English 222 Spring 2018: February 2018

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Death of a Salesman

Link to Act one (the one we watched in class):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVjSJ6yblbo&t=2463s

This link provides a number of links from the NY Times on the play:

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/teaching-death-of-a-salesman-with-the-new-york-times/

Death of a Salesman (1949) Death of a Salesman relates the story of Willy Loman, a down-on-his-luck traveling salesman. In order to cope with his failures in life, he retreats to the past in his mind and seems to be losing touch with reality. He tries to relive the good times, but keeps coming up against things that went wrong. His family try to help him by lying about their prospects, but when Loman loses his job, after a lifetime with the same company, he becomes desperate. His depression is exacerbated by the guilt he feels from a past infidelity which has estranged him from his older son, Biff. Rather than accept that his life has been a failure, and that Biff is not interested in big business, Loman decides to commit suicide in hopes that the insurance money will help Biff become successful. The play ends with his family and only friend, Charley, grieving by his graveside.

Here is a really long look at Death of A Salesman:

http://www.ibiblio.org/miller/DeathofaSalesmanMAThesis2004.pdf

Symbolism in Death of A Salesman:

http://www.ibiblio.org/miller/gardens.html

http://www.psychologysalon.com/2011/04/disillusionment-as-goal-for-therapy.html

http://family-marriage-counseling.com/mentalhealth/relationship-basics.htm

http://www.articlesbase.com/wellness-articles/disillusionment-213699.html

http://reis.socialpsychology.org/

NYTimes review of a recent production:

http://theater.nytimes.com/2012/03/16/theater/reviews/death-of-a-salesman-with-philip-seymour-hoffman.html

http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsM/miller-arthur.html

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Paper Checklist

Your introduction does not introduce the title(s) and author(s) of the primary (anything read or watched in class) texts. (In “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan…)
You announced your thesis (“This paper will…”-or- “I will discuss…”).
Your introduction does not include a thesis (The main point of your paper—reword the question you are answering from handout).
You did not cite or quote 2 OUTSIDE SOURCES (They can be found on the class blog or by doing your own research)
You cited or quoted unreliable outside sources (ie: Sparknotes, shmoop, wikipedia, cliffnotes, 123helpme, yahoo discussion boards etc.)
You plagiarized. You took info from an unreliable source or just took info and did not give credit.
You need to quote the primary texts in your paper (Anything we have read or watched in class).
Sources are not accurately documented, and MLA format is not attempted or followed properly.
Several awkward and/or unclear sentences; problems with word choice.
Essay contains too much research information without your own analysis.
Do not use “I” in your formal essays. No “I think”—just make the statement.
You spent too much time retelling the story. A little bit of this is fine but you spent too much time on this. Just answer your essay question.
You misspelled character’s names, titles or the author’s name incorrectly.
You used quotes in your introduction or conclusion. Save them for the body paragraphs.
You have no works cited page.
“Short Stories” get quotation marks and Novels and Films get italics.
Never start or end a paragraph with a quote.