My last blog for Lamags

In the last chapter of Johnny Got His Gun, Joe gets a new day nurse who can understand his constant tapping in morse code. He taps out a SOS message to the nurse who then leaves the room to go find a man who then walks into the room and taps on Joe's head. The man taps out, "What do you want?" Joe doesn't know what he wants because all this time he has simply just wanted to talk to somebody. All these thoughts rush to his head. What Joe really wants is his normal life back and all of his limbs. Thats what he wants but he knows it is impossible so then he thinks that he wants to go outside but he then figures it is out of hospital regulations because it is too expensive. He then starts thinking the idea of using himself as some sort of exhibit for people to see the true horror of war and what it can do to you. Joe figures that this probably wont work either because if people knew the ruth about war and what could possibly happen, no one would become part of the army. After telling the  man that he wants to be used as an exhibit, he leaves the room and then reenters telling Joe that it is against regulations. Joe becomes silent and says nothing else. Joe comes to the realization that the army only wants to forget about Joe so that this tragedy will never make it to the earth's surface because if it did it would decrease the favoritism towards the government and show people the truth about fighting. 

The dream

While sedated, Joe has a dream of the woman who is searching for her son from the beginning of the book. Her son was only 16 and was given the choice to go to prison or go to war. He begins to see the son walking through the desert of Tucson and he envisions the young man as Christ. In his dream Christ comes to the train station and plays cards with Joe and other men who are going off to war and are going to die. Christ provides a glass of scotch for each of the men. Each of them start telling off their stories about how they are going to experience a horrible death when one man points out that Joe will not die in battle. Once Joe points out what his destiny is all of the men feel terrible for him and would much rather die than end up like him. The men let him be and Christ gets up because he has plenty more men to see before they die. As the train leaves, Joe feels lonely on a train with a bunch of men going to their deaths so he jumps off and runs across the desert. he throws himself at what seems to be Christ. I thought the dream was a little ironic especially since in the next chapter Joe figures out that it is Christmas because his new nurse writes with her fingernail on his chest. I think the dream was not only odd but metaphorical. Because Joe is the dead man who has been brought back to life. He isn't completely dead but he isn't fully alive much like Christ in a way. Christ sacrificed himself and then came back to life after his scarification much like Joe. Joe sacrificed his life for his country and he came back alive but barely. He is relating himself a little to Christ because of that and he is really the only one who knows his pain and knows what it's like to be dead and come back and have people forget about him . 

Tapping

In the most recent activities of Joe the Stump, Joe has began tapping. In chapter 13 joe is being prepared for visitors. He quickly gets excited at the thought that it could be Kareen and his family but he soon becomes discouraged and hopes that Kareen will never have to see him the way he is. When the visitors finally come they observe the body and stick something on Joe's chest. Joe realizes that he is being payed a visit by generals who are decorating him with medals. He soon becomes infuriated by the thought and makes a strange sound in his thought. the vibration he hears soon makes him think of communication. The idea then comes to him that he can communicate through vibrations and use morse code. In his new idea Joe starts banging his head against the headboard to send out messages to the nurses' around him. The day nurse doesn't quite understand what he is trying to do so she changes him, cleans his bed, and baths him. Once he continues to tap she thinks that it is out of pure sexual frustration so she then begins to masturbate him. Joe is a little creeped out by it but then begins to like it a little more. Joe's initial reason for tapping was to be able to communicate with the people around him and send out messages but none of the nurses' understand what he is doing. In his desperate call for help Joe looses complete track of time and becomes a little more frustrated with the situation. 

Mastering Time

In chapter 11 Joe decides he wants to be able to tell time. That presents itself to be difficult seeing how he can't see or hear. At the beginning of the chapter Joe tries very hard to keep him self busy and entertained. He starts thinking of old books and songs that he had read and heard and tries his best to remember all the lines. He then comes up with the idea of how he could possibly tell time. Loosing eye sight and sense of hearing are things he has to work around in order to reach his goal. The first thing he tries to do is calculate the time from when he was hit on september 18th and until the day he woke up. He soon comes to realize this is impossible and chooses a different method. His initial thought process was to count the seconds, minutes, and hours between each nurses' visit until he reached 24 hours but he can't focus that long so that method goes out the window. He then decides to distinguish the amount of bowl movements that occur and how often his sheets are changed between each nurse's visits. That doesn't exactly work so then he comes to the conclusion that the nurse probably baths him in the morning and estimates that it is around 2 hours between each visit. This one works and he can feel the change in temperature on his neck when he is being bathed. His methods are quite confusing to me but they work for him. I think he decides to master time so he can feel more alive and know what is going on. He wants to feel more of a part of the world and with being able to tell time he can't think of himself as similar to others out there in the world. He also wants to do it to be entertained so he isn't constantly bored. i

