5/7/10 – 5/14/10 (Days 128 – 132)
Mr. Sudol
LESSON PLAN (SOPH): DEATH OF A SALESMAN ACT 2, PART 2
OBJECTIVE: To examine the concept of self-perception vs. reality as it applies to both Happy and Biff, to
examine the conflict of pride vs. pity as Biff must balance these in interacting with his father, to examine the
idea of the parental role-model and the effect on children whose role models have not lived up to their
expectations, and to examine the idea of “letting go” and how individuals come to accept themselves and others.
PRAYER
COLLECTION/DISTRIBUTION OF HOMEWORK
DISCUSSION/ACTIVITY
5/7
 Prompt: Does it matter when a person lies to build himself or herself up? Why might they do this and what
might be the potential consequences? Also, how might a person react if they discover their life has been a
lie? Might they make positive changes in their life based on this realization?
 Students will read pages 98-105 to themselves. In order to engage their reading, students will be instructed
to answer the following questions in their notebooks:
o In what ways has Happy taken his father’s advice to him to heart (he is certainly well-liked; he is
able to connect with people almost instantly)?
o Is Biff worse or better off when he reveals what he has done at Bill Oliver’s office (worse in the
short term, as he has committed a crime, but he may be better off in the long run since he again
admits that he is no salesman and may now start trying to achieve his own goals)?
 What is wrong with Happy’s way of being well-liked (he does it in a dishonest manner – by lying. In this
sense, he cannot be well-liked for who he is; there is nothing on the “inside” to redeem him)?
 Why does Happy feel it is necessary to stretch the truth about those close to him (he probably feels that he
will look good to other people if those close to him look good as well)?
 What is ironic about Happy’s statement “selling is selling” on page 101 (the fact that he takes his ability to
do business for granted; it is easy for him since he is so well liked. This is also ironic because he is doing
business the way Willy cannot; the fact that the business world is now based on money doesn’t seem to
affect him. In effect, he is living the dream that Willy cannot. Lastly, he has also turned out more
successfully – at least from a financial point of view – than his brother, to whom Willy paid more attention
when they were younger; his development parallels Bernard’s in a way; the less Willy was involved in his
life, the more successful he as become)?
 On page 104, we see another incident of Biff stealing something; what does his statement “I just wanted to
take something” reveal about his character and the reasons why he has stolen in the past (he was trying
desperately to please his father and show that he has made something of himself. Since he couldn’t do it
honestly, in his mind stealing is his only way to show that he has “gotten” or achieved something in life)?
 What does Biff say on these pages that shows that he is trying to resolve his old issues and why is this
significant (he says he wants to tell his father what he has done; he is finally trying to break free of his
father’s goals, which he has been following and failing at his entire life, and the only way he can do that is
by confronting his father over them)?
 Why is Willy so interested in hearing about Biff’s interview with Bill Oliver (it is his last shot at happiness
and vicarious success; he has lost everything and all of his hopes for the future now ride on Biff)?
 What is Biff’s internal conflict on pages 107-109 (on the surface, to tell his father what happened at Bill
Oliver’s office or not. His deeper conflict, however, is one of conscience; his desire to finally be honest with
Willy and break free of Willy’s goals for him versus the care and concern he has for Willy and what Willy
might do upon hearing Biff’s news, given his fragile mental state)?
5/10
 Why does pride affect your interactions with someone you dislike or disrespect? What effect does pity have
on the same? Is it easy to reconcile these two feelings? How might a person in this position act?
 Students will read pages 109-114 aloud.
 What does Willy’s reference to Biff’s flunking math have to do with his conversation with Biff now (he’s
probably afraid that Biff is going to give him bad news about Bill Oliver and, as a result, his mind goes back
to a time when Biff has “failed” him before – it is a defense mechanism for shifting the blame of his failure
as a father from himself)?
 Who is the Operator and why might Willy be so afraid of that character (the Operator was at the hotel in
Boston where Willy met the Woman he was having an affair with when Biff found out about it; he doesn’t
wish to repeat the same experience in his mind, since it is the clearest example of how he failed Biff as a
parent and does not wish to admit to this failure)?
 Why does Biff try to take what he said to Willy back on pages 111-112 (he knows Willy is do disturbed that
he might hurt himself or someone else; he is trying to bring Willy back to reality, if only to calm him down)?
 Why does Biff paint such a positive picture of Willy to the girls at the bottom of page 114 (Biff recognizes,
for all of Willy’s faults and failures, that his heart was always in the right place and wants to make sure
everyone knows it)?
