Death_of_Salesman

Improving Sentence Style 1. Immediately after Howard inquires if Willy has two great boys that can support him, Willy has an epiphany and realizes that he himself has fabricated details of Biff and his own life, and the fact is that Biff has never quite amounted to anything in his life. Willy is in self-denial. 2. 3. The garden is critical towards understanding Willy as a character because he is constantly trying to plant seeds which represent hope in a barren environment much like there is no hope for Willy in the workforce. Willy’s constant planting of seeds in his garden is symbolic of Willy’s deficient amount of hope and substance or foundation in his life. Furthermore, later in the play, Wily talks about all the concrete he has placed into the house yet nothing out of the ordinary has become of the house itself. Despite being delusional at times, Willy is aware that his labor and efforts concerning Biff have not reaped any benefits. The garden also represents Willy’s emptiness since he is trying to plant something substantial in his own life. Not only does the garden represent the hostile work environment and atmosphere Willy lives in, but it also symbolizes Willy’s emptiness along with the need for something substantial in his life. 3. In a Death of a Salesman, one main cause of Willy’s distress is the fact that he is repeatedly dishonest towards himself. In a Death of a Salesman, self-dishonesty, a delusional state of mind, and mental deterioration are contributing factors that lead to Willy’s distress and ultimate demise. 4. Willy’s infidelity, worthless concrete put into the walls only to crumble, and Willy’s inability to harvest a garden are all metaphors for Willy’s failures due to his fragile state of mind. Willy’s failure in developing Biff as a person is due to Willy’s infidelity and delusional mind. 5. The house is a metaphor for all the hard work and energy Willy has put into Biff hoping Biff would develop a solid foundation…in reality, Biff has turned out to be nothing spectacular. While Willy envisions Biff to be a heroine of epic proportions, in reality, Biff has accomplished nothing in his life. 6. Willy strives to be a bread winner, yet Willy’s delusional state of mind interferes with his dreams. Mental deterioration, a delusional state of mind, and a suicidal instinct all lead to Willy’s death. Moreover, Willy symbolically tells Ben, “A man can’t go out the way he came in…a man has got to add up to something” while working in the garden (125). Willy, Biff’s advocate and father, commits suicide at the end of the play. Although Biff is angry at his father, Biff eventually turns around, and he says he loves Willy at the end of the play. 7. The house is a metaphor for all the hard work and energy Willy has put into Biff hoping Biff would develop a solid foundation; however, in reality, Biff has turned out to be nothing spectacular. 8. Willy’s self-deceit causes his destruction—he realizes that his whole life has been a lie and that he has nothing substantial worth living for. 9. Average Sentence Length: 24.5 words