What is worth fighting for

In chapter 9 through 10 Joe is still stuck laying in his bed. In chapter 9 Joe remembers a camping trip with his father in which he brought a friend along with him. On the camping trip it is tradition for Joe to go fishing with his dad but he feels as if he is of age where he can go fishing with his friend and his dad agrees. The dad gives Joe's friend, Billy, his fishing rod which used to be his dad's. The boys loose Joe's dad's fishing rod and the whole walk back to camp Joe tries to think of what he is going to say. He tells his dad that he lost his rod and that he was really sorry. His dad simply tells him that it is okay and hugs him. Joe realizes it is his last trip with his dad and that next year he will be going to the mountains with all the other boys his age and his dad will be with all the other men. He snaps out of it and wakes up feeling very alone. In chapter 10 Joe thinks of why he actually went to war. He says that the army tricked him into going to war because he was fighting for freedom and liberty. he says that all the men who went to war didn't exactly know what they were fighting for while they were there and they ended up dyeing for democracy. In the end Joe realizes that the only thing worth fighting for is life and that is exactly what he is doing right now while he lies in is bed. Joe believes that fighting for democracy and liberty isn't worth the initial cost of death and harm. Joe is more than upset he got tricked into fighting because he didn't know why he as fighting but in the end life is only thing worth fighting for. 

The Stump and the rat

In these chapters we see how completely helpless Joe is. He has no arms, no legs, he can't see, his tongue is gone and he practically has no face. He is as useless as a stump of a tree. Although that is not very nice and is very unfortunate it is kind of the truth and I have a great amount of sympathy for him. One night a rat decides to pay Joe a little visit. The rat begins to crawl all over Joe and started gnawing at his skin and open sores. The rat simply reminds Joe of how helpless he is because the rat is all over Joe and he can't do one thing to get the rat off of him. The rat represented the healthy enemy and the sick allies and friends dieing and passing away all around Joe. He also realizes that the rat only visits him while he is asleep but when he wakes up he sees the nurse. He can't exactly tell what is reality and when he is awake because he never really knows if the rat is there since he can't see. The rat is symbolic for all the problems Joe is having in his life and how much his life has gone down the drain. 

The Stump and the bakery

In the three chapter that we read last night we find out that Joe the half stump is actually a whole stump. Joe figures out that he has no legs either and that they have both been amputated causing Joe to think that he is dying. In chapter 6 Joe starts to think about working the night shift at the bakery. He starts to remember  man named Jose who showed up for work one night. Jose was from Puerto Rico and his previous job was a chauffeur for a rich family in New York. After the daughter of the family feel in love with him he had to leave. The man tells all the guys at work about his previous situation but they don't believe him. Jose then receives a letter from the girl asking for his address so she can find him and come marry him with all the money she has just inherited from her family. Jose then receives a second job and he doesn't know how to juggle the two. he does his best but realizes he only can get 45 minutes of sleep. the boys at work then start to think of ways Jose can get him self fired. So he tries dropping a pie in-front of his boss Jody. But Jody simply forgives him and does nothing. Then the next night he tips over a entire cart of pies and gets fired. Jose then walks out the door and is never seen again. Joe admires him because Jose realized that Jody had done so much for him and he couldn't walk up to Jody and tell him he wanted to quite. Joe did what was best for him and nobody else. Joe remembers the bakery because it as the job that he had while his dad died. So I think Joe remembers it because that is a life changing experience. 

Joe the Stump

In the first chapter Joe is dreaming and flashes-back to the day that his dad died. He remembers having a hangover and making his way through the bakery that he used to work at. His mom called him to tell him that his dad had passed away so he tells his boss the situation and gets a lift from a fellow co-worker. when he arrives home he sees his father laying dead on the couch with a sheet placed over his face. After being home for a little while he goes to see his dad before he is taken away. He lifts the sheet and looks at him and tells him that he is sorry for him but not as sorry as he was the day before and he tells him he loved him then places the sheet back over his face. Joe becomes conscious and realizes that he doesn't have a hangover and that he can;t see or hear anything. Joe soon finds out that both of his arms have been amputated and he mentally breaks down. he soon realizes that the ring his girlfriend, Kaaren, gave him is gone as well. In chapter three Joe relates his situation to  resurfacing the water after a long period of drowning. He uses this as his imagery because after resurfacing after a while without air you grasp all your breath and breath heavily. So when Joe woke up that is basically what he did because he had been dreaming and he suddenly woke up to find that he no longer had any arms and that he is blind and deaf. 

