This is an Online Internet Book Club on Death of a Salesman (Penguin Plays) by Arthur Miller. Discuss this book, share your thoughts, make comments, ask questions, offer responses...
Description
Arthur Miller's 1949
Death of a Salesman has sold 11 million copies, and Willy Loman didn't make all those sales on a smile and a shoeshine. This play is the genuine article--it's got the goods on the human condition, all packed into a day in the life of one self-deluded, self-promoting, self-defeating soul. It's a sturdy bridge between kitchen-sink realism and spectral abstraction, the facts of particular hard times and universal themes. As Christopher Bigsby's mildly interesting afterword in this 50th-anniversary edition points out (as does Miller in his memoir,
Timebends), Willy is closely based on the playwright's sad, absurd salesman uncle, Manny. But of course Miller made Manny into Everyman, and gave him the name of the crime commissioner Lohmann in Fritz Lang's angst-ridden 1932 Nazi parable,
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse.
The tragedy of Loman the all-American dreamer and loser works eternally, on the page as on the stage. A lot of plays made history around 1949, but none have stepped out of history into the classic canon as Salesman has. Great as it was, Tennessee Williams's work can't be revived as vividly as this play still is, all over the world. (This edition has edifying pictures of Lee J. Cobb's 1949 and Brian Dennehy's 1999 performances.) It connects Aristotle, The Great Gatsby, On the Waterfront, David Mamet, and the archetypal American movie antihero. It even transcends its author's tragic flaw of pious preachiness (which undoes his snoozy The Crucible, unfortunately his most-produced play).
No doubt you've seen Willy Loman's story at least once. It's still worth reading. --Tim Appelo
Book Club Questions for Death of a Salesman (Penguin Plays) (Fiction)
Suggested Book Club Questions for Death of a Salesman (Penguin Plays) (Fiction)
The following book club questions provide a starting point for creating a reading group discussion on Death of a Salesman (Penguin Plays):
- Did Arthur Miller emphasize any specific themes throughout Death of a Salesman (Penguin Plays)? What do you think Arthur Miller is trying to explain with this theme?
- What was unique about the setting of Death of a Salesman (Penguin Plays) and how did it affect the storyline?
- Could you relate to any of the characters? If so, which ones and why?
- How do characters change or learn throughout Death of a Salesman (Penguin Plays)? What events caused these changes? Have you or someone you know experienced the same thing?
- How does Death of a Salesman (Penguin Plays) reveal Arthur Miller's own perspectives about people and the world? For a lively discussion, describe why you think Arthur Miller is liberal or conservative.
- Did certain parts of Death of a Salesman (Penguin Plays) affect you emotionally? Why did it evoke those emotions?
- Did Arthur Miller's point of view on things lend new perspective to your own view of the world?
Book Club Questions for Death of a Salesman (Penguin Plays) (for Non-Fiction)
Suggested Book Club Questions for Death of a Salesman (Penguin Plays) (Non-fiction)
The following book club questions provide a starting point for creating a reading group discussion on Death of a Salesman (Penguin Plays):
- Did Arthur Miller make persuasive arguments in Death of a Salesman (Penguin Plays)? Did Death of a Salesman (Penguin Plays) change or reinforce your opinion on the subject?
- What did you learn from Death of a Salesman (Penguin Plays)?
- How does Arthur Miller present the information and did you enjoy it?
- How is Arthur Miller biased within Death of a Salesman (Penguin Plays)? Is there a political slant to what is being discussed and how does it impact the book?
- What, if anything, does Death of a Salesman (Penguin Plays) make you want to read next? Why?
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