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The Maxson Family In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman

891 Words4 Pages

Family circumstances are always different, but the american dream is always the same. Most families are two parent and two children households, maybe three, but that is it. In Death of a Salesman, the Loman family fits the american dream model precisely. The Maxson family, in Fences, fits the model in the beginning, but in their own way. Both of these families have the two parent and two children model households under different circumstances. The Loman and Maxson families go through trials with each other and the outside world. Troy Maxson being a black man and Willy Loman, a white man, both face the same trails as a man. They have to deal with their marriage and the relationship with their children. In many ways than one these two men are the same.
Willy and Linda Loman’s relationship is odd. Linda tries to be the protector of Willy’s emotions and dreams. She has Willy’s back in a way like no other person does. She let’s him live and dream freely. Willy does not treat Linda …show more content…

Linda is so wrapped up and making sure that he is happy that she thinks he can do no wrong. Willy’s affair is not seen as a wrongdoing, but it is seen as an get away for him. It is a portrayed as a dream or hallucination to the audience. In that way it gives off a feeling of sympathy for him, because of his illness. Troy Maxson affair is totally wrong in everyone else’s eyes, however, in Troy’s eye it is a get away. Rose show a feeling of hurt and betrayal when she finds out about Troy’s infidelity. She says, “I took all my feelings, my wants and needs, my dreams...and I buried them inside you. I planted a seed and waited and prayed over it”, meaning she gave him everything she had and he just threw it away. The hardest part was for her to find out that she had another child on the way. This was the break in their American Dream household model and the start of a new grudge with Troy’s son

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The Similarities of Willy Loman and Troy Maxson in Death of a Salesman and Fences Willy Loman and Troy Maxson, as the protagonists of Death of a Salesman and Fences, respectively, has shown significant similarities in the plays over their social status, personalities, and relationship with their family members. On the other hand, there are also many noteworthy differences between them to be discussed, such as those in understanding of their own status, in the expectation toward the children, and in their family and friend’s reaction at the demise of themselves. Willy Loman and Troy Maxson share similarly hard-pressed life situation, but they view such hardship completely differently. In the play Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is a figure deeply focusing on his fame and relationship with his social friends. As a salesman, Willy dreams of making successful deals as well as becoming appreciated by other people.

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Therefore he starts drinking more, being that he cannot stand not being the center of everyone’s attention. But all the problems he has originated from, and worse than that, he does nothing productive to try and fix any of them. This once again proves that Troy is unsuitable to be a proper father for Cory and a respectable husband for Rose. Troy loses the dignity, respect and even love that was once given to him by his friends and family. His own selfish needs are fuel for the destruction of the life he once knew.

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Every time Troy stubbornly ignores Rose, patronizes Cory or takes Bono’s friendship for granted, Rose sees it but chooses to ignore it. This is similar to Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” where Linda chooses to skip the confrontation and let Willy continue with his suicidal thoughts. But, Rose's purposeful ignorance also protects her from a “succession of abusive men and babies,” during the 1950s there weren't many ways a woman could make a living on her own. So, even though it's unfortunate that Troy cheated on her, her turning a blind eye indirectly protected her from worse. Not only that

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524 Words | 3 Pages

The hardships that people face, coming from racial and gender injustice, can sometimes affect not just those directly concerned, but their families as well. These injustices, such as the treatment to Troy in Fences during his younger years, change the ways he acts to his sons and the rest of the characters and is the source of much of the conflict they face. Many of the conflicts in the play arise because the characters disagree with the way they see the past and what they want to do in their respective futures. For example, Troy and Cory see Cory's future differently because of the ways they have been treated in their pasts.

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1222 Words | 5 Pages

Troy chose to escape his reality by having an affair that gives him some laughs and good time every now and then. However, despite the flaws in Troy’s character, he was a providing family man who wants to insure a better life of his sons than the one he had. Based on the play’s time period, which took place at the 50’s, apparently the main problem of Troy Maxson’s character was racism against African Americans at the time that had prevented him from achieving his dreams. Throughout the play, Troy expresses his dissatisfaction in several scenes with the other characters.