The End of the Bell Jar

In chapter 19 Joan leaves Belsize to go live with a nurse at Cambridge. Esther is scheduled to leave the asylum in a few months but however finds herself envious of Joan's departure. One day while Esther is out on the town she meets a man named Irwin. He so happens to be a math professor. The tow soon go out for coffee and then they return to Irwin's to have a nice pint of beer. Esther and irwin then go out for dinner that night and she gets permission from Dr. Nolan to stay at Joan's apartment at Cambridge. After the two have dinner they return to his apartment where the deflowering begins. Esther has the urge to sleep with this man becasue it's the first normal and descent man she has met in a while and she finally feels normal again. She says in the book, " I had been defending it for five years and i was sick of it." She is talking about her virginity and she feels as if it is just weighing her down so as soon as she does have sex everything will change and be better. After the two have sex irwin goes to take a shower while Esther feels like a liquid is seeping out of her. She discovers that it is blood and once she doesn't stop bleeding irwin drives her to the hospital. So to say the least i don't think it was a very enjoyable experience for Esther. She didn't have this great revelation like she thought she was going to and to her it hurt. Later on in chapter 20 irwin asks if she will see him again and she replies by saying never so I don't think that night is what she had in mind. 

Almost There

In chapter 17 Esther switches asylums from Caplan to Belsize. At Belsize the women have more freedom and Esther heard that Joan had shopping privileges and she could go out and even call her husband if she wanted to. The women at Belsize are normal and aren't always all depressed from shock treatments because they don't get them. We first see Esther compare her life to a bell jar in chapter 15 when she is talking about how she should be grateful to Mrs. Guinea but she didn't know how to be and she didn't fell "anything". Esther feels like no matter what happens, if she would fly away to paris and start a new life or go any place in the world it wouldn't matter she would still feel trapped. In chapter 18 before she gets the ability to move asylum's she gets her last shock treatment. At first she is really mad at Dr. Nolan for not telling her but the doctor says that she didn't tell her because she didn't want her to be worried about it. Esther gets the shock treatment but during the process she falls unconscious. Esther wakes up and she all of a sudden feels better. esther says that she feels like the bell jar has been lifts a few feet above her head and she is no longer trapped directly under it. She starts feeling less depressed and starts getting the shock treatments 3 times a week. She no longer feels like her sickness is just lingering behind her. 

Chapter 13-14 did the wrong blog for friday

The big problem with Esther is that she can't seem to shake what happened between her and Marco the other night. It has such an impact on her mental mind-state that in chapter 14 she tries to kill herself by overdosing on pills. After her return home all this information and news starts darting at her left and right. Her mom gets on her back about being single, buddy won't leave her alone, she didn't get into the writing course at Cambridge, and she can't seem to get a grip on her life. everything is just going in a down ward spiral for her and she is trying to take the easy way out by killing herself. Esther doesn't stop thinking about death and the million ways for her to kill herself. She is in need of help but no one seems to care enough to help her. She can't get a grip on her life and doesn't want to face all the things she will have to go through in order to fix her problems. The Marco situation really messed with her and since she hasn't told anyone about it, I think it is eating her alive inside. i think if she could find someone who would allow her to get everything off her chest and she wouldn't be judged for it then I think she would be a happier person in general. 

Esther is a looney

At Esther's new asylum she is very down on life and herself because the environment is very gloomy and dark. The nurses don't do their job very well at all. After Esther claims she is blind one of the nurses just tells her it is alright you will just find a blind husband. The nurses and the people around her cause her to think of death more frequently. The nurses are very impatient with their patients and in a mental hospital there needs to be positive reinforcement instead of making the patients be more down on themselves. The thought of killing herself still hasn't left her mind and she still thinks it as a noble act in some kind of way. She tries to kill herself because of how the asylum is and how they have only been making her worse. she hasn't gotten better and no one knows what's wrong with and aren't sure if they believe anything is. 

The Doctor

In chapter 10 Esther asks the family doctor Teresa for me sleeping pills and then she recommends a psychiatrist to her. She goes to see this psychiatrist, Dr. Gordon, and hates him immediately. She thinks he is conceited and just likes to show off his perfect beautiful family. She doesn't like the doctor at all because she doesn't think he takes her seriously and he wants to give her shock treatment at one of his hospitals. In her second meeting with him she brings a letter to him that she tried to write to Doreen but her hand writing wasn't legible so she ripped it up. She thinks about running away to Chicago but realizes the bank will close before she can withdrawal any money. She decides to stop seeing the doctor after the shock treatment because of how crappy she feels. I think the doctor is hurting her because she still feels the same and then after the shock treatment she feels even worse. But she starts thinking about suicide and if it would matter if she were dead or not because she practically feels like it anyways. So i think she definitely needs some kind of help. 

