Death of a Salesman

In Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman, he writes of a man and his family. Willy, the father, only wants success for his sons. He pushes them to do a lot so that they can be successful. Willy also does many attempts to nearly kill himself but he never dies. His two sons are not trying to become successful regardless of how many times Willy pressures them to. One of his sons, Biff, was kicked out the house and was gone for a really long time with no work. He always fights with his father and all Willy ever wants is for him to have a job and have success. In the end, Willy makes amends with his son and that is when his time to go comes because he dies at the end. The purpose of the play is to demonstrate that all parents want for their children is success.

Vocabulary:

• accommodate (v.) to make fit, suitable, or congruous
• undercurrent (n.)  a current below the upper currents or surface
• crestfallen (adj.) having a drooping crest or hanging head
• simonize (v.) to polish with or as if with wax
• measly (adj.) infected with measles
• anemic (adj.) lacking force, vitality, or spirit
• imbue (v.) to permeate or influence as if by dyeing
• fob (n.) a short strap, ribbon, or chain attached especially to a pocket watch
• saccharine (adj.) of, relating to, or resembling that of sugar

Tone:
The tone of the play is sincere and gloomy.

Rhetorical Strategies:

• idiom- "..I'm tired to the death" (13). 
• simile:  ".. and laid down and died like a hammer hit him" (93). 
• antithesis: ".. you end up worth more dead than alive" (98).
• colloquialism: "G'by, I'm late" (74).
• monologue: "Forgive me, dear. I can't cry. I don't know what it is, but i can't cry. I don't understand it. Why did you ever do that? Help me, Willy, I can't cry. It seems to me that your just on another trip. I keep expecting you. Willy, dear, I can't cry. Why did you do it? . . . " (139).  

Discussion Questions:

• Why do you think Willy was so hard on Biff and Happy about their lives?
• Why do you think Willy always rejected Charley's job offer?
• At the end of the play, Willy dies. Why do you think the Miller killed him off at that point rather than the previous attempts he tried? 

Quote:

"Oh, Ben, I always knew one way or another we were gonna make it, Biff and I!" (135).

The Big Thirst Ch. 8-10

In Charles Fishman's book, The Big Thirst (2011), he argues that places that have no access to water 24/7 should begin to have it. Countries like the U.S have water access 24 hours a day everyday. Then there are other countries who only get it a certain time of day and have to save it in order to have water for the rest of the day. Fishman believes that all countries should have access to water all the time. He also discusses that many other places spend a lot of money just on water when there are other countries who need it more. Many children die in places like India due to not having access to clean water or even water at all.

Vocabulary:

• dubious (adj) giving rise to uncertainty
• pristine (adj.) belonging to the earliest period or state
• bureau (n.) a usually commercial agency that serves as an intermediary especially for exchanging information or coordinating activities
• dichotomy (n.) a division into two especially mutually exclusive or contradictory groups or entities
• spigot (n.) the plug of a faucet
• philanthropy (n.) an act or gift done or made for humanitarian purposes
• perennial (n.) present at all seasons of the year
• cacophonous(adj.) sounding loud, jarring, and unpleasant

Tone: concerned

Rhetorical Strategies:

• Personification: "Beyond that, a little application of the market might help use use water more wisely, more equitably, keep water cleaner, and leave some for nature herself" (275). 
• Anecdote: "'Similarly, if we're running out of water this week, we need decisions this week, not in six months, after everyone with a 'stake' is consulted, Young said" (285).
•  Simile: "The golden age water has caused us to think that water delivery is a kind of natural phenomenon—you turn on the faucet, the water comes out. It's like opening a window and having a cool breeze come in” (290). 
•  Rhetorical question: “Why wouldn't we revere water, of all the things we could revere?”(298). 
• Statistics: "Orange Country residents use 57 million gallons of drinking water a day, and they use 51 million gallons a day of treated wastewater on their lawns and landscaping" (305).

Questions:

1. Why do you think India does not have as much water as other countries?
2. Why do you think Fishman brings in similar ideas in all the chapters?
3. What ways do you think a country can save water so they can have it all the time?

Quote:
"Without water for the system.. there is no water for anyone" (281).

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The Big Thirst Ch. 5-7

In Charles Fishman's book, The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water (2011), he discusses that while people in many places are dying and suffering because they have no water, people who do have it just waste it. Fishman also discusses that people don't notice how much water is wasted on their everyday items or their everyday activities. His purpose is to demonstrate that rather to waste water on things we don't really need, we should learn to conserve it so it can last a really long time. He seems to have people in mind because they are the ones who consume the most water and also use it for a lot of items.

