Ben is Willy's wealthy older brother. Ben has recently died and he appears in Willy's daydreams and memories. In his memory/daydream, Ben came and asked Willy to go to Alaska with him. Ben wants Willy to help him manage a tract of timberland that he has just bought.
For Willy, Ben represents success. Willy craves success his whole life, and gets jealous of others who have it, and disregard and look down upon the people who don’t have it. He wants success and to be popular and well liked for himself and his sons. He looks up to Ben a lot because of his success. Because of this, I don’t think that Willy is positive influence on Willy because all Willy’s life, he has been trying to aspire and become as successful as his brother, but he just can’t. He also regrets that he didn’t make the decision to go to Alaska with Ben. This upsets him throughout his life. Anyway, whether or not Ben was a positive or negative influence on Willy, Willy still tried so hard to gain his older brother’s approval.
Linda is actually a little scared of Ben. When Ben asked Willy to come to Alaska with him, Linda convinced Willy that he had a good job right where he was and he didn’t have to go to Alaska.
The Bell Jar
1 comment:
I agree with the reason that you think Ben is a bad influence, the idea that Willy won't be able to compete with his success, not meaning to be negative, and not completly certain, but I believe that there are other reasons that Ben's influence is bad. The ones I chose were Ben's ideas that wealth translates into happiness, and that wealth is acquired quickly by discovering something.
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