The Kindling: Read the Tragedy, Live the Comedy
“I hate the book,” replied one of my students. “The end is so depressing.” She was right, the story is tragic. The American Dream kills Willy Loman. It devours the ambitious salesman and doesn't apologize. Unlike A Raisin in the Sun, hope doesn’t greet you at the closing of Death of a Salesman, just the dark wake of Loman’s choices. Still, I have to agree with Aristotle, tragic stories are valuable, practical. Often given a choice, I’ll read the tragedy and pass on the comedy