Epilogue

Ten months after learning of their son's death, Walt and Billie McCandless travel with Krakauer by helicopter to visit the "Magic Bus". Krakauer notes that it takes the helicopter fifteen minutes to cover the distance it took McCandless four days to walk.

After spending time quietly walking around the bus, Billie finally climbs inside. Both parents can smell their dead son's jeans. Walt places a memorial plaque inside the door. Billie arranges a bouquet beneath the plaque, and leaves survival supplies and a first-aid kit under the bed.

Billie tells Krakauer, "Many people have told me that they admire Chris for what he was trying to do. If he'd lived, I would agree with them. But he didn't, and there's no way to bring him back...Most things you can fix, but not that" (199).

Krakauer ends this story of adventure that results in tragedy with a low-key, but no less heartbreaking scene. It is because of Krakauer's reporting and writing skills and his capacity for empathy with the misguided young man that the reader is able to share the family's sense of loss, rather than merely judging McCandless for his accomplishments and failures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D4DSIi-PuY

Style Analysis #3: Writing Style part 2

Although Krakauer keeps his distance from the content for much of the book, during the latter parts he incorporates some emotion into the story in order to develop key themes and ideas. In fact, in the foreword Krakauer admits that "a dispassionate rendering of the tragedy [would be] impossible" (2) for him to write.

Krakauer recalls his own youthful assault on a notorious Alaskan peak, in the hope that drawing a parallel would help the reader understand McCandless's motives and ideals. He describes his long time obsession with reaching the summit as paramount to any potential fatal consequences. McCandless was all too similar, so transfixed by his romanticized idea of a panacean wilderness that he chose to face death head-on.

Rhetoric Study

Krakauer creates an appeal to ethos by using strategies that demonstrate his qualifications to write about and make comparisons with McCandless, while also using strategies to establish that McCandless was qualified and sane enough to make his own decisions regarding his Alaskan odyssey. 

One of the main reasons Krakauer wrote this novel was because he feels that he and McCandless have many similar traits, for example:

“As a youth, I am told, I was willful, self-absorbed, intermittently reckless, moody. I disappointed my father in the usual ways. Like McCandless, figures of male authority aroused in me a confusing medley of corked fury and hunger to please. If something captured my undisciplined imagination, I pursued it with a zeal bordering on obsession, and from the age of seventeen until my late twenties that something was mountain climbing” (134). 

This passage appeals to ethos because it describes Krakauer's awareness to McCandless’s personality and recognizes that he is able to write about him because he was a version of him. Ultimately, it allows Krakauer to further develop his belief that McCandless was a rational person with legitimate thoughts and concerns, merely misguided in his journeys.

This passage also appeals to pathos. While Krakauer's and McCandless's decisions may have been questionable, the audience is still able to relate to this sort of yearning for adventure and renewal, thus creating emotional appeal.

In his description of his youth, Krakauer uses powerful words with almost whimsical connotative word pairings. This shows that Krakauer doesn't take himself too seriously. This allows the reader to relate to him more, and therefore to McCandless.

Character Study

Christopher McCandless

"'You could tell right away that Alex was intelligent,' Westerberg reflects...'He read a lot. He used a lot of big words. I think maybe part of what got him into trouble was that he did too much thinking. Sometimes he tried too hard to make sense of the world, to figure out why people were bad to each other so often. A couple of times I tried to tell him it was a mistake to get too deep into that kind of stuff, but Alex got stuck on things. He always had to know the absolute right answer before he could go on to the next thing'" (18).

McCandless is an intelligent, extremely intense young man with a streak of stubborn idealism. He grows up in a wealthy suburb of Washington, D.C., where he succeeds both academically and athletically and graduates from Emory University. After graduating, he gives all of his savings to charity, goes by the name of "Alexander Supertramp," abandons most of his possessions, and spends two years hitchhiking and traveling around the western United States. He then hitchhikes to Alaska, where he walks alone in the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. He is found dead in September 1992.

Carine McCandless

"Chris and Carine...[had] been best friends from an early age, spending hours together building forts out of cushions and blankets in their Annandale living room. 'He was always really nice to me,' Carine says, 'and extremely protective. He'd hold my hand when we walked down the street'" (80).

