Death of a Salesman

Throughout the play I found the relationship between Biff and Willy to be very interesting. Right from the start you know there is tension in their relationship and get a sense of how Willy views Biff. I began to wonder what led them to reach this point in their relationship. After hearing how Willy perceived Biff it was interesting to see how they interacted when Biff was still in high school. It was evident that Biff was Willy’s favorite and really took great interest in him. Willy really built up Biff’s confidence and had great dreams and aspirations as to what Biff would do after high school.

The moment that changed this father son relationship was not revealed until near the end of the play. Biff unintentionally interrupted Willy and his mistress on a business trip, which leads Biff to view his father differently forever. He no longer believes in all the encouragement his father supplied him with throughout high school and feels deceived. After reading about this encounter the animosity between these two made sense. This scene helped me grasp how Willy and Biff think differently. Willy has a warped perception of the world and doesn’t always accept the truth, whereas Biff has a much better sense of reality.

I admired Biff in the last scene of the play. It probably took a lot of courage to finally tell his father how he felt, and reveal his secrets and lies. He knew that even though his brother and father had led a life that was padded with lies, that he would be better off just starting over fresh with everything out in the open.

Fires in the Mirror

I found the play "Fires in the Mirror" to be extremely thought provoking and gave me a new perspective on the Crown Heights crisis. It took me awhile to really get into the play, but overall it was enjoyable. The use of interviews for this show I believe was genius. It truly shows exactly how each person felt and perceived the situation. It was as if I was seeing the same event happen through many different peoples eyes. I found the structure of the play to be very interesting, but at times confusing. For example, at the start of the play I was extremely confused as to what was going on and who exactly was being interviewed. At certain points I felt as if I had grasped what the play writer was trying to convey, but then found myself lost again. The headings gave me some guidance, but it really all came together when I began to read the monologues following the “Crown Heights, Brooklyn, August 1991” heading. While reading, I wondered why the writer ordered the play in this way, and if there was another message I was missing that was expressed through the sequence of these interviews. After concluding the play I had a greater understanding of the relevance of the interviews in the beginning, and how they contributed to the overall message. They set the tone of who lived in this neighborhood, how they identified themselves and the rising tension that would eventually explode into a crisis.

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