Post by daniellez07 on Apr 4, 2008 18:51:52 GMT -5
Danielle Zamarelli
English III Honors pd. 7
The Cost of Ambition: A Discussion of the Recurring Connections Between Fathers and Sons
Harry Chapin’s song, “Cats in the Cradle” popular during the 20th century, reflect the common relationship between fathers and sons during the time of its popularity. Lyrics such as “He’d say, ‘I’m gonna be like you Dad’” and “He’d grown up just like me, my boy was just like me” demonstrate the father’s significant influence on the son. Other artists during the 20th century such as Arthur Miller, August Wilson, and Tennessee Williams portray this same theme, “like father, like son” but in a different form. The text of Miller, Wilson, and Williams’ work demonstrate the relationship between father and son through the affects of the father’s ambition on the son’s life.
Willy Loman’s dream of becoming a successful salesman directly influences his son Biff’s perception of success in Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman. During his childhood, Willy constantly praises Biff and describes him as “…a young god. Hercules” (Miller 51). He believes that Biff’s popularity in school and the admiration of his fellow students are the key ingredients for Biff to become prosperous as an adult. Since Willy wants his son to succeed, he continually encourages Biff to become a salesman, like himself, and ensures him that he will be successful. Biff, like most young sons, see his father as a role model and idolizes Willy. He readily accepts Willy’s theory, “Be liked and you will never want” (Miller 21) and attempts to follow in his footsteps. The confidence that Willy continually portrays and the constant praise he showers on Biff as an adolescent for these behaviors, blind Biff to the fact that his father is not a successful salesman, but a failure. It is not until Biff reaches adulthood and continually fails to succeed in business that he questions the strategies his father has taught him. He asks, “Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be? Why am I in an office making a contemptuous, begging fool of myself, when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am!” (Miller 105) At this point, Biff has realized that his prior belief, that success was measured by one’s status in the business world, was a result of his father’s beliefs, not by his own, and that he must begin to listen to his own belief to be happy.
In contrast to Miller’s play, in August Wilson’s play, Fences, Troy Maxson’s failure to achieve his aspiration of becoming a professional baseball player, influences his son Cory to abandon his dream of being a professional football player. Troy Maxson convinced himself that the reason he was unable to succeed in a career in baseball was because of racial discrimination. Although in reality this is not the case, Troy refuses to accept the fact that he was incapable of fulfilling his ambition because he didn’t have the athletic skills. Years later, similar to his father Troy, Cory demonstrates an interest in pursuing a career as a football player. However, despite the passage of time and the progress made to further racial equality since Troy’s ambitious days, Troy still believes that blacks are just as oppressed as they were years ago. He tells Cory that he should desert his football aspirations because “The white man ain’t gonna let [him] get nowhere with that football noway” and that he should “go on and get [his] book-learning so [he] can…learn how to fix cars or build houses or something…that way [he will have] something that nobody can take away from [him].” (Wilson 35). Unfortunately, Troy’s failure to achieve his dream, cause him to reject his son’s ambition, ultimately resulting in his son having to abandon his dream too. Similar to Biff, Cory wants to please his father, his mother recognizes this when she tells Troy, “Everything that boy do…he do for you. He wants you to say ‘Good job, son.’ That’s all.” (Wilson 39). Troy, like Willy Loman, believes imposing his ideas on his son Cory, will be the best course of action for him. Unfortunately, the ultimate outcome of Troy projecting his beliefs and outdated fears of white oppression onto his son, result in Cory, like his father, never being able to realize his own ambitions.
Similar to the situation presented in Fences, Tenessee William’s character, Tom Wingfield, in The Glass Menagerie is also forced to abandon his dreams as a result of his father’s ambition. The play presents a father who abandons his family to pursue his own desires, leaving his son to adopt the paternal role at an early age. The father’s departure forces his son, Tom Wingfield, to abandon his adventurous dreams and take a position at a warehouse in order to provide for his family. Although Tom’s father is not physically present, a portrait of him inside the house, continues to have an influence on Tom. Tom, as the narrator states, “There is a fifth character in the play you doesn’t appear except in this larger-than-life-size photograph over the mantel. This is our father..” The portrait is a constant reminder to Tom of everything he is deprived of and everything his father took away from him when he left his family. His father’s abandonment causes Tom to forfeit his own dreams of adventure because his father walked out on his family to pursue his own ambitions. Tom frequently visits the movies in attempts to fulfill his hunger for adventure and spice up his mundane and predictable life. Eventually, this burden becomes too much for Tom to bear and he too, just as his father did, leaves his family in search of something greater that he feels his lower middle class world can offer him. In Tom’s case, his father’s ambition affected him both by forcing him to adopt a paternal position at home, as well as following his father’s path of escape, “attempting to find in motion what was lost in space” (Williams 97).
Each of these works illustrates how a father’s ambitions affect the life of his son. Regardless of the similarities and differences in the details of these three situations, each son is affected by the ambition of his father, whether positively or negatively. While Biff ultimately and consciously rejects his father’s ambitions, Cory, like his father, never achieves his dream of pursuing a career in professional sports. Similarly, Tom escaped his home life, just like his father, to fulfill his ambitions. Today as in the past, the son admires his father and thinks of him as a hero. Many times we will see a father that is a doctor has a son who becomes a doctor. Some very public figures illustrate the nature of this family bond, President Bush and his father, the former President Bush, as well as Earl Woods who was able to see his dream achieved through his son, Tiger Woods. These example demonstrate the impact of a father’s ambitions and dreams on the life of their son in the 21st century, and directly correlate to the depiction of the relationship between father and son in the 20th century works of Miller, Williams and Wilson.