Carine is McCandless's younger sister, with whom he has an extremely close relationship and is the only family member that her brother is able to share his feeling with. Carine looks a lot like her older brother, and is also energetic, self-assured, opinionated, and a high-achiever. But unlike McCandless, she is very gregarious, forgiving of people’s faults, and fits happily into capitalist society.

McCandless remains in contact with Carine while he is at college and during his Westward journeys. The two share angry words about their parents, though Carine tells Krakauer that she has a much better relationship with her parents now having forgiven them.

Walt McCandless

"'The fragility of crystal is not a weakness but a fineness. My parents understood that fine crystal glass had to be cared for or may be shattered. But when it came to my brother, they didn’t seem to know or care that their course of their secret action brought the kind of devastation that could cut them. Their fraudulent marriage and our father’s denial of his other son was for Chris a murder of every day’s truth. He felt his whole life turned like a river suddenly reversing the direction of its flow. Suddenly running uphill. These revelations struck at the core of Chris’s sense of identity. They made his entire childhood seem like fiction. Chris never told them he knew and made me promise silence as well.'"

McCandless’s father is an aerospace engineer and the father of eight children from two marriages. He is taciturn, passionate, and stubborn. Much like his son, he is also brilliant, musically gifted, and temperamental.

Walt becomes the root of Krakauer’s theories on why McCandless ran off as he did. Walt himself is wealthy, self-made through hard work and education. He fathered five children with his first wife, Marcia, and later Chris Chris and Carine with Billie, his second wife.

For much of his life, Walt holds his son to very high expectations, which Chris attempts to live up to. During a fight between his parents, he overhears that his father was still married to Marcia for seven years while with Billie, attempting to maintain a home with both women. The two women discover what he’s done when Chris is only two years old, forcing Walt and Billie to move. It takes four more years before Walt divorces Marcia and marries Billie, and their children remember frequent fighting.

McCandless is angered by the hypocrisy of his father’s expectations. After five years of dwelling on his anger, he decides that he can no longer stand the duplicity of humanity and disappears, attempting to teach his parents a lesson as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBtHiRRzgLU

Jan Burres & Bob

"'I have a son about the same age as Alex was, and we've been estranged for a few years now. So I said to Bob, 'Man, we got to take this kid with us. You need to school him about some things''" (25).

Jan and Bob are a middle-aged, itinerant couple who meet McCandless in the summer of 1990 when he is searching for edible berries alongside U.S. Highway 101. The two travel around the West selling knick-knacks at flea markets. Estranged from her own son, Jan takes a special interest in McCandless. They become close, and he stays in written contact with her until submerging into the Alaskan wilderness.

Jan and Bob take care of McCandless, attempting to nurture his desire to live free of society, but also warn him of the dangers of his actions. Jan tries to convince him he is making a mistake and to send him back to his mother, though she fails. Although frustrated by him, she also finds him intriguing and decides that he will eventually grow out of his youthful afflictions. As a motherly figure in his life, Burres is a key individual in his journey.

Wayne Westerberg

"Westerberg, a hyperkinetic man with thick shoulders and a black goatee, owns a grain elevator in Carthage...In the fall of 1990...On the afternoon of September 10...he pulled over for a hitchhiker, an amiable kid who said his name was Alex McCandless. There was something arresting about the youngster's eyes...[they] conveyed a vulnerability that made Westerberg want to take the kid under his wing."

Westerberg picks up McCandless when he is hitchhiking in Montana in the fall of 1990. He offers him a job at his grain elevator in Carthage, South Dakota, and the two become close friends during McCandless's stay.

After McCandless runs from his father and severs ties with his family, Westerberg becomes a close friend and father figure. Because he does not judge McCandless, he acts an inspiration to him. He represents the middle class and the opposite of everything that McCandless's father represents. McCandless revels in their deep friendship, but doesn't stay in Carthage long enough to really get to know him, instead choosing to wandering off whenever he gets the chance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQsKXiSCqDI

Ronald Franz

"One can only speculate about why Franz became so attached to McCandless so quickly, but the affection he felt was genuine, intense, and unalloyed. Franz has been living in a solitary existence for many years. He had no family and few friends. A disciplined, self-reliant man, he got along remarkably well despite his age and solitude. When McCandless came into his world, however, the boy undermined the old man's meticulously constructed defenses. Franz relished being with McCandless, but their burgeoning friendship also reminded him how lonely he'd been. The boy unmasked the gaping void in Franz's life even as he helped fill it. When McCandless departed as suddenly as he'd arrived, Franz found himself deeply and unexpectedly hurt" (45).

