shortly before he died was that he knew his life was drawing to a close and wanted to make sure he was in god's good graces before he died, "just in case". I hate to be cynical, but as a hypothetical possibility I thought this would put an interesting spin on the poem we read. If in fact he turned back to Christianity in the last few years of his life simply with the fear in mind that he may not be admitted to Heaven, then he would in fact be one of the "hollow men" he describes in his poem. Even if this is not the documented reason as to why Eliot reclaimed his faith, who is to ever know for sure? He would be the only one who could say for sure, and even then he may never have admitted it to himself. In essence, he would have fallen into his own trap, as he would be fulfilling the role of the hollow man whose meaningless prayers were said to save themselves from eternal damnation. Why is it that anyone has religion? Is the origin of religion fear, that same "American nightmare" that we are not immortal? What does everyone else think?
Hey, it's Erin.
I agree with Paige that Willy's set of denfinitions ended up hurting him. His idea of success was the story of Dave Singleman, a well-liked, wealthy salesman. He clung to that idea of success rather than taking a job with Ben. Willy wanted life to be a certain way, and when that didn't happen he ended up losing it because he was so focused on this one goal. It's always good to have goals, but perspective is necessary. He let his dream consume his whole life to the point where his world was in ruins and he was forced to retreat into his memories.
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