Siriyakorn Tongveeraprasert

Baitoey 1209

Ms.Laurin Werner

03 April 2019

Option 2

Part A:

Individual identities were affected by many different factors such as family,

environment, culture, belief and etc. As time passed, some people might feels that their

identities are changing which is not all for everyone. Therefore, different places shaped each

person their own uniqueness in identities. To be more precise, this essay will be explaining

about the influence of American Dream which from the play called Death of a Salesman.

In Death of a Salesman, Miller illustrates how American Dream have a huge impact

on individuals which also shapes a variations of the character’s identities. First of all,

American Dream is the belief of becoming successful by working hard even if you started

with nothing. To extends, Willy, one of the main character in the plays, he have a strong

belief in American Dream. As he worked as a salesman, this makes him feel that if he

working hard, he could become successful easily. According to page 13, Willy stated that

“No, I see everything. I came back ten miles an hour. It took me nearly four hours from

Yonkers”. After reading this quote, it can be seen clearly that even if it is too far from his

home, Willy have to go for a work, he always dedicate and willy to go. Furthermore, by doing

this thing it will make him even have a higher self-confident. In terms of self-confident, he

usually thinks that what he have been doing is right and he seems to not listen to what others

people are saying to him. Nonetheless, he also said that in order to become successful does

not only depend on how much money you have as long as a man was impressive and well-

liked.
 On the other hand, Biff became popular in school by participating in football. As a

result, he then pushes the pressure towards his son, Bff. Both of them have a different

perspective towards a work, but Willy does not care what Biff likes he just think about what

he want him to do. In the play on page 22, Biff said that “Well I spent six or seven years after

high school trying to work myself up. Shipping clerk, salesman, business of one kind or

another. And it’s a measly manner of existence. To get on that subway on the hot mornings in

summer. To devote your whole life to keeping stock, or making phone calls, or selling or

buying. To suffer fifty weeks of the year for the sake of a two week vacation, when all you

really desire is to be outdoors with your shirt off. And always to have to get ahead of the next

fella. And still—that’s how you build a future”. From that, it means that willy always told Biff

that he should try harder than this and also find a better job to do instead of farming. Biff can

not do what his father wanted him to do as he is a kind of relaxing person, so he want to do

whatever makes him happy, not follows his dad footsteps. As time flies, everything had

changed, Willy can’t hold his dreams and it have been falling apart because of the

fragmentation through his sons.

Furthermore, the differentiation between Willy and Biff is that Willy believe that by

doing a job that can give you an opportunity to earn more money will make him happy and

become successful. However, it’s different from Biff as he believe that successful for him is

to be able to do what he want and what he like, doesn’t do something that somebody asked or

told him to do because he doesn’t want to end up like his father. In another word, he wanted

to be free and have more freedom. According to that, it really makes Willy upset on Biff and

he is also criticising Biff because Biff failed to meet the expectations of Willy as he is being

lazy and can’t be what he want him to be. The expectation that Willy expected Biff and

Happy, but mostly Biff to do is to find a better job rather than being a farmer. From my own

understanding, the expectation that Willy’s setup is quite important because he wanted his son
to grow up and have a proper job. From that, it will be able to make Biff stay by himself and

to support and take care himself and other members in a family.

To sum up, the two main characters, Biff and Willy have shown that even both of

them have different personality and perspective towards their work, they still have the same

influence which is American Dream. Nevertheless, in this play also shown what is really

happen in today’s society. Not only that, individual can’t fully responsible to their own

identity. The way that each person act or behave mostly came from people around them,

society, culture and other parts as well.

Part B:
 Throughout my lifetime, I’ve changed school for many times since I was about 5 years

old. As I moved to different schools, it allows me to faced with many various things such as

friends, teachers, environment and many more. At first, I might not be able to identify my

identity, however, as I grew up I’m able to know myself clearly. From the past until now,

those factors are one of the big impact on my current identity.

First of all, I started studying international program when I was in year 8 at St.

Stephen’s International School (Khao Yai). Before I moved there, I studied in an English

programme before, but my English skills are pretty bad. One of the reason is that, I only get a

chance to study with Thai’s teachers, so their pronunciations are a lots different from

foreigners. From that, I’ve less opportunity to speak English with my friends because most of

them were Thais. Then, when I’ve to speak English with the others especially with foreigners

I’ve no confident at all. It can be clearly seen when I’ve to do a presentation in front of my

classmates, I’ll always shy and doesn’t want to speak. As a result, I feel likes I’ve to change

myself and be able to bring out more confidence from inside.

Followed by, as I moved to an international school at Khao yai, I still can’t deal with

this problems. It even makes me feels more uncomfortable when I’ve to speak English in a

public area. As I’ve said that it is an international school, so there are mixed races which most

of students are foreigners. Therefore, I’m always scared when I’ve to talk with my classmates

in English as I think that I doesn’t have a nice pronunciation. As well as at that time my

grammar quite suck, so it even makes me nervous and have no confident at all. For example

in Art classes, I’ve to present my art works to my friends, I can’t sleep because I’ve to

practise the script. As a result, when it my turns to do a presentation, my hands and my voices

were shaking. After a presentation, I got a negative feedbacks from both my friends and

teachers which even pull my confident down. The comment was that my presentation quite
bad and sometimes we can’t understand what you’re trying to say, so from that, I can’t gain

my confidence back.

Surprisingly, I can gain back and even more confidence after I moved to Mahidol

University International Demonstration School. To extends, there are many classes that I’ve

to do a presentation both in group and by myself, from that I’ve to tell myself that I should

step over my own fear right now. Nonetheless, not only because of myself that can overcome

it, but also the environment, people around me especially my friends, they are all the strongest

influencers that help me defeated all the things that I’m scared of. Moreover, it makes me

learnt more about myself and others as well, I can really know that nobody can freely shape

their own identities. As a result, in the past I might be a shy person, not want to talk in front of

public, but as time passed, I developed myself by trying to talk to as many people as possible

in order to help me overcome my frightening. It can be seen clearly that I’ve changed a lot not

only by myself, but from the people I close with as well. The example can be seen in grade 10

that have do History presentation, I’ve practise a lot which after the real presentation I got a

comment from Mr.Richard that I can speak clearly, fluently and especially I didn’t look at my

script.

In conclusion, identities can be changed at any time and any place. It can’t be fully

said that those identity that we have right now will be forever, it definitely changes as we

move to a different places, experiences new things. From my point of view, no one can also in

charge of the identities because we can’t know what we are going to face and what is going to

happen in the future, so we won’t be able to know that how are we going to respond to that

situations.