Vocabulary:

• spigots- (n). the plug of a faucet
• climatology- (n). the science that deals with climates and their phenomena
• benign- (adj). showing kindness and gentleness 
• indulgence- (n).  remission of part or all of the temporal and especially purgatorial punishment that according to Roman Catholicism is due for sins whose eternal punishment has been remitted and whose guilt has been pardoned
• triumph- (n). the joy or exultation of victory or success
• phenomenon- (n). an observable fact or event
• conglomerate- (adj). made up of parts from various sources or of various kinds
• altruism- (n). unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others

Tone: The author's tone is concerned and very informative.

Rhetorical Strategies:

1. Epigraph: "The 'yuck factor' is a deeply ingrained physiological thing. -Alan Kleinschmidt, manager of water operations, Toowoomba, Australia" (145).
2. Statistics: "On average, the yield from raw wool is 55 percent - 100 pounds of greasy wool yields 55 pounds of unusable wool and 45 pounds of dirt, debris, poop, and landin" (113). 
3. Anecdote: "Back in the 1980s, we were using in excess of a gigaliter of mains water a year" - a billion liters, three times what they use today- and 'we asked ourselves, is that a sensible place to be? (114). 
4. Simile: "As IBM has discovered, the measuring alone creates and imperative for curiosity and innovation, for changing behavior- just like when you keep track of every calorie you eat, you start cutting back, just like when there's a real-time miles-per-gallon number on a car's dashboard, you can't  help but drive in such a way as to keep the mpg number high (129).
5. Rhetorical questions: "How do you make choices that are fair when those needs are competing directly against each other for the very same water, in a very short time?" (188).

Discussion Questions:

1. What are ways you think other countries can stay out of droughts?
2. Do you think consumers should buy less water bottles and just use there regular tap water?
3. Why do you think Fishman is so concerned with the way people use their water?
4. How do you think America stays out of droughts?
5. How does Fishman appeal to his readers?

"Bottled water has become the indispensable prop in our lives and our culture. It starts the day in lunch boxes; it goes to every meeting, lecture hall, and soccer match; it's in our cubicles at work; in the cup holder of the treadmill at gym; and it's rattling around half-finished on the floor of every minivan in America" (133).

The Big Thirst Ch. 1-4

In Charles Fishman's book The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water (2011), he discusses that people do not realize how much water they use in just one day and need to see that they need to cut back on their water usage. Fishman also discusses that Americans use water for almost everything and some of the ways they use water are pointless such as using water for fountains. Fishman demonstrates that if they continue to use water they way that they are now, we may end up in a water crisis that could lead to not having water resources like we have now. His purpose is to demonstrate  to people who use water in order to show them that they way water is being used is pointless and should cut back on how they use it. She seems to have a adult audience in mind because they are the ones that use the water and make the decisions in what ways to use the water.

Vocabulary:

• blasé (adj.)- apathetic to pleasure or excitement as a result of excessive indulgence or enjoyment 
•  allocate (v.)- to apportion for a specific purpose or to particular persons or things
• optimistic (n.)- an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome
• coalescence (v.)- to grow together
• abundance (n.)- an ample quantity
• catastrophic (n.) -the final event of the dramatic action especially of a tragedy '
• profligacy (n.) - the quality or state of being
• allocate (v.)- to apportion for a specific purpose or to particular persons or things
• elixir (n.)-  a substance held capable of changing base metals into gold

Tone: The tone of the book is  informative, worried and concerned.

Rhetorical Strategies:
1. Statistics: "Every six days, U.S water utilities lose and entires day's water. And that 16 percent U.S loss rate isn't too bad- British utilities lose 19 percent of the water they pump; the French lose 26 percent" (5).

2. Anaphora: "Water is transparent, and also reflects light.
Water is soft and soothing, and also hard as concrete.
Water is comforting, and also threating, gentle and fierce.
Water is the source of life, and also often a source of death" (49).

3. Personification: "Water's personality, in fact, is layered with polarity, both inherently and in the ways we approach and manage water. Water is sexy and alluring, and ofter appalling and unrepentant" (49).

4. Antithesis: "Water is soft and soothing, and also as hard as concrete" (49).

5. Imagery: "As you stroll north, just a block up from Mandalay Bay, you come upon a half-size version of the Statue of Liberty, standing on her pedestal in the water of New York Harbor, torch raised high over the corner of Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard. Right next to Lady Liberty floats a New York City fireboat, with five jets of water arching festively into the Hudson River twenty-four hours a day" (51).

Discussion Questions:

• Do you think people actually realize how much water they use everyday?
• What changes do you think people can make to prevent the world from going into a water crisis?
• Can you think of anyways where instead of using water for most things, but maybe we can use some other substance? 
• Do you think the water on Earth will actually end or will more be produced? 
• Why do you think Fishman is writing this book?

"Water is charming. Part of water's charm is the way it combines simplicity and complexity, in both it physical nature and its qualities. Water is just three atoms- one oxygen, a pair of hydrogens- but with three atoms, it is the elixir of life in all variety and beauty" (49).