Esther's Return

Chapter 9 and 10 are a little strange. After Esther's final night in New York she hops on he next train to Boston and returns home. Upon her return we get the sense that Esther is going a little insane. She is still wearing the cloths that Betsy gave her she still hasn't wiped the blood off of her face that Marco put there because she likes it for some odd reason. She gets home and all these thoughts start running through her mind. Jody calls her and Esther let's her know that she didn't get into the writing program at Cambridge and she wont be staying with her. She then gets a letter from Buddy telling her that he is falling in love with a nurse but if he goes quickly to see her, she has the chance of wining him back. Esther angered by the letter decides to cross the writing out, flip it over and write him back saying she is engaged. She then wants to start up a novel but she quickly runs out of ideas because of her lack of life experience. She shortly becomes very frustrated and very annoyed with everyone and everything around her. At on point in the novel she wants to strangle her mom because of how loud she is snoring. I think she is a little short tempered and more then annoyed and in need of sleeping pills because she still isn't over her violent night with Marco. He almost raped her and she almost allowed it to happen but then she punched his nose and she left. 

Esther and Constatine

In chapter seven Constantine comes to pick up Esther for their date to the UN building. During their dater they find out that neither of them really enjoy Mrs. Willard. Esther keeps this idea that if she sleeps with Constantine then it is as if her and Buddy are equals. So they whole date all Esther really wants is for Constantine to sleep with her. She is really hoping that Constantine will seduce her and she will get to experience sex instead of holding out for marriage like she was initially planning on doing. Constantine asks her to go back to his place and she gets a little excited. When the two are up in the room they started holding hands and drinking a little wine. This wasn't exactly how the moment played out in Esther's head. She started to get a little impatient so she asked Constantine if her had a girlfriend or if he was involved with anyone. He basically responded by saying no. the two sat on his bed when he finally fell asleep so Esther decided to join him. She woke up in the middle of the night to only find herself to be able to watch Constantine sleep. Although no sexual activity resulted in the night it was still a first for her and she thought it was interesting that Constantine made no direct move. 

Esther and Buddy

When Esther first meets Buddy she never really gets to see him or spend time with him. She only saw him on occasion at church when they were both home from college. their parents were friends in college and both married college professors. One time while they were at church Buddy came over to talk her and he told her that he might stop by during break. It shocked her up until the day it actually happened. Buddy came by to say hi and he told Esther that he had just hitch hiked all the way from Yale. When he came he told Esther that he was there because he was going to sophomore prom with Joan. As soon as that named left his lips there was a sense of bitterness the rest of the conversation from Esther. The real reason Buddy had stopped by was to ask her to Yale's junior prom. She was so excited to go. When they first started dating they were really happy with one another. A little bit after they started dating things got a little worse. She felt as though Buddy was trying to be this perfect little angel when all Esther wanted was for Buddy to be honest with her. Esther wants Buddy to think of her as an intelligent individual and someone that he can tell stuff to. 

Chemistry

In chapter three we find out that Esther had been called into the office to talk to Jay Cee while all the other girls were getting ready for the fur show. Jay Cee had called her in to see if Esther's mind was on track. Then Esther went off track, as usual, and began to talk about her physics class in college and how she was the only girl that received straight A's in the class. She then tells us how much she did not want to take chemistry and that she would do anything to get out of it. To be quite honest, I would have done the same thing. I think the whole reason why she refused to take chemistry because much like physics, it was out of her comfort zone. She says earlier on that when ever she picked up a german dictionary, "her mind shut like a clam.", learning german or taking a class that was going to be hard didn't seem to her like it would have much use. She was an English major and saw no need for taking some class that she would have to work extremely hard at. The reason i think she finds it so overwhelming is because it's like a foreign language to her and in the end it wont help her write poetry books and become an editor. 

The Bell Jar

"It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and i didn't know what i was doing in New York. The first line gives us the sense that Esther doesn't exactly know what her purpose is in New York. The mentioning of the Rosenbergs's execution in a way shows that nothing really that great happened during her stay. She has never been out of New England before this trip and she seems like she is getting more than annoyed with all the women around her who are living off of their husband and dad's salaries. She says that most women would kill for what she is doing, working for a fashion magazine and constantly partying, but she doesn't see all the hype surrounded by it. Her really only good friend as of now is Doreen. Doreen isn't that great of a friend because she is constantly getting drunk forcing Esther to take care of her and she is sort of a slut. Near the end of chapter two Esther decides that Doreen isn't the best person for her to be friends with so she decides to stop hanging out with her. When the two go to a bar with Lenny and Frankie we see just how uncomfortable Esther really is with the positions she gets placed in. When Lenny and Doreen are hooking up at Lenny's house Esther is just left watching and decides to just get up and go back to the hotel. She doesn't like the constant partying and being hit on by men like most of all the other girls like. 