 By the end of the interactions we have seen, what kind of position does Willy put Biff in?
5/11
 Pick a hero/role-model/someone you look up to: what would that person have to do that you would be so
bad that it would make you feel bad about yourself?
 Students will read pages 115-125 aloud.
 Why does Biff want to help Willy but can’t (Biff still loves his father, but can’t get past Willy’s betrayal of
Linda; his best way of helping Willy has removing the rubber hose from the basement so that Willy can’t kill
himself)?
 Why is it that Happy can help Willy but won’t (basically, he doesn’t care; he is so self centered that he
concentrates on having people like him at the expense of caring about other people, especially his father –
this is evidenced in Happy’s line to the girls “he’s not my father, he’s just some guy”)?
 Even though he is having an affair, Willy says on page 116 that he is lonely; why is this (possibly because
the Woman is just a cheap imitation of the affection that Willy so desperately craves)?
 Given the Woman’s lines on page 116, what other reasons might Willy have had for starting an affair with
her (so that he could do business more easily with people, since the Woman is in a position to hook Willy up
with the buyers)?
 How do we know that Willy’s relationship with Biff was once stable and functional (Willy promises to help
Biff pass math, and they even joke about Biff’s teacher on page 118)?
 What various reactions does Willy have to Biff’s discovery of the affair (he is consoling, pleading,
commanding; he is trying every trick he knows to cover himself, but there is no way Biff can forgive him)?
 When Biff walks out on Will on page 121, what has Willy lost over his son (control; he has dominated
Biff’s life up to this point, but Biff will not listen to anything his father tells him from now on)?
 When Willy gives Stanley money, he tells Stanley that he “doesn’t need it anymore”; what does he realize
about himself and what might this foreshadow (his suicide; he has finally realized that he is a failure and that
his pursuit of success has been a joke. At this point, his death is the only option left open to him – this is
confirmed by Linda when she asks Biff “don’t you care whether he lives or dies”; she believes that Biff’s
actions will push Willy over the edge)?
 Why does Biff want to see Willy when he gets home (he still cares about Willy to the point where he
doesn’t want Willy to die, even if there is tension between them)?
 Does Biff really believe he is the “scum of the earth” as he describes himself on page 124 (he does hate the
fact that he walked out on Willy in the restaurant, a realization made more painful by the fact that he still
cares about Willy and wants to help him but can’t)?
5/12 & 5/14
 Prompt: When and why is it difficult to let a person go? How is it difficult for Willy to let Biff go and vice
versa? Also, what does the expression “you can’t get better until you’ve hot bottom” mean and how might it
apply to Biff and Willy?
 Students will read pages 125-139 aloud.
 What is the significance of the way Willy goes about planting in the garden (given how fractured and
broken his life has been up to this point, the neatness of the way he plants his seeds gives his life some sense
of structure)? What is the irony of this (given that the seeds had previously symbolized a fresh start and a
new life for him and his family, the act of planting them is ironic given that his thoughts of suicide symbolize
an end to life)?
 What is the $20,000 that Willy is talking about (the payout from his life insurance policy that his family
would receive if he dies)?
 Why can’t Willy accept Biff’s attempts at reconciliation, his decision to move out of the house for good in
order to prevent further arguments and suffering (because Willy can’t accept that it is mostly his fault that
Biff is moving out in the fist place; Willy is so determined not to show weakness that he will blame anything
Biff does on Biff)?
 Why does Biff show Willy the rubber hose Willy would have used to commit suicide (he sees that he has
not been getting through to Willy and that the only way to get through to him is to confront him with
something drastic and personal) At the bottom of page 126 and the top of page 127, Willy says “He’s in for a
shock, that boy,” to which Ben responds “He’ll call you a coward”; to whom are Ben and Willy referring,
why is it so important for Willy to prove himself to this person, and why does Willy find it so terrible for this
person to call him a coward (they are speaking of Biff; Willy wants to show Biff that he isn’t the fake that
Biff thinks he is and he doesn’t want Biff to see any weakness on his part if he commits suicide. Also, in
some small way, Willy probably still cares about Biff looking up to him)?
 Why would Willy not want to see Linda on page 128 (he might be thinking about his affair with the Woman
and is too ashamed to confront her; another possibility is that he doesn’t want her to catch him in his moment
of weakness)?
 Why does Willy deny knowledge of the rubber hose he was going to use to kill himself (he doesn’t want to
show weakness or failure on his part)?
