The Remains Of The Day By Kazuo Ishiguro And The Play...

Our most basic memory is the meaning of the word itself. When that word is flashed in front of us, our minds immediately conclude that a memory is a recollection of a past event. But, out of the millions of long and short-term memories in the archives of our brains, what makes us remember specific events and forget others? To what extent do memories serve as a guideline to the type of personality and characteristics an individual displays? In the novel The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro and the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, memories are used for the understanding of main characters. Ishiguro uses memories to narrate Stevens’ past working for royalty and his struggle to transition into the modern world. Miller uses†¦show more content†¦He will always try to live up to the high standards his father set for himself as he did that night. In Death of a Salesman Willy is abandoned by his father at a very young age as well as his brother Ben who leaves for Alaska where he makes a fortune. In addition, Willy and his son Biff are constantly in dispute over Willy’s opinion that Biff lacks a real job and has no purpose to his life. At Frank’s Chophouse, when Biff returns from an interview with a potential employer, Willy is expecting good news. As the two go back and forth arguing and not listening to each other, Willy begins to ramble and has a flashback from the past. Unaware of his surrounding and the conversation he is presently in, he says, â€Å"No, no! You had to go and flunk math! †¦ If you hadn’t flunked you’d’ve been set by now!† (Miller 65) Willy is remembering the fact that Biff was not able to graduate high school because he failed his math class. Willy, in distress, hurries into the bathroom and continues to babble while his two sons, Biff and Happy, leave the restaurant abandoning their father. This memory that Willy recalls shows that he feels responsible for his son s failur e and will never forget the reason Biff did not end up successful which ultimately led to the abandonment of father by son. When reflecting on the past a sense of regret arises when feelings of missed opportunities are thought of. In The Remains of the Day Stevens comes to the realization that he missed an opportunityShow MoreRelated Work and Happiness in Death of a Salesman and Remains of the Day2913 Words   |  12 PagesWork and Happiness in Death of a Salesman and Remains of the Day      Ã‚  Ã‚   What a person does to make a living often defines who that person is. Because so much time and energy is invested into work, work is often seen as an extension of oneself. One of the first questions that someone asks after meeting you for the first time is about what you do for a living. The belief is that by knowing what you do, one should be able to tell something about who you are. People almost never ask the more telling