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Book Review By Amie Stanley
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

Willy Loman is an old man who has lived his life as a traveling salesman and finds himself looking back on his work. In his deteriorating health, Willy finds himself surrounded less and less by the people who he tried to impress so much and discovers that the recipe he had for a successful life has been wrong. Willy explores his past memories of his brother, Ben, who explored the world and became rich on his intelligence, rather than his social skills. Willy's two sons both are living at home in their thirties, unemployed for the most part. Willy, conflicted himself, degrades the eldest, Biff, who had been a high school football star with no academic skill. Willy wanders the alleys at night, and plants gardens where sun could never reach it. His wife, Linda, finds signs of suicide everywhere, but refuses to allow anyone to confront Willy about any of these problems, only making them worse. Willy, although he realizes the failure his life has been, constantly holds hope for Biff and Happy, the younger son, that they will be better, even as he watches them failing with the same faulty recipe for success.


Plot & Themes
Tone of book? - depressed
Life of a profession:
Family, struggle with Yes
Struggle with: - Son
Internal struggle/realization? Yes
Struggle over
Job/Profession/Status story Yes

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status:
Age: - 60's-90's
Ethnicity/Nationality
Unusual characteristics:

Main Adversary
Identity: - society
Age: - 20's-30's
Profession/status:
How sensitive is this character?
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Very much smarter than other characters

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 6 ()
United States Yes
The US: - Southeast
City? Yes
City: - New York
Misc setting

Writing Style
Lot of foul language? Yes
Amount of dialog - mostly dialog
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