Ronald Franz is an eighty-year-old widower, devout Christian, and veteran who picks McCandless up hitchhiking and takes a strong liking to him. His son and wife passed away long ago while he was away in Japan for the military, leaving him an empty man. Because of his grief, Franz becomes a kind, yet lost soul trying to find meaning in life. He adopts many Okinawan orphans, sending two of them to medical school. When he meets McCandless, he immediately feels the desire to offer his advice. He feels a powerful, fatherly affection for McCandless, and offers to adopt him.

Ultimately, Franz becomes a foil for McCandless by showing him that if he does not change his ways he will grow old and lonely. When Franz learns of McCandless's death, he starts to drink and renounces his belief in God. In the end, Franz is alone, on the road, and hoping for death.

Style Analysis #2: Quotes

Krakauer begins every chapter of Into the Wild with a quotation from a renowned author, such as Tolstoy, Thoreau, and Jack London. On a few occasions, Krakauer quotes McCandless himself. The quote chosen always pertains to the upcoming information in the chapter.

One of the objectives of these quotes is to clarify that the desires and drives which pushed McCandless to the edge of his endurance were not unique to him. Krakauer uses quotations from the inspirations behind McCandless’s adventures, the majority being from Tolstoy, whose writings profoundly resonated with McCandless.

Chapter 2 begins with a quotation from McCandless himself:

"Jack London is King"
Alexander Supertramp
May 1992

Krakauer explains that this was carved into a piece of wood where McCandless's body was found. He then follows this with a quote from Jack London's White Fang:

"...It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life..."

Krakauer uses the quotations to illustrate and explain the passionate drive which compelled McCandless to push himself so far into the inhospitable Alaskan wilderness.

Through quotations, Krakauer foreshadows the upcoming events of the chapter. For example, a quote from Tolstoy's Family Happiness opens chapter three. He uses this quote because it was found underlined in McCandless's copy of the book that was discovered with his remains. The quote is about the love of danger, which obviously pertains to McCandless. This quote also leads Krakauer to talk about the McCandless family.

Symbols

The Yellow Datsun

McCandless chooses to abandon his beloved yellow Datsun after a rainstorm causes a river to overflow into the wash he was camped out at and flooded the car's engine. The car is symbolic of McCandless's disgust with the generally materialistic mannerisms of humanity. Americans value their cars, and he is able to leave his in the desert.

Deserts

Deserts in Into the Wild function primarily as means for McCandless to challenge himself, and subsequently they illustrate his hubris. Not only does he fear the desert, but he believes it has been put there purely in order to test his competence.

Mountains 

Mountains function not as scenery, nor are they especially significant geologically or historically in the book. Instead, like a desert, a mountain is an obstacle to be conquered; a way of testing one's capability and character. This is especially evident in the chapters where Krakauer recalls his own youth.

Moose

The moose that McCandless shoots and then, heartbreakingly, fails to preserve is emblematic of his relationship to the wild in general. Moose meat could have prevented McCandless from starving to death. Because of his hubris, however, he isn't prepared for the enormous task of curing the flesh and ultimately fails at it. The consequences are fatal.

"Magic Bus"

Presumably named by McCandless after a song by The Who, the bus represents the good fortune he repeatedly encounters during his journey through the American West. The odds of him finding an abandoned bus just waiting for him to live in while forging for berries are one in a million. However, McCandless also dies inside the bus, indicating that his luck has run out.

Rivers

As with deserts and mountains, rivers test McCandless's survival skills. Ironically, rivers typically symbolize life, and unlike the other natural formations in Into the Wild, it is a river that defeats McCandless and aids in his death. Because he failed to predict that the river separating the "Magic Bus" from civilization will swell with melted snow, he cannot cross it in late summer when he intended to leave the woods. And because he has no map, McCandless is unaware of options for fording the raging waters.

Style Analysis #1: Writing Style

Krakauer executes Into the Wild in a straightforward style, objectively presenting the events of McCandless's life. His language is concise and easy to understand, making his writing accessible to readers. While many biographers tend to create imaginary-even if likely-scenes and events to make the account read more like a narrative, Krakauer instead opts for a journalistic approach to his writing.