Joan

Through out the film we see how many characters hold the values of the 1950's, Betty Warren being one of them. Joan on the other hand holds those values but only to a certain standard. She thinks she wants to get married but isn't sure. She is very convinced she wants to go to law school at Yale and she as been accepted. She would much rather go to school rather then get married which wasn't seen as proper for time. She decides not to tell anyone she has applied or even been accepted. She is torn and her action is not one that a proper woman of the 1950's would choose they would rather be married to and unhappy pleasing their man like Betty Warren. Joan doesn't constantly conform and is very open with how much she loves her boy friend. At one point of the movie when she decides to tell Betty about her acceptance to Yale we see the true joan. She doesn't exactly want to be excited about a washer and dryer but rather about a career. When she tells Betty she doesn't exactly get the response she was looking for and you can tell in her expressions that she isn't about to just conform to being a perfect little wife like her friend. 

The 1950;s

As of now the film Mona Lisa Smile portrays the 1950's very well. So far we have noticed that the family values are held within these women's lives. Each is well aware of what the perfect wife is to do and some are willing to conform to this perfect family image where some aren't. All of those married are only attending college while patiently waiting for their husbands to return from war. They are getting "Their MRS. degree". We saw that one of the characters was attending college and once she graduated she was suppose to merry, not really sure if that happens or not, but she is just trying to pass the time. The women are willing to be the ideal wife and not stand up for themselves. To me it depicts the society of the 1950's really well because once all the men returned form the war they were told to go back to being a wife instead of holding men jobs. They didn't stand up for what they really wanted and did everything as perfect as ever. In one of the first scenes Julia Roberts has a bunch of rules slapped right on her face as soon as she walks into her new room and once she decides to room with one of the fellow teachers we see how nice and neat everything has to be every where she goes. 

The end of the Play

Blanche continues to hear music in her head and Stella comes to the sense that Blanche is truely going insane in the membrane. Stella tricks Blanche into going to a hospital and once they arrive the doctors take her away. Blanche doesn't really ever come to terms with the situation because she is spacing out. She thinks that the doctor is a gentleman because he shakes her hand. Stella is extremely upset about the whole situation but deep in her heart she knows it was the right thing to do. She needed to help her sister because if she didn't who would. She hasn't exactly had a cinderella story of a life either. She drinks constantly and then claims she doesn't she had a gay husband shoot himself because of her and she has dealt with more death then anyone should ever have too. So in a way she was a deeply troubled woman. 

Blanche

In our reading find out a little bit about the skeletons that Blanche has been keeping in her closet. We find out that her youngest husband experimented with men and one night Blanche walks in on him in bed with another man. she keeps her mouth shut for a very little amount of time. One night she is out dancing with him and she tells him exactly how she feels about the situation. The husband runs out of the room and kills himself. Another skeleton comes out that she was at the Flamingo hotel selling herself. Really the least of the three but the last one is we discover that she was fired as a teacher. she was fired because she was having an inappropriate relationship with a student.  The young man was 17 years old and the father of the boy uncovered the relationship leading to several meetings causing her to end up being fired. The only shocking one to me though was the one about her husband killing himself. the other two we sort of figured out in class.

Blanche and Stanley

The fist time Blanche is described to us it becomes apparent that she isn't going to fit in to the neighborhood that Stella and Stanley live in. She tells Stella straight to her face that it is an ugly house and she is shocked that she is still living in a dump like that. She brings extravagant outfits so she can out dress everyone and she can't really stand the sight of Stanley because how dirty he is. Blanche starts to compare Stanley to the men the used to date when they were younger even though Stella begs her not to. Once Stanley strikes her Blanche's view of him becomes more dim and more disgust. Blanche is way out of her comfort zone and can't really handle it. She looks down on everyone who is less than her and can't embrace the fact that Stanley and Stella love each other. 