English III Honors pd. 7
The Cost of Ambition: A Discussion of the Recurring Connections Between Fathers and Sons
Harry Chapin’s song, “Cats in the Cradle” popular during the 20th century, reflect the common relationship between fathers and sons during the time of its popularity. Lyrics such as “He’d say, ‘I’m gonna be like you Dad’” and “He’d grown up just like me, my boy was just like me” demonstrate the father’s significant influence on the son. Other artists during the 20th century such as Arthur Miller, August Wilson, and Tennessee Williams portray this same theme, “like father, like son” but in a different form. The text of Miller, Wilson, and Williams’ work demonstrate the relationship between father and son through the affects of the father’s ambition on the son’s life.
Willy Loman’s dream of becoming a successful salesman directly influences his son Biff’s perception of success in Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman. During his childhood, Willy constantly praises Biff and describes him as “…a young god. Hercules” (Miller 51). He believes that Biff’s popularity in school and the admiration of his fellow students are the key ingredients for Biff to become prosperous as an adult. Since Willy wants his son to succeed, he continually encourages Biff to become a salesman, like himself, and ensures him that he will be successful. Biff, like most young sons, see his father as a role model and idolizes Willy. He readily accepts Willy’s theory, “Be liked and you will never want” (Miller 21) and attempts to follow in his footsteps. The confidence that Willy continually portrays and the constant praise he showers on Biff as an adolescent for these behaviors, blind Biff to the fact that his father is not a successful salesman, but a failure. It is not until Biff reaches adulthood and continually fails to succeed in business that he questions the strategies his father has taught him. He asks, “Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be? Why am I in an office making a contemptuous, begging fool of myself, when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am!” (Miller 105) At this point, Biff has realized that his prior belief, that success was measured by one’s status in the business world, was a result of his father’s beliefs, not by his own, and that he must begin to listen to his own belief to be happy.
In contrast to Miller’s play, in August Wilson’s play, Fences, Troy Maxson’s failure to achieve his aspiration of becoming a professional baseball player, influences his son Cory to abandon his dream of being a professional football player. Troy Maxson convinced himself that the reason he was unable to succeed in a career in baseball was because of racial discrimination. Although in reality this is not the case, Troy refuses to accept the fact that he was incapable of fulfilling his ambition because he didn’t have the athletic skills. Years later, similar to his father Troy, Cory demonstrates an interest in pursuing a career as a football player. However, despite the passage of time and the progress made to further racial equality since Troy’s ambitious days, Troy still believes that blacks are just as oppressed as they were years ago. He tells Cory that he should desert his football aspirations because “The white man ain’t gonna let [him] get nowhere with that football noway” and that he should “go on and get [his] book-learning so [he] can…learn how to fix cars or build houses or something…that way [he will have] something that nobody can take away from [him].” (Wilson 35). Unfortunately, Troy’s failure to achieve his dream, cause him to reject his son’s ambition, ultimately resulting in his son having to abandon his dream too. Similar to Biff, Cory wants to please his father, his mother recognizes this when she tells Troy, “Everything that boy do…he do for you. He wants you to say ‘Good job, son.’ That’s all.” (Wilson 39). Troy, like Willy Loman, believes imposing his ideas on his son Cory, will be the best course of action for him. Unfortunately, the ultimate outcome of Troy projecting his beliefs and outdated fears of white oppression onto his son, result in Cory, like his father, never being able to realize his own ambitions.
Similar to the situation presented in Fences, Tenessee William’s character, Tom Wingfield, in The Glass Menagerie is also forced to abandon his dreams as a result of his father’s ambition. The play presents a father who abandons his family to pursue his own desires, leaving his son to adopt the paternal role at an early age. The father’s departure forces his son, Tom Wingfield, to abandon his adventurous dreams and take a position at a warehouse in order to provide for his family. Although Tom’s father is not physically present, a portrait of him inside the house, continues to have an influence on Tom. Tom, as the narrator states, “There is a fifth character in the play you doesn’t appear except in this larger-than-life-size photograph over the mantel. This is our father..” The portrait is a constant reminder to Tom of everything he is deprived of and everything his father took away from him when he left his family. His father’s abandonment causes Tom to forfeit his own dreams of adventure because his father walked out on his family to pursue his own ambitions. Tom frequently visits the movies in attempts to fulfill his hunger for adventure and spice up his mundane and predictable life. Eventually, this burden becomes too much for Tom to bear and he too, just as his father did, leaves his family in search of something greater that he feels his lower middle class world can offer him. In Tom’s case, his father’s ambition affected him both by forcing him to adopt a paternal position at home, as well as following his father’s path of escape, “attempting to find in motion what was lost in space” (Williams 97).
Each of these works illustrates how a father’s ambitions affect the life of his son. Regardless of the similarities and differences in the details of these three situations, each son is affected by the ambition of his father, whether positively or negatively. While Biff ultimately and consciously rejects his father’s ambitions, Cory, like his father, never achieves his dream of pursuing a career in professional sports. Similarly, Tom escaped his home life, just like his father, to fulfill his ambitions. Today as in the past, the son admires his father and thinks of him as a hero. Many times we will see a father that is a doctor has a son who becomes a doctor. Some very public figures illustrate the nature of this family bond, President Bush and his father, the former President Bush, as well as Earl Woods who was able to see his dream achieved through his son, Tiger Woods. These example demonstrate the impact of a father’s ambitions and dreams on the life of their son in the 21st century, and directly correlate to the depiction of the relationship between father and son in the 20th century works of Miller, Williams and Wilson.