For the majority of the book, he employs an informative tone, using friendly language and logical analysis in order to make McCandless's story as clear as possible. He constructs a body of evidence to support all of his claims by interviewing friends and family of McCandless, and anyone he came in contact with while on the road; by providing background information on the different settings throughout the book; and by incorporating selections from McCandless's own journal.

Through this extensive research, Krakauer appeals to ethos and logos. He acknowledges counterarguments but elaborates with just enough detail to disprove them without rambling unnecessarily, making his arguments all the more persuasive. Since some aspects of McCandless's final weeks will remain a mystery, this type of in-depth research proves especially helpful in filling in gaps with the most likely scenarios.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32Js2Ef5Ojg

Theme: Man's Call to the Wild

The allure of danger is a central theme in Into the Wild. Krakauer does not believe that this allure is significant to everyone, but rather to a specific kind of young man. This young man is one who is in passionate, ambitious, and intense, but not wholly satisfied with or approving of the opportunities and challenges society presents to him. These young men also always seem to have some kind of negative driving force compelling them to act a certain way. McCandless's driving force is his troubled relationship with his father.

"I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love. I felt in myself a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life." –Leo Tolstoy, Family Happiness

McCandless is a Tolstoy enthusiast. He has read almost all his books, and often recommends them to others whom he deeply respects and admires. This quote depicts his restlessness with society, and his eagerness to get out into the world to do what he really loves. However, the risk in his activities often brings him only one mistake away from death. For this reason, he has to focus utterly and urgently, thus allowing him to escape from the problems that would otherwise eat away at him. The thrill of pure accomplishment also accompanies McCandless's unpredictable lifestyle, which makes him to feel that he truly knows what he is capable of, that he doesn’t need to rely on others or society to survive in his man vs. nature vs. himself struggle.

Image Study

This is a photograph of the beautiful Alaskan wilderness–what McCandless was expecting to come to on his Alaskan odyssey. However, he quickly learns that surviving on the bare minimum is not as romantic as he thought it would be, and that nature is harsh and unforgiving.

This picture represents McCandless's liberation from materialism and society. This shot is merely from the film adaptation of the book, as McCandless did not actually burn his social security card. He did, however, burn his money at one point in the novel.

Throughout his childhood, McCandless was embarrassed by his parents' wealth even though they both have known poverty, worked hard to gain what they had, and weren’t flashy about it. He thinks wealth is inherently evil, even though he is a natural salesman and capitalist from early on.

McCandless insists that his parents are too materialistic, and declares that he'll never be as greedy as he believes them to be. He lives by his anti-materialistic principles, giving away all of his life savings to charity, only earning the bare minimum of money that he needs to survive. "Chris was very much of the school that you should own nothing except what you can carry on your back at a dead run" (23).

These images are shots from the movie adaptation of the book, directed by Sean Penn. In each of these pictures, McCandless–played by actor Emile Hirsch–portrays a strong emotion. In some it's sheer joy and jubilation, while in others it's sorrow or anger. The image as a whole represents both McCandless's physical and emotional journey across the North American continent. He set out not only to escape what he views as the twisted ideals of society, but to find out who he really is. With almost no one around to influence his thoughts and emotions, McCandless discovers a strong sense of self and an inner-peace.

While reading the book Doctor Zhivago, McCandless made many scribbled, excited notes in the margins and underlined several passages. Next to a paragraph that read, "And so it turned out that only a life similar to the life of those around us, merging with it without a ripple, is genuine life, and that an unshared happiness is not happiness...And this was most vexing of all," he noted, "HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED" (129).

 

This can be interpreted to mean that upon his return to civilization, McCandless planned to abandon the life of a solitary vagabond, to stop avoiding intimacy, and to reinstate his position as a member of the human community. We will never know for sure. 

One thing's certain, is that McCandless went out into the wilderness to experience the ultimate adventure and to find what he was searching for. He found it both in nature and in his heart. He realized that while these wonderful feelings and experiences will still exist in solitude, they are best shared with a human companion.

Themes from American Literature

The American Frontier

In American literature, the American Frontier is often depicted as a land of opportunity, where people go to create a new beginning. In Into the Wild, McCandless views the wilderness as a purer state, a place free of the evils of modern society, where he can live by his own rules; a place where he can find out what he is really made of. This makes the wilderness very alluring to McCandless, and many others like him.