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In addition to being contradictory, Willy is also very insecure. In fact, when Willy confesses to Linda that business is not doing well, he expresses his insecurities by saying, “I’m fat. I’m very-foolish to look at, Linda.” Lastly, another trait that Willy possesses is suicidal.

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540 Words | 3 Pages

Willy clearly had a very serious mental illness throughout this whole play, but never did anything about it. In Willy’s mind, the idea of having a mental illness took away from his masculinity, and he took out his mental illness on his wife as opposed to working on himself. This caused Linda to ultimately be mentally abused by him, and often having to compensate for his rude words and actions even though she never deserved any of it. All she did was care for Willy, so the treatment she received throughout this play was unfair and she was often left taken advantage of. In conclusion, The idea of masculinity strains the relationship between Linda and Willy throughout this depressing

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This entitlement stems from their connection to masculinity and what they believe a man deserves. Despite equal internal challenges, Willy Loman and Walter Lee avoid sharing the same fate. Arthur Miller dramatizes the need to fit among his peers through Willy’s suicide. After his argument with Biff, Willy has reached his breaking point, no longer able to defend his compulsion. In reflection on Willy’s life, Linda ponders the impact Willy had on those around him: “But where are all the people

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It additionallyconveys the emotional barrier that Troy puts between them. Furthermore, Troy ruins his marriageby cheating on his wife, Rose, by having an affair with another woman named Alberta. Howeverunlike Rose, who strives to build a fence around her family, Troy attempts to evade capture in thefence. He doesn't have the capacity to understand that Rose wants to keep the family close becausehe never truly had a close family. As a result, Troy ends up driving everybody away just like hisfather.

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826 Words | 4 Pages

The family doesn't really trust Willy because of the way he is and they

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Troy’s outlook on life is more narrow minded however, his family is more optimistic for a better future. Troy was raised by a very dominate male figure who was abusive. His father would be little him and made him like he would not be able to overcome racism. Troy despised his father who was mean and never showed him any love.

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Willy gives stockings to the woman he has an affair with and repeatedly yells at linda for mending her stockings in front of his eyes ( they work as a chief reminder of his affair and his inability to provide for his family). Unlike linda the other woman was able to feed willy s ego by liking him he is proud of being able to sell himself to her however this feeling will soon shift into shame when he realizes that by giving stocking to the woman rather than his wife he was sabogating his role as a provider he only then came to realize that his love not material items was the sole thing linda needed from him . Linda was not the only family member to be betrayed by this shameful act will betrayed biff s trust and respect .

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985 Words | 4 Pages

From the readers point of view, it is obvious that Rose is too good for Troy, but Rose constantly is faithful to Troy. This shows a special aspect of marriage and the relationship between Troy and Rose. It shows the level of commitment it takes to be in a marriage, but it also show the lack of commitment and gratitude that could be in a marriage. Troy ends up cheating on Rose, because he began to take what he had for granted.

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Troy is controlling and often verbally abusive to his family members because he lacks a sense of control in other areas of his life, he is unable to achieve his dream of becoming a pro-baseball player or advance in his career and this makes him feel inadequate. Troy’s wife Rose represents a stereotypical mother and dutiful wife role. Rose has two disadvantages in her life because she is not only African American, she is also a woman and in some ways she is the wife you would expect during the 1950s era. Rose however, is not weak minded because she recognizes how times have changed and this what makes Troy and Rose so drastically different throughout the play. Their contrasting ideologies represent two different aspects of the “African American Experience” by showing a major question many African Americans faced during the 1950s and that is: “are times really changing?.”

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1457 Words | 6 Pages

Troy 's hatred of his father acts as a catalyst for many moments in Troy 's life, in negative and positive ways alike. Unlike most fathers, Troy 's father didn 't leave him with a material possession such as a house but instead left him with emotional baggage that crippled the earlier and later parts of Troy 's life. From the beginning, Troy 's father was abusive to his mother and all of his siblings. Troy and his family worked hard on their father 's farm and endured his bitterness towards being a sharecropper. Troy states that his father was greedy and would put his own personal needs above the needs of the family.

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