Response to Course Material #4 -Dec.2-

I'm pretty sure most of the things we've done this month are related to Death of a Salesman. After all of our discussions, I feel like I have a pretty clear understanding of the plot and some of the symbols. For example, the apartments and how they block out the sun for the garden, how it kind of represents how as time went on, Willy lost his chance to be successful and waited too long before taking opportunities. I can see now how Happy and Willy are similar and that Happy is probably going to end up much like Willy as he gets older. They both were not paid attention to by their family, Willy being left behind by his father and brother, and Happy being ignored while Biff was the one everyone paid attention to. I found the whole "Biff and Willy are lovers" thing to be interesting..and a bit odd. I was able to see the examples given in the article in the book, such as when he found Willy cheating, Biff felt betrayed. Watching the movie a second time was actually quite interesting, since I had a better understanding, I was able to see things I hadn't seen before. I thought that the directors of the movie did a pretty good job sticking to the play itself. I especially liked how they made the argument between Biff and Willy crazy and the characters constantly yelling and then suddenly quieting down when Biff begins to cry. It helps show the relationship between Biff and Willy.  I'm actually really glad that we're reading Hamlet. I know what kind of happens because of this youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8z4E0_-si4. I can't wait for the discussion on this, I really think picking the play apart will be interesting. Though, first I have to get through all of the language...