Stanley

In the first scene Stella makes it apparent that she holds strong feelings towards Stanley and is madly in love with him. Stella shows all this affection and Stanley doesn't seem to do much in return. He treats her like a piece of meat that will always be there so he sees no need in treating her like a queen. Later on in scene three Stella goes out with her sister, Blanche, to see a show due to the fact that Stanley is hosting a poker game at his house. When the sisters return they find Stanley belligerently drunk still in the middle of playing. He starts to become physical and rude with his wife. He ends up slapping his Stella who so happens to be pregnant with Stanley's child. Blanch leaves with Stella going to upstairs compartment of the apartment which belongs to  Eunice. We see the change in Stanley when he legitimately becomes upset that Stella has left.  He starts to become upset with his friends and swings at them. The all decide to leave him there and Stanley begins to shout Stella's name. STELL-LAHHHHH! We see that he really cares about Stella and feels awful about striking her. He has affection for her just like Stella has for him. He does love her but just doesn't show it as much as most women would want. 

my initial thoughts on the paper

I think writing this paper won't be too difficult. Comparing and contrasting Willy and Norma is going to be simple because they are very much a like. Although Norma was once successful and still has a lot of money. Both of the characters never truly achieve what they want. Norma wants to be loved again and Willy wants to be well liked and successful. The tow have both tried to kill themselves and both of them have a few screws loose. Norma is basically the woman version of Willy. 

Wily and Norma

Willy and Norma are not that different from each other. Although Norma was once a big silent movie actress and was successful she is just like plane old Willy. Just like Willy, Norma likes to embellishes herself a little bit. When Joe Gillis first meets her he says that she was once a big movie star but she says that she still is. She builds herself up to be someone that she really isn't just like Willy. They both live in their own little worlds where they seclude reality. There is one difference between the two. Norma was once successful and by the looks of her house she isn't making it up but Willy on the other hand never really had any money and is past is complete fiction. They are both very similar though in the sense that they like to lie a little bit. 

Willy's final action

I think for the most part that Willy chose the easy way out. I think Willy was a weak man and couldn't see himself for what he really was. He had to always embellish his stories and make himself out to be a great successful man but instead of trying to be he lied so much that he actually thought he was. Willy killed himself so his family could have money and so that Biff could carry on with his life and make something of it.  Willy never tried to fix the problems he had he just lied to get out of them. In general Willy was a weak man who was lazy and envied everyone else around him who had money.  Willy's final action was no "Death of a Salesman". He didn't go out with a big boom or make much of himself. He left behind a broken hearted family with two kids who saw him for what he was and a more then depressed wife. Willy was so washed up in his own fantasy of being rich and successful that he never really understood how to be a good husband or father or even a good salesman. 

Willy & Biff

In our reading we find out what truly happened when Biff visited Willy in Boston. After flunking math, Biff goes up to Boston to see his dad since he is away on Boston. When he gets to his dad's hotel room, he is forced to beat on Willy's door constantly until he almost breaks it down. Willy doesn't answer at first because he is with another woman and isn't expecting company. After a few moments he flings the door open to find 17 year old Biff. Biff starts to tell his dad what happened with his grades and how he needs him to come home to talk to his math teacher. After a few stories are told by Biff to Willy he starts to laugh, and the woman that he had put in the bathroom before Biff's entering, began to laugh along as well. Biff confused by the third party laughter asked if anyone was in the room. Willy tells him its from the other room but Biff doesn't believe him. The woman comes out of the shower and then Willy and Biff's relationship goes down the crapper. Biff relates his father to a fake and a phony for the rest of his life. Biff is so appalled by Willy's actions that he can never look him straight in the eye again or get along with him. Willy cheating on LInda was so detrimental to Biff that he never wanted to do anything for his dad ever again and he threw his life away because of it. When ever Willy hallucinates it's of the years that he and Biff were still close and deep down Willy knows it's his fault that they no longer have the same relationship but he chooses to remember the past in the way he wants. 

Willy's decision

I think Willy made the wrong decision in not working with Charley. I understand why Willy believes he can't work with Charley but i think Willy needs to get over himself. The man was just fired and has to go beg an old friend for money every week, of course it was dumb of him not to take a job offering by one of his only friends even though it's hard to work with a friend. He holds himself to higher standards then he can achieve and he sets himself up for failure. He is so interested in how everyone else gets their money and how they did it instead of worrying about himself. He is trying to reach the rags to riches dream but has such a big ego that he can't stand to be criticized or helped or even fail. He needs to get over himself and become more opened minded to different ideas instead of being so old fashioned. 

Ben's influence on Willy

I believe that Ben was a negative influence on Willy. Ben would always come from out of no where to stop by and spill lies about get rich schemes and how he could travel the world with him along with his boys and Linda. The reason he was such a negative influence is because he tricked Willy into believing him. He through out all these ideas to the point where Willy could almost taste them and then in a matter of seconds he leaves him behind. Willy has spent his life trying to get rich like his brother and sees himself as sort of a failure and is upset with his life because he isn't like his brother. Linda thinks that Ben was a negative influence on Willy because he always wanted Willy to travel with him and Linda didn't see the reason. She said, "Why must everybody conquer the world?" She thought that Willy was happy enough at home and he had a family to raise. He is "well liked". 

