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DOAS motifs - Coggle Diagram
DOAS motifs
Jungle/ diamonds
Willy has no tangible success; he is not going “into the jungle” to become a man and gain his success the right way like his father and like Ben.
Recurring motif of diamond as something hard and tangible showing evidence of value and success but Willy is building status (not physical).
He doesn't want to die having achieved nothing and not built up his status, need to have that tangible evidence of life.
In the world of business (the jungle) it can be chaotic and difficult, but you can make it. Willy never does make it, never does find the diamonds.
In Willy's mind even in New York "a man can end up with diamonds on the basis of being liked"- ideas of intangible status- thinks he understands Ben's teachings but doesn't
Willy sees insurance money like a diamond shining in the dark, hard and rough, that I can pick up and touch with my hand
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Ben gives Willy a diamond fob watch evidence of his wealth and Willy pawns it to pay for a correspondent course for Biff- as though Ben's success will be passed onto Biff
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Seeds
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After he is fired from his job and his sons abandon him in the restaurant Willy buys seeds and plants as if admitting that all his other hopes have come to nothing
Willy's hopes for his boys haven't grown because they are overshadowed by the materialistic values in New York and just as he has blighted his own life he has blighted the life of his sons
Seeds represent Willy's need to have a legacy behind him , he realises that his own seed, his children, will never grow into the successful men he has dreamed of
Ironically, it is inevitable that the real seeds he plants will come to nothing because the garden is so overshadowed by the apartment buildings, just as the insurance company will probably refuse to pay out because he has a history of suicidal attempts
nevertheless, at the beginning of act 2, optimistic because Biff is going to see Bill Oliver , Willy comments "Gee on the way home I'd like to buy some seeds"
When Willy plants the carrots it gives moments of hope that increase catharsis as Willy is finally fulfilling his wish to start new life as he ends his own which gives his family a new life- planting shows a desire to care for family which is what he thinks he's doing with suicide
Like the seeds trapped in the garden, Willy is trapped in a society and a mind set that prevents him from developing into anything that will last
he seems to be trying too late to reestablish the contact with nature that he used to have but which has been shifted by the city
Stockings
Willy gives stockings to the woman in Boston, so, whenever he sees Linda mending her stockings he is reminded of his betrayal and his guilt makes him angry
When Willy sees Linda mending her stocking it is like an accusation that he is failing to provide for his family
stocking become a symbol of guilt and shame both for his affair and his inability to provide simple necessities
Linda is the one who looks after the family's finances trying to make ends meet so she mends the stocking rather than throws them away
the mending of the stocking reinforces the Loman's work with their hands- Willy doesn't want Linda to mend them as he wants to reject what he is suited to and assume capitalist ideals where he buys new commodities to show his status
Car
It reminds him of the best points of his life, he still believes sometimes he is in that time and doesn't want to let go of it.
He ends at the hands of the same thing he has been so attached to. The car takes you from one point to another and is the vehicle that takes Willy from this world to the next.
The fool is an extension of Lear’s interiority so is more like an inanimate object than Cordelia. The car is Willy's job encapsulated in an object, when he dies, the car dies too, thus he is just reduced to a salesman