 When does Biff realize that he has been following Willy’s dream all along and cannot do it anymore (on
page 131 when he says “you blew me so full of hot air that I could never stand taking orders from anybody”
and on page 132 when he says “why am I becoming what I don’t want to be?”)?
 Why does Biff insult Happy with the truth while he is yelling at his father (because, if Biff is going to “tell it
like it is,” he wants to make sure that the complete truth is told for everyone in his family and that there is no
doubt in anyone’s mind where he, Happy, and Willy stand in life)?
 What is the significance of Biff’s line on pp. 132-133 “I’m nothing” (2 things; he has finally broken away
from his father’s goals and revealed what Willy is as well: nothing)?
 Why does Willy realize that Biff truly loves him (besides Biff’s willingness to cry in Willy’s arms, on some
level Willy realizes that, by leveling with him and breaking away from him, Biff has become his own man,
which is what Willy wanted all along)?
 Given Ben’s line that Biff is “outstanding, with twenty thousand dollars behind him,” what might Willy be
considering (he might be changing the rationale for his suicide; instead of giving the insurance money to
Linda, he might now be considering doing it for Biff)?
 When Linda and Willy are talking about the “best thing” at the bottom of page 134, to what is each referring
(Linda is talking about Biff’s moving out, while Willy is talking about committing suicide)?
 On several occasions, Ben says to Willy that “the jungle is dark but full of diamonds” or some variation of
that line; what might Ben be talking about and what else might this signify beyond a literal statement of fact
(the jungle could be Willy’s mind in which there are some good ideas or his life in which he as accomplished
some good things; it could refer to life in general in which there are a few good things out there like hope or
people like Biff and Linda to make life worthwhile)
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What does Willy’s speech to Biff (who is not there to hear it) at the bottom of page 135 signify (in Willy’s
mind, it is a return to a time when his relationship with Biff was at its best; it is his mind’s way of telling him
“everything’s all right”)?
 How does Willy die and what is the irony of his death (he kills himself by crashing his car; his death is
ironic in that it is probably his greatest achievement in what he is doing for his family, and it is significant
that he has actually achieved his goal of finally committing suicide)?
 What finally allowed Willy to “let go” of Biff and vice versa?
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On page 137, Happy claims that there was no reason for Willy to commit suicide; why might Happy’s
statement be inaccurate (first of all, Willy would have never accepted help from his family due to his pride.
Secondly, he needed to do it to help his family in the best way he knew how and in order to let go of Biff
once and for all)?
What does Charlie mean by the statement “No man only needs a little salary” (he means that money isn’t
the only thing people need to survive; they need love, compassion, and respect as well, things Willy was
badly in need of)?
Biff says that Willy failed because he could never figure out who he was, while Charlie says it was because
Willy lost sight of his dream and lost the love of people; which of the two might be right or understood Willy
better (both Biff and Charlie are right in a way; Charlie for the previously stated reasons, and Biff in the
sense that Willy always thought that he was greater than he actually was and, as a result of not accepting this
fact, chased an unreachable dream)?
Will Happy carry out his promise of “winning it” for Willy (probably not; Happy never changes as a
character; this is probably just one more lie to make himself feel better)?
What is the significance of Linda’s line “we’re free” (the family is not only free of debt; Biff is free to
follow his own dreams, and the family is free from any more suffering resulting from Willy’s attitude or
arguments with Biff)?
The remainder of the period on day 134 will be spent reviewing for the Death of a Salesman Act II test.
Concepts covered will include:
o Hope (as a means of carrying a person through “dark times” and failure)
o Acceptance vs. Tolerance
o Ambition (and how personal responsibility may cut off a person’s ambitions)
o Interpersonal conflict (i.e.: figuring out your own feelings of pride, guilt, and pity so that you can
figure out how to deal with another person)
o Self-perception vs. reality
o Accepting yourself and letting go of others
HOMEWORK
 5/10: 1-paragraph essay: How are both Biff and Happy shown to have lived a lie based on their
conversations on pages 98-105? Also, read Death of a Salesman up to page 109 (stop at the stage direction
beginning “A single trumpet noise jars the ear”).
 5/11: Write a letter to Linda as if you were Biff in which you describe how you feel about Willy (include
how both your pride and your pity towards Willy influence your feelings about him).
 5/12: Essay: Imagine you are Willy Loman; Explain how your planting of the garden is symbolic of your
hope for your future.
 5/14: Study for Death of a Salesman Act 2 test for tomorrow, 5/18