Biff and Happy's plan

Through out the first act Biff and Willy go at it with each other. The two of them hold certain standards for each other and neither of them seem to be living up to those standards. Biff decides he is going to stay home and help Willy. Happy comes up with this idea of doing something with sports. Happy and Biff then decided they are going to talk to a man named Oliver to help them set up their own sporting goods store. Willy is more then thrilled when he hears about their plan. He thinks it will be a great success and money will start flowing because they are "well-liked". I think that the sporting goods store idea will go down the drain. We have learned that Biff and Happy are both unreliable characters and at the first sign of trouble will drop the ball and run for the hills. It really all depends on how much they will work at it to help their dad or if they will just turn back to their old ways. 

Willy and Charley

Willy and Charley have a very grumpy old men kind of relationship. The two bicker at each other like they were brothers. Every little wrong thing that Charley does, Willy pokes fun at or vice versa. They don't exactly have that friendly kind of relationship. They poke fun at each other not jokingly like friends do but as if they were enemies but they still remain friends. They seem to be very close too. I don't know why but they just seem like they have been friends for a very long time they way that they are constantly going back and forth. Willy is definitely the meaner of the two and constantly criticizes what Charley does and everything that Charley seems to say to Willy is marked as offensive. Willy although is quick to dish out smart remarks and hurtful things, he isn't willing to tolerate it from anyone else and thinks less of them if they do call him anything. There relationship is a real manly man one kind of like Clint Eastwood and his barber in "Gran Torino". They are just grumpy old men who are dissatisfied with their lives but still like to compete. 

Happy & Biff

So far in our reading of Death of a Salesman we are introduced to four character two of which are Happy and Biff. The two are brothers who are only two years apart and are both in their early thirties. They are the sons of Willy and LInda. So far in Act I they are at home in their bedroom discussing life and their dad. The two brothers both seem to be very close because the first thing we hear about them is their mom, Linda, telling her husband that the two went out on a date together and how cute they looked together. Biff and Happy start talk about their lives and reminisce about their discussions when they were younger. Biff, the oldest of the two, isn't very thrilled with his life. Through out the first few pages Willy and LInda talk about how he is still trying to find his way and is sort of confused on the direction of his life. He loves to farm but thinks it is starting to get old. He isn't really sure what he wants to do with his life because he has tried being like his dad by being a salesman and he found it boring. Happy is some what of a player. He owns his own apartment and has a car. He is a business man like his father and is with a different woman every other night. He isn't happy with his life because all the meaningless hookups are starting to get old and he is starting to feel like somewhat of a pig becasue he hooks up with women who are already married. The two are very close to each other and like to joke and talk. I think they are reliable because of how close they are to each other and they both love their parents very much. At one point Happy asks Biff to not leave again becasue he needs someone to help him with his dad. 

The End of Their Eyes Were Watching God

After the horrific storm and the incident with Tea Cake being bitten in the face, Tea Cake becomes very sick. Not only does Tea Cake get sick but he is forced to help bury some of the dead from the hurricane. But through out the last chapters Tea Cake starts to turn and accuse Janie of sneaking out at night and seeing Mrs. Turner's relatives. Janie notices that after their fight he starts sleeping with a gun under his pillow so Janie thinks that she should have her rifle at the ready incase anything gets too out of hand. One the night the two get in a fight and it escalates to where Tea Cake pulls a gun on Janie. He pulls the trigger twice and before he can pull it a third time Janie shoots him in defense. She knew he was changing and as soon as she shot her beloved husband she died too. Janie was put on trial for the murder of Tea CAke but she didn't reveal much because to her nor say close to anything because she knew life without Tea Cake wouldn't be life at all. 

"Their Eyes Were Watching God"

Chapter 18 actually contains the title of the book within the chapter. In the chapter a big hurricane is coming and  not many people believe it will be that big of a storm and think it will just blow over. Tea Cake is among those who believe it will just blow over so he sees no reason for why he and Janie should leave their home. The night before the storm Tea Cake has a bunch of co-workers who work at the muck over and rolling dice in his backyard. As soon as the people over see that the weather is starting to get extremely bad they leave and return home. Janie and Tea Cake start talking and get on the subject that everything that has been happening due to God. While waiting for the the storm to come Janie says it's like "Their eyes were watching God", because they are waiting on the worst of God's wrath to come through. All the two could do was wait for what was coming to them since they hadn't decided to vacate their home. 

