Sunday, October 12, 2008

Can anyone explain the images/theme of nature that Mrs. Gerber wanted us to identify? Is Willy's desperate attempt to plant seeds one example?
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5 comments:

Ricky O. said...

I'm not sure exactly, but Ms. Gerber just said to note any time nature came up so the seeds are relevant and then I think there is a point where someone stairs out into the sky. There is also the scene where Linda knocks the flowers on the floor. These all might have importance.

October 12, 2008 at 2:52 PM
Amber P. said...

I think they are important because in the end of the book, Biff wants to go and be in nature, he doesn't want to live the miserable life of a structured environment, and it's obvious that Willy wishes he could be like Biff and live in nature, because he wants to plant a garden.

October 12, 2008 at 4:22 PM
Arjun Puranik said...

I think that part of the nature theme is how Biff wants to become a nature man. As for the garden, I think it's the nature thing for Willy too. But it seems like the garden also symbolizes something else. Not really sure what (that's a question), but perhaps the idea that Willy's wants to make something tangible. He seems to feel that he hasn't seen any reward for his hard work over the years, and the garden is a mixed-up metaphor to solve that problem.

October 13, 2008 at 10:15 AM
Kristine Werling said...

Mrs. Gerber said to note what aspects of nature Willy is drawn towards. So, while I was reading I noticed how he loved to work with his hands and how he built up the porch on their house. Biff even says how there is more of Willy in the porch than in all the years he spends being a salesman.
Also, whenever Willy is talking to Ben, Willy shows a love for the rough, wild life that Ben represents. Willy longs to go to Alaska and Africa just like Biff longs to go to the West.
As far as the seeds are concerned, I think that Willy feels he has nothing to leave behind when he dies, so he wants to grow a garden so at least there will be something once he's gone. But apparently Willy has tried growing a garden before and it never worked. The garden shows how much Willy loves working with his hands but also right before he kills himself he makes one last attempt to plant the garden. Willy knows he has no money or fame to pass on, just how he never inherited any money or fame or even love from his own dad, so Willy tries to create one thing to show for all the work he has done throughout his life.

October 13, 2008 at 12:26 PM
amandak. said...

Willy always complains about how their neighborhood is becoming much too populated and urbanized (the apartments and how he can't see the stars, for example) so i think that by planting seeds, he is trying to relive his past and make everything more rural again.

October 13, 2008 at 7:39 PM

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