Death of a Salesman Debate: Research for the Third Point (Negative Team) *Note* I also covered for the debater for this point.
Resolved: In Arthur Miller's Play Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is responsible for the adult lives of his sons, Biff and Happy Loman.
Third Point for the Negative Team (Ideas contributed to the debate): As a responsible and excellent father, Willy Loman did his best to guide his sons, especially Biff, to achieve success in their adult lives. However, as adults, it is up to Biff and Happy to be motivated enough and take the initiative to follow Willy's advice and work hard to pursue success. There is copious textual evidence that shows us that Willy's sons (especially Biff) did not take Willy's advice and as adults only Biff and Happy can be blamed for this, not Willy. In addition to giving his sons the best possible guidance he could and setting high standards for success (as demonstrated by previous points), Willy was an excellent father who worked hard for his sons and taught them the "right" things (as Ben, a successful person, says).
Actor Dustin Hoffman with Lee J. Cobb, who origina...
Biff Henderson
Biff rullar?It was Biff and Happy who failed to fulfill their roles as good sons instead of Willy failing to be a good father (a quote is given later to support this claim). A part of Willy's guidance included motivating Biff to get a better paying job and exposing his sons to successful people such as Ben and Dave Singleman to demonstrate how success can be achieved. The essence of this debate is capture by the idea that Willy Loman fulfilled is duty as a father to work hard and give guidance to his sons but his sons (as adult) did not fulfill their role to follow Willy's guidance and work hard as he...