Tea Cake and Janie Working

Once Tea Cake and Janie settle in at the Everglades, Janie starts off by hunting and cooking for Tea Cake. As soon as they get all moved in, tea Cake stats searching for a job but soon after leaving the house comes home. Janie suspects that tea Cake has doubts about their relationship and thinks that she is cheating on him. He merely explains to Janie that he doesn't like leaving her side for such long periods of time and begs her to come find a job with him. Janie hastily accepts the offer and goes off on the job search with her man. A reason for why she was maybe so eager to get a job was that she was probably lonely in the house all day just looking forward to his arrival. This relationship is already so much better then her past 2 because she now actually has someone who wants to spend time with her. At the beginning Tea Cake asked her to play checkers with him and then asked her to get a job with him. The difference between the work she did with her past husbands, Logan and Jody, is that Tea Cake asked them to do it out of love instead of necessity. 

Chapter 9 of Their Eyes Were Watching God

“The angels grew jealous of man and chopped up and covered him in mud.”

This parable relates to Janie because she is in a way jealous of men because they can voice their opinions and be heard where Janie, along with other women are suppressed by men and seen as weaker beings. At the very beginning of chapter 9, the novel talks about how in the beginning of time God created one man who shown so bright and sung so loud that the angels eventually got tired of hearing about him. The angels then decided o break him down and once they realized they still couldn't handle him they cut him up and placed mud over him. Not only does it relate to Janie in the little amount of jealousy she has but it also goes back to her idea of love. When she first starts thinking about love and what her life would be like when she was married, it was a wonderful thought, but as soon as she came to reality she had to cover her dream of love up and never reveal it again. once she was married to Logan she knew she couldn't be happy for the rest of her life but once Jody came around it was almost as if her idea of love was re-birthed but once she started to see Jody for who he really was her dream was soon chopped up again and covered with a fake smile. In a way it doesn't only relate to her idea of love but to Janie herself because when ever she is put down by Logan or Jody it's as if she is having mud cover her up. Her voice and opinion no longer matter to either of them and if she is covered up they don't have to deal with it. 

The Mule

In chapter 6 we are introduced to Matt Bonner's mule. HIs mule is very skinny and is always getting lost. One day the mule gets lost again and some townspeople find it and start messing around with the poor animal. When Janie sees the townspeople poking fun at the mule she becomes very upset. Janie relates to the mule in that way that she has to work all day in the store and then come home and be lonely. The mule has to work in the fields all day and be mistreated and unsupervised by his master for the rest of the evening. When Jody finds out that Janie is so passionate about the mule he decides to buy it for Janie in order to make her happy. Janie starts to really love the animal because of how much they are the same, they both don't have a "big voice" let alone a voice at all. SHe stands up for the mule because of how much similar they are and she doesn't feel that anyone should be put down or controlled by others. 

Ch. 5 Jody's true self

Soon after Jody and Janie's marriage they go to Eatonville, Florida. Upon entering the new town Jody decides to make himself heard and "have a big voice". He starts to buy up land from the town and with his 200 acres he decides to sell it to incoming townspeople and set up little shops. He is then elected mayor and Janie is asked to give a speech on the behalf of her husband entering in office. Jody responds with saying that women and wives are not to give speeches. The true side of Jody comes out because he is degrades women and thinks they are just some perfect image. Janie says nothing in response to Jody forbidding the speech. The inferiority that Jody is giving to Janie shows us that Jody's dreams are more important then his marriage with Janie because she is being set behind projects that Jody wishes to complete. The marriage is already not picture perfect for Janie because Jody isn't the man she thought he was. He is a power hungry man who has no time for a wife. 

Imagery

Throughout chapter 3 and 4 there is a great use of imagery. In chapter 4 Janie and her new husband, Joe Starks, sneak away and get married. At the end of the chapter Joe and Janie are watching the sunset. The last paragraph of the chapter uses imagery and on the surface seems like its just talking about nightfall and sunset but it is really a metaphor for Janie. It is being used to describe Janie's new life because now that Nanny is dead she no longer has to please her by being married to Logan. Janie isn't sure what her new life will be like but she seems pretty sure that it will be better then the one she had with her former husband Logan. Sitting there with her new husband in the darkness could also foreshadow that her new life might be worse but she knows as soon as the sun rises a new life begins but you can't be to sure if it will be a happy one or not. 

Janie's return

In the first two chapters Janie comes home from where ever she was. The townspeople start to judge Janie because she comes home in overalls and doesn't stop by to say hi to any of her friends. Her close friend, Phoeby, goes over to Janie's house with some food for her to eat. Phoeby tells Janie that everyone in town is talking about her. Janie starts to tell Pheoby her story and what happened while she was away. Janie's husband, Tea Bag, died and that is the only reason why she returned back home. In the second chapter Janie and Pheoby go to dinner and start to talk about their pasts. Phoeby talks about how all the other girls were always jealous of Janie because she got white kids' hand-me downs. Janie was raised differently from all the other children because her owners treated her with higher standards compared to other black children.