However, he discovers that living in and off the wilderness is not as romantic as he imagined it to be. McCandless spends so much time searching for food to sustain himself that he has little time to sit back and appreciate his surroundings. This is evident in his journal entries, which almost entirely consist of lists of the food he finds and eats every day.

Individuality

McCandless describes what he is looking for on his adventure as “ultimate freedom.” This exhibits his desire for freedom from other people's rules and authority over him, as he finds authority particularly oppressive. He believes that the only way to combat this is to lead a life of solitude, in a world where the only laws he chooses to abide by are the laws of nature.

Yet this level of freedom is inherently selfish. No matter how principled and deeply-thought, McCandless is ultimately living solely for his own best interests. A prime example of this is his refusal to obtain a hunting license because he doesn’t think what he eats is the government’s business. If everyone acted this way, animal populations would be destroyed, and food supplies threatened. Therefore, McCandless's "ultimate freedom" is limited, for on any larger scale it would be harmful to the environment.

The Father-Son Relationship

The father-son relationship, and the potential for dysfunction within it, is an important theme in Into the Wild and other American literary works. The problem arises in that McCandless's father's ambitions for his son are very different from McCandless's own, and their strong wills and passion cause a schism between father and son. McCandless dies before he has the opportunity to grow out of his anger.

Materialism

McCandless denounces and rejects what he sees as American materialism. He condones the upper middle-class suburban setting in which his parents raised him. He lives by his principle that the only necessities are what you can carry on your back, and upon leaving his Atlanta home he donates all his savings to charity, abandons his car in the desert, and burns his money.

Un-American Dream?

The American Dream–a set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for success and prosperity achieved through hard work–does not exist in Into the Wild. McCandless had everything: wealth, looks, athletic ability, and a very high intelligence level. "I have a college education. I’m not destitute. I’m living like this by choice” (51). In this way, McCandless went about the American Dream (or his own dream, rather) on an opposite route. He started with everything, and ended with nothing instead of starting with nothing and ending with everything. He just wanted an easier, simpler life.
McCandless's story is about a young man's journey to find himself in a world full of misdirection. He hoped that by parting ways with his old life, he would stumble across himself somewhere on the North American continent.

About the Author and the Book

In January 1993, a few months after Chris McCandless's body was recovered, Jon Krakauer published an article in Outside magazine reporting on the puzzling circumstances of the young man's death. The article garnered a great deal of attention, and Krakauer found himself fascinated with the question of what led McCandless to this extreme end. "I was haunted by the particulars of the boy's starvation and by vague, unsettling parallels between events in his life and those in my own", he explains in his Author's Note of Into the Wild.

This personal connection led Krakauer to do three years of research in an effort to uncover the story behind McCandless's death. He interviewed McCandless's family, friends, and people McCandless came across in his two years on the road. He also had access to McCandless's books, journals, photographs, and the letters he sent and received. Using this and additional information about McCandless's childhood and time at college, Krakauer was able to piece together much of what drove McCandless to his rootless existence, and what he did during that time.

Into the Wild is the result of this extensive research, and was published in 1996. The book also discusses Krakauer’s own history, as he "interrupt[s] McCandless's story with fragments of a narrative drawn from [his] own youth", as well as the stories of many other famous or infamous figures who met their ends in the wilderness.

The book amounted great success, spending more than two years on the New York Times bestseller list and adapted to a movie in 2007. Still, controversy arose over Krakauer's diagnosis of what exactly had killed McCandless. In the Outside magazine article, he wrote that McCandless had mistaken the poisonous wild sweat pea for the nearly indistinguishable edible wild potato, and thus had inadvertently poisoned himself. This was what almost all journalists at the time also believed. However, when the potatoes from the area around the bus were later tested in a laboratory, toxins were not found. Krakauer subsequently modified his hypothesis, suggesting that mold on the potato seeds may have caused McCandless to become very sick. This theory was also proved false as no mold was found, and to this day there is no conclusive evidence that explains McCandless's death.

