Christina With An A

I’ve read Death of a Salesman many, many times in many, many different literary classes. I’ve written at least three papers on it, all with different theses. I just love this play. I think what captivates me most about Salesman is the pursuit of success within the story, and how each characters comes to an epiphany of what success really is by the end of his or her part in the play. The play challenges its readers to ask a number of questions about success. What exactly is it? How does one achieve it? And are we all phony little fakes? For those who haven’t read it, be aware that it is dark and depressing, but it also isn’t entirely dark and depressing. It depends on how you interpret the ending (I personally like to read the ending with optimism). In spite of this darkness, I still encourage everyone to pick it up at least once, but preferably a handful of times in their lives. I like to think of Salesman as a litmus test for our own definition of success and what we are willin

It is so difficult for me to stay committed to one story idea. Does anyone else have that problem? For me, it stems from the fear of time running out to find the one . I suppose I’m afraid that I only get one shot at writing something successful that has the potential to be traditionally published. I constantly second-guess myself and my writing, wondering if I’m wasting my time because I could do better with something else. In fact, I'm writing this blog post right now instead of working on my novel because I'm experiencing this exact feeling at this exact moment (ironically, I am wasting more time by not sitting down and just finishing the damn thing). In hindsight, I know that’s ridiculous. One of my favorite quotes about writing comes from the great Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author of Tarzan of the Apes : “If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor.” And it’s totally true because we as writers have a hundred—nay, a