“He is the disgrace of his family and a disappointment”

Explanation:

The play “Death of a Salesman,” by Arthur Miller is a play about an aging travelling salesman named Willy Loman and his battle with early onset Alzheimer’s.  The story examines the struggling relationship between Willy, his wife Linda, and their two sons, Biff and Happy.  The play fits within the sub-genre of tragedy for one principle reason; there is a death at the end.  Throughout the play, Willy has an ongoing battle with suicidal thoughts and he believes that he is worth more dead than alive.  These continuous thoughts lead to Willy’s eventual suicide at the end of act two and places the play into the sub-genre of tragedy.  For the blackout poem project, the words that are not blacked out form a poem that represents the character Biff and the poem itself is drawn in the shape of the tip of a fountain pen.  The fountain pen has significance within the play because it is the item that Biff stole after going to see Bill Oliver.  Biff steals because his father has always praised him for stealing and has even encouraged it in the past.  Because of this, Biff steals the fountain pen because he believes his father thinks of him as a disappointment and a disgrace, so he steals the pen instinctively hoping for his father’s approval.  These aspects are all highlighted in the poem and the reason behind the fountain pen shape.