"Nicki Minaj Crashes Hip-Hop’s Boys Club" by Brent Staples

I read a second article by Brent Staples, this one called "Nicki Minaj Crashes Hip-Hop’s Boys Club". I personally think that the title is unclear. Just from reading the title, I thought the article was going to be about Nicki Minaj showing up uninvited to an all men's hip-hop club. After reading the article it was clear to me what his motives were when he used that title, but at first glance I do not think it is descriptive of what the article is about. Staples's opening paragraph is not as catchy or all-encompassing as in his other article, "Inside the Warped World of Summons Court", but it does introduce the idea of hip-hop as an influential and ever-growing aspect of pop culture.

In this article, Staples explains Nicki Minaj's rise to fame, and her unexpected and contradictory spotlight in a man's world. His stance in this article is that while it's too early to tell whether Minaj will bring something new to the table as far as lyrical creativity goes, she should be admired for opening new doors for women around the world. He seems to digress a bit towards the middle of the article, where he starts criticizing large corporations and capitalism. In my opinion, this decreased the effectiveness of his argument because it was off topic and I could not relate to it on a personal level. That part was even boring to read.

Even though I'd say that the paragraphs about the radio DJ's verbal battle with Nicki Minaj was the only evidence in Staples's argument that men do not appreciate the introduction of women into the hip-hop industry, the article was still fairly effective. It did not, however, provoke an emotional response from me. This may be because he did not use enough inflammatory words, or as much slang as in his other article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/opinion/sunday/nicki-minaj-crashes-hip-hops-boys-club.html?_r=2&ref=brentstaples

"Inside the Warped World of Summons Court" by Brent Staples

On June 16, Brent Staples wrote an article for the New York Times challenging the fairness and legality of the summons court in New York City. In this article, he quotes statistics, judges, and summonses to prove his point that the summons courts in lower Manhattan are corrupt.

Right from the beginning, the title of this article is eye-catching, and intriguingly- yet appropriately- foreshadows what the article is going to be about. Staples begins with a sentence that clearly expresses his stance on the topic. He then quotes a judge from the Brooklyn Criminal court, who says she cannot remember a time when she convicted a white person. I believe this statement is a bit of an exaggeration, because it is just statistically unlikely that of the 500,000 summonses issued in the city every year, absolutely no white people would be rendered guilty as charged.

Staples includes one man's experience of getting ticketed for a completely worthless reason to try to provoke a reaction from the reader and appeal to them on an emotional level. He uses rhetoric when he asks the question, "And if they are out to get you... what can you do?" He also uses words such as "bogus" and "petty" instead of less attention-grabbing words.

The article is well written and mostly believable, mostly due to the tone Staples sets and his word choice. Overall, I think that this article probably provoked a response from many of its readers, which is what Staples was trying to do.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/opinion/sunday/inside-the-warped-world-of-summons-court.html?_r=1&ref=brentstaples

Death of a Salesman Themes

The title forces the reader to wonder throughout the entire play when and how Willy is going to die, and what will happen to his family. The whole story is Willy trying to hold on to what little sanity he has left, while everyday his family grows more scared and angry. Willy finally loses it all and kills himself by crashing his car. This is the climax of Death of a Salesman, and the music in the stage directions add drama to the last scene.

Very few people attend Willy's funeral, contrary to his desire to have a big "salesman" funeral. This gives rise to the first major theme, desertion. Many people had deserted Willy during his lifetime, including both his father and his brother.

Since Willy never had a true family during his childhood, he was always striving to create the perfect family that he envisioned in his mind. His constant strive for perfection made it hard for him to enjoy his life. Biff, Willy's favorite and most perfect son in his mind, ultimately left him disappointed. Happy did the same. Perfection and desertion are two main themes of the play.
I think that Death of a Salesman teaches us that life has both good and bad times that everyone must face, but we cannot let these obstacles get in the way of our happiness and living our lives.

Fourth Look at Death of a Salesman

Willy runs into Bernard, one of Biff’s friends when he was younger who used to live in his shadow. During their encounter, Willy learns Bernard is now a successful lawyer who is about to present an argument in front of the Supreme Court. I think Willy is extremely surprised at how well off Bernard turned out, and he deeply wishes that his sons, Biff and Happy, could've been more like him.

