Uncle Ben

Will Landschulz
Am. Lit Per. 2
Mrs. LaMagdeleine

Linda doesn't like Ben all that much.  She considers him shortsighted and impulsive, to the extent that she sees illogicalities in Ben's actions ("Why does he[Biff] have to fight [Ben], dear?").  She doesn't get why Willy should go with Ben to Alaska/Africa when he already has a job selling things.  She doesn't get why people need to conquer the world when they've already got their own little corner of the universe.  She's scared of what Ben would do, or wouldn't stop at doing.  These fears were made manifest in the aforementioned sparring between Ben and Biff, culminating in Ben making a terrifically illegal maneuver and holding the tip of his umbrella inches from Biff's face.  He tries to laugh it off and helps Biff up, but he still gives a diatribe that would rival Machiavelli: "Never fight fair with a stranger, boy.  You'll never make it out of the jungle that way."  The attitude given by this lesson - don't fight fair, or you won't succeed - runs counter to Linda's idea of her idyllic household.  Linda sees Ben as a bad influence on Willy, tempting him with visions of treasures buried in a mountain or a jungle, drawing him away from the stable rock that is his home.  What is interesting is that she is proven right, although she doesn't know it.  Willy's affair (trying to find treasure in The Woman's jungle) only brought him guilt and left deep fissures in his psyche, disrupting the stability of his marriage to Linda and allowing him to slip through the cracks of the present into his past.