The Bribery Aisle: How Wal-Mart Used Payoffs to Get Its Way in Mexico
Close Reading

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/business/walmart-bribes-teotihuacan.html?hp&_r=0

David Barstow covers a corporate maneuver south of the border in his article The Bribery Aisle. The New York Times writer used syntax, details, and diction to paint a picture of corporate greed and shady transactions south of the border.

The format of this article is much like a report - from the secret service. The introduction, "SAN JUAN TEOTIHUACÁN, Mexico — Wal-Mart longed to build in Elda Pineda’s alfalfa field. It was an ideal location..." Um, do you have some sort of pipe dream for being a secret agent? "San Juan Teotihuacan, Mexico" - Generally, that appears on the screen after the opening credits to an action movie. And it only gets better from there. "The plan was simple..." really, it was. But stating it so dramatically somehow makes a simple payoff sound all the more sinister, and maybe even interesting. Obviously, corporate transactions aren't exactly headline news, but Barstow is determined to make this report into a full-blown investigation, and maybe even a screenplay. "The Story of the Altered Map" premiering on Nickelodeon at 8/7 Central. He even divides the article into 'episodes', as it were, with flashy titles such as "City of the Gods, An Altered Map, A Helpful Mayor, Getting By the Guardians (my personal favorite), A Gathering Protest, (and last but not least) Open for Business". Wouldn't those look great under the "Scene Selection Menu"?

Specific details dehumanize Wal-Mart, and bring a rich sense of setting to the already well scripted narrative. "With its usual precision, Wal-Mart calculated it would attract 250 customers an hour if only it could put a store in Mrs. Pineda’s field." This personifies Wal-Mart as a cold, calculating figure, caring only about 250 faceless customers per hour, and no compassion for Señora Pineda. More crucial details, " Protesters decried the very idea of a Wal-Mart ... They contended the town’s traditional public markets would be decimated... Months of hunger strikes and sit-ins consumed Mexico’s news media" depict how opposed the local people are to Wal-Mart, making this a civil rights and culture issue as well as a business concern.

The specific words used to describe this 'operation' further paint a picture of a sneaky, greedy, merciless corporation 'exploiting' the local Mexican people. The article describes 'out-muscling protesters', implying that Wal-Mart did not have right on its side, but sheer bulldozing force. Also, 'vanquishing' small town markets makes the company sound like an evil wizard.

Rhetoric techniques like diction, details, and syntax can effectively engage a reader in an epic battle of zoning rights and technicalities, if done well. This article proved that, as well as used excellent work choice and detail to villainize Wal-Mart.

1970   Choose a work of recognized literary merit in which a specific inanimate object (e.g., a seashell, a handkerchief, a painting) is important, and write an essay in which you show how two or three of the purposes the object serves are related to one another.

Anita Diamant's novel The Red Tent is a retelling of the biblical story of Dinah, daughter of Jacob. In this book, a specific inanimate object stands as a refuge for Dinah and her mothers, a connection to their ancestors, and a symbol of womanhood. Three guesses what it could be...

 Every new moon, the wives of Jacob enter the red tent for their monthly cycle. According to their culture, women were to be separated from men during this time.When Dinah comes of age, she is accepted into the red tent as a young woman. Here, the fertile women spend three days in peace; resting, praying, and singing.  The red tent, in the tribe of Jacob, was the symbol for womanhood and fertility.

In a patriarch-dominated society, the red tent symbolized refuge from demanding and sometimes cruel men. Ruti, "whose eyes seemed permanently blackened, was the slave-wife of brutish Laban. She found sanctuary in the few days of the month that she spent in the red tent, where Laban could not follow her. Even for the wives with gentler husbands, women were expected to submit completely to their husbands, and could not talk and joke freely in the presence of men, "In their day along in the red tend, Jacob's wives spoke among themselves about their husband's dreams and plans". It was also here that they were able to plot without being overhear. When the tribe of Jacob choose to leave Laban, his daughters steal from him his idols (gods), to take with them to their new home. Leah hides them in the red tent. Laban searches for them everywhere except, "his eyes fixed upon the women's tent on the edge of the camp. It was unthinkable that a healthy man would walk inside that place during the head of the month, among bleeding women - even worse, his own daughters". The taboo of the tent protects them from intrusions; and makes trespasses all the more horrible. Once his idols have been "polluted beyond redemption" by laying in the tent, he believes their magic to protect him is lost, and he never bothers his daughters again. 

As well as being an oasis in a patriarchal world, the red tent is a place for passing on stories. These are the women's tales; being the only daughter of Jacob, Dinah "heard all the stories from her mother and mother-aunts, which her brothers wouldn't be bothered to hear or pass on". Dinah's aunt Bilhah tells her the story of how man first learned to spin wool into thread, and Rachael tells the stories of the births she has midwifed. Along with personal stories, the red tent is a place where Jacob's wives carry on traditions from their grandmothers and great-grandmothers, "The women sang all the welcoming songs while Rachael made fine wheat-flour cake in the three-cornered shape of woman's sex". The make sacrifices to their goddesses and welcome Dinah into the red tent with the traditional ceremony, "they put kohl on my eyes, and perfumed my forehead...painted my arms and legs with henna". The red tent is a place for the women's traditions to be carried on.

The red tent literally symbolizes the isolation of menstruating women, but within, it is a place for Jacob's wives to escape the controlling  men of their time, and share their personal histories and traditions. The red tent is a very important object.

Death of  Salesman - Summary and Analysis

The play Death of a Salesman was written by Arthur Miller in 1949. This was a time of doubt in the midst of the post-war boom. Miller and his colleagues had lived through the Great Depression and WWII, so although these time periods are particularly avoided by the play, they are very much prevalent in the attitudes of the characters. Being a play, there is only dialogue as a medium for Miller to editorialize, which he does through the most respected character of Charlie, who gives the oft quoted speech

      Nobody dast blame this man. For a salesman, there is no rock bottom to the life. He don't put a bolt to a nut, he don't tell you the law or give you medicine. He's a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back -- that's an earthquake. And then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you're finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory.

This is the bread and butter of Death of a Salesman. Obviously, this is not Charley speaking. This is the raw message of Arthur Miller, thinly veiled in a time of increasing fear of socialism. Death of a Salesman is set, in the present, in 1949, as well as in flashbacks to the 1930s. The Loman home, suffocated by the city, is struggling for nostalgia in the jungle that is New York City .

The story is, essentially, from the point of view of Willy Loman, a depressed, aging salesman who is prone to flash backs (so, not the greatest description of him). He is fixated on an American Dream where being "not just liked, but well-liked" can get you ahead. He denied his true talent for carpentry to be a salesman, where he believed his personality could keep him going forever. He was never very successful, but told his sons that he was, and they hero worshipped him as boys.

Linda is Willy's wife. She is practical, mothering, and takes care of him in his crazy, disappointed old age. Willy is her primary concern, and she tries to protect him from himself and from his sons. Willy's Madonna-