Since the last reflection I posted, we have finished studying The American Dream and moved on to Death of A Salesman. While I feel this play covers many of the same topics as The American Dream, I haven't spent enough time with it yet to be able to say conclusively what I think its themes are. Since the title draws our attention towards the fact that Willy is a salesman, it is clear that this is a very important detail. The focus of the work seems to be on capitalism or the American Dream, but I can't really articulate exactly what it is. It also seems to me that the portrayal of women in Salesman could be important, but I don't know exactly what for.
The terms test retake on Friday was also still really hard, but I know I made some dumb mistakes that I shouldn't have. Hopefully going into the next quarter I'll be able to stay on top of the material and work ahead of schedule.
The terms test retake on Friday was also still really hard, but I know I made some dumb mistakes that I shouldn't have. Hopefully going into the next quarter I'll be able to stay on top of the material and work ahead of schedule.
Hey Chris, I see that you didn't list every detail we did in class nor did you summarize everything, which is good! I agree that the beginning of Salesman wasn't easy to pin-point the theme or motif of the play. Now that we finished Salesman and are moving on to Hamlet, is there anything else you find difficult about that play? I hope discussions and annotations helped! there's nothing to say about the structure of this post, because it's the one post that is allowed to be personal and informal. That being said, I enjoyed reading what you thought about the course material so far, and I definitely agree with your thought on the terms test.
ReplyDeleteChris, as Gloria said, I hope you understand Salesman more thoroughly now! At the beginning it was really hard to understand for me, even though I read it last year! the only thing I could pick up from the play was that I hated Willy. Even after reading the tragic hero articles I still don't like his character very much, though I understand where he is coming from and how he is living a life filled with pride and falsity. The terms test was a struggle, but I think that for most of us, we know that we understand the terms pretty well, it's just a different type of test than most of us are used to receiving!
ReplyDeleteWhat they said! Watching the movie as our first read I didn't really understand Salesman at all. After discussing it so much and receiving handouts on it all of the themes and symbols seem obvious. As far as the terms test goes I agree that it was still a challenge even after studying. Also like Gloria said, thanks for not posting every little thing we did in class. On to Hamlet!
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