Essay thoughts

Will Landschulz
Am Lit Per. 2
Mrs. LaMagdeleine

My ideas for this paper consist of pointing out the similarities between Norma and Willy, especially in the dream-like quality of their existences.  The dreams themseves are similar in how they suspend their users from a great height, but everyone can see that their throne is no more substantial than seafoam, and drops Willy and Norma from a great height at the end.  The difference between those is the sources of these dreams.  Willy's dreams arise from his own mind, from his memories and imagination.  Norma's dreams come from outside, from her former stardom as well as from her Director-cum-husband-cum-butler, Max.  Another difference between them is that Willy kills himself at the end after convincing the shade of his brother, while Norma kills Joe and goes mad, going so far into delusion as to believe that the news crew covering the police investigation at her house are the movie cameras in a Paramount Pictures studio.  Even the other characters around her mirror roles from the book.  Max is a direct analogue of Linda or Happy, DeMille is extremely similar to Charley, and Joe evolves into a Biff-esque character.