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Haylee Curtis

Professor Elden

English 112

6 April, 2018

The Darkness Inside

In literature, there can be many different themes and thoughts on the same piece and there

can be different ways that people see in these pieces. A lot of themes can come from just one

story or play, and darkness is one of the many themes found in the thousands of pieces of

literature. Most people would hear darkness and think of murder, or other criminal things like

that, but it is not always that way. In the play Death of a Salesman, and in the stories “Where Are

You Going, Where Have You Been?” and “Sonny’s Blues” there is a darkness that is shown in

them, and it isn’t always the way one would think.

There is a darkness that can be found anywhere, even in the sunlight of the world, but it is

not always criminal. In Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is the salesman who is starting to find

the darkness in him. This darkness that he has is not what people typically think of when they

think of darkness, but it is a type of darkness that starts in his soul and makes it so that he is

losing himself. He starts to lose his mind too and starts talking to people who have passed away

and could not have been there in any way. He finds himself talking to these people when nobody

else is around, and when he needs to find an answer to help him in his life. When going through

a particularly hard time, he talks to his brother that passed away, saying: “I see it like a diamond,

shining in the dark, hard and rough, that I can pick up and touch in my hand”(Miller 94). He

knows that he is making life difficult and is hurting his wife with the things he does, and this

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diamond he talks about is money, and if he ends up getting it like he was told, than his wife

wouldn’t have to worry so much when he actually ends up killing himself after all his previous

attempts that he hasn’t gone through with. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”

Arnold Friend, who really is nothing like a friend, asks Connie, “Don’tcha wanta see what’s on

the car? Don’tcha wanta go for a ride?(Oates 890)” He is asking Connie to leave her house and

go with him, when there is no one home or around to help her make him go away. She does not

want to leave, because why would she? He is some random guy who knows who she is and when

her family is gone that wants her to go with him. He continually tries to get her to go with him,

“Just for a ride, Connie sweetheart.” “I never said my name was Connie, she said (Oates 891).”

Arnold is a man that must have been stalking her for awhile now, because he knows so much

about her and the habits of the family, too. He has a darkness in him, but instead of like Willy,

Arnold Friend has this darkness in him that is used for criminal like behavior instead of losing

himself like Willy did. “Sonny’s Blues” had darkness like that of Arnold Friend has, but instead

of trying to kidnap young girls, they use drugs as their choice of darkness. They used heroine,

which Sonny ended up getting caught up in, and which proceeded to make his life awful and

rough. One of Sonny’s friends who used the drug, and even though he had it, and told Sonny that

yes, it was good, he would not give him any. He even said, “I thought Sonny was a smart boy, I

thought he was too smart to get hung”(Baldwin 563). Him and Sonny’s brother both believed

that because of how they grew up and what they have all seen, Sonny wouldn’t get involved in it,

and maybe just leave and get away from it all. But because he decides that he wants to be a

musician, a pianist at that, it would be in the culture that would bring him into the darkness of the

drug culture.

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There are other ways that darkness comes through in the pages of these stories and plays.

In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Connie was the reciprocant of the darkness.

When Arnold Friend was in the works of trying to get her to go with him, she was affected by the

darkness because she was going to be taken. She was effected before that though, because he

family was mean to her, saying things “Why don’t you keep your room clean like your sister?

How’ve you got your hair fixed- what the hell stinks? Hair spray? You don’t see your sister using

that junk”(Oates 886). She was constantly in the shadow of her sister- and how much better her

sister was than her. She knew how bad Arnold Friend was, but she wanted to keep her family

safe, even though they were awful to her. He threatened her, saying “But I promise it won’t last

long and you’ll like me the way you get to like people you’re close to. You will. It’s all over for

you here, so come on out. You don’t want any of your people in trouble, do you?”(Oates 897).

She was trying to protect her family from the darkness mail was Arnold Friend. In “Sonny’s

Blues”, Sonny was like this in a way. He wanted to protect himself from the drugs, for his family.

Once his dad passed and his brother had promised his mom that he would protect him, he wanted

to be able to stay out of the drugs, but because he was a teenager he ended up doing them. This

landed him in jail for a while where he started to change his ways a bit. He even said to his

brother, “I’ve been something I didn’t recognize, didn’t know I could be. Didn’t know anybody

could be”(Baldwin 580). He understood that these drugs had changed him so much that he really

could not go back there again, for his family. In Death of a Salesman, Happy (Hap) Loman was

known by the women everywhere because that’s how he was back in school, and never ended up

changing his ways. One night, Happy took Biff(his brother) out on a date, and afterwards when

they were talking in their childhood bedroom, he said “I would! Somebody with character, with

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resistance! Like Mom, y’know? You’re gonna call me a bastard when I tell you this. That girl

Charlotte I was with tonight is engaged to be married in five weeks”(Miller 15). Hap has always

been this ladies man, and it is the darkness in him, he doesn’t want to change.

This darkness can be in anything. Sonny’s brother made a promise to his mom after his

dad died. He promised “I won’t forget, Don’t you worry, I won’t forget. I won’t let nothing

happen to Sonny”(Baldwin 570). He ended up breaking this promise, and so his darkness is

letting his brother go on in life without his help and protection. Sure Sonny was old enough

where most kids go off on their own, but because his brother was the only family he had left,

Sonny couldn’t go back and ask his parents what to do if he got stuck, and his brother had pretty

much abandoned him. Biff didn’t have much of a dad growing up, because his dad favored

Happy. He always felt like he was not as important in the family, and he stole to make himself

feel in control. He realizes this darkness in him was actually his father's ways rubbing off on

him, and says “The man don’t know who we are! The man is gonna know! (To Willy) We never

told the truth for ten minutes in this house!”(Miller 97). Connie’s mom in “Where Are You

Going, Where Have You Been?” is like this too. She believed that Connie was a disgrace to their

family because she was nothing like her older sister. She said “Stop gawking at yourself, who are

you? You think you’re so pretty?(Oates 886). She has this darkness because now that she is older

and less pretty, she despises her daughter because she once looked like that too and now doesn't.

Many people believe that darkness is an awful thing that only criminal people have. In all

reality darkness is in each and everyone. It can be shown in major things like drugs, stealing, or

even hate for your own children. Yes darkness can be complex as a whole, and when looking at

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someone, you cannot tell who is going into the deep dark-drugs and abuse-or who is walking the

line and could tip over the edge at any point.

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Works Cited

Baldwin, James. Sonny’s Blues. Boston: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2016. 561-584. Print.

Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. 1946. PDF.

https://www.kirstenenglish.com/uploads/2/5/6/7/25677021/miller_salesman.pdf

Oates, Joyce C. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Boston: Bedfords St. Martin’s

2016. 886-898. Print.

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