Question #1 (Death of a Salesman)

In my opinion, the play uses very realistic conventions to convey its overall theme and message. The way Willy treats Biff and Happy in the past, when they were in high school, is how any dad who is proud of his sons would act. It is a common scene seen among many teen boys (especially athletes) and their "star" sons. Willy tells them that he is "well-liked" in New England where he does his sales, which makes it sound like business is thriving. The boys, being young and oblivious, love the fact that there father is successful and really look up to him in that aspect. I think the most realistic scene in the play is Biff's conversion when he finds out the truth about his father. When he finds that his father has been having an affair, he loses all respect and trust for him. Similar to many of us, when we find out a negative thing about our role models we completely change the way we look at them. This one thing caused a total 180 degree turn of Biff and Willy's relationship.