The two talk about Biff, and Bernard expresses his feelings for him. Bernard gives Willy wise advice about how life can be really hard sometimes, and expresses his belief that Biff's life changed course due to Willy's visit to him in Boston after he failed math. This deeply upsets Willy. We haven't found out why yet, but I suspect we will soon.
At dinner, Willy acts sort of mentally insane, and says things with suicidal undertones. He experiences a flashback of the night Biff came to visit him in Boston, where Biff walked in on his father cheating on his mother. That was the life-changing event that Bernard was telling Willy about, as at that moment, Biff lost all respect and hope. The man that he had looked up to throughout his childhood was nothing but a cheating coward. Biff had come to tell his father that he had let him down and failed math. He thought so highly of him and only wanted to make him proud, but once he learned the truth I think he just didn’t have the motivation to finish high school and go to college.

I don’t think Biff was right to completely give up on his life just because Willy let him down. He could've finished school and made a better living than his father had ever provided for him. At the end of dinner, Biff and Happy rush off with two women, leaving their father all alone at the restaurant. Willy gives all the money he is carrying with him to the bar tender. I think that foreshadows his death.

Third Look at Death of a Salesman

Biff seems to be undergoing a change in the beginning of the second act. He is starting to grow up and piece his life together so he can help his father in his mentally handicapped state. I think Willy's expectations of his son are a little bit too high. After all, he puts all of his hopes into Biff getting a job. So what happens if Biff doesn't come through? Willy always thinks about the way he wished his life turned out, imagining his kids' success and helping him in his time of need. I think that these expectations are what is killing him, as his desire for things out of his reach is hurting him inside and making him not want to live.

The family's bills are piling up, and after Willy is fired and Biff's proposal is rejected, there is no income to pay the bills.

It's somewhat confusing when Willy has flashbacks and memories of the old days, as they mix right in with the scene without any real defining factors. But it is getting easier to tell when the author is using the present and when he's using past events. Right after Willy was fired, he has a flashback of the day his brother asked him to go to Alaska with him. He turned him his offer down because he wanted to earn a living as a salesman. I think he looks back with regret, as now his brother is a successful man leading a luxurious life, while Willy is now unemployed and has no way to support his family.

Second Look at Death of a Salesman

Willy envies his older brother, Ben, who moved away to Alaska and became wealthy. Willy's extreme jealousy is due to the fact that he had the opportunity to join his brother, but declined it to become a salesman, which has proved to be a less-than-satisfactory job. Ben also got to meet their father, unlike Willy. I think that this has affected Willy's parenting skills. Not having a father figure during childhood makes it hard for him to be a good father. He had no guideline or idea of how he should act. Willy favored Biff when his sons were young because he was such a great athlete. He neglects Happy which is not good parenting.
Linda Loman loves her husband, despite everything he does to her. She always stands up for him no matter what. I think she loves him a lot more than he ever loved her. He is rude to her, always yelling and screaming at her. But she overlooks this rude behavior, and I think she loves him more than he ever loved her. She thinks he is the most incredible man, having worked hard in his life to provide for his sons. He did work hard, but I think Linda gives him too much credit. He could've gotten another job that would've supported the family much better, but his pride stood in his way.
I'm proud that Biff decided to come home and help his father in his time of need. Biff has decided to change, as he knows that Willy would have done anything for him when he was still capable, and he owes it to him to help out a little. Inside, Biff still seems to be a kid trying to figure out his life. But he is taking the right steps towards adulthood. 

First Look at Death of a Salesman

Willy Loman used to be the most proud father. His older son, Biff, was the star of the football team and everyone loved and respected him. His younger son, Happy, is financially successful and married. But Biff seemed to develop a big head, thinking everything in his life was going to be easy, just like football. But his grades began to sink, and scholarships were hard to come by. He still hasn’t figured out what to do with his life, nor has his brother, Happy. 

Both boys’ lives are empty. Whenever Happy is lonely or upset, he gets with a woman, but never stays with her. Yet deep down, he really wants a family. Happy seemed to be more neglected by Willy during his childhood, living in the shadows of Biff’s glory. As an adult, Biff is unemployed and living on a farm. He doesn’t seem to be happy or content with his life. 

Willy is now old and depressed and also dissatisfied with his life. When he was younger and first began having financial problems, he started sleeping with another women while he was on the road. I think he did this because he was ashamed that he could not provide enough for his family. He felt like he wasn’t worthy of them. From then on, his life seemed to continue in a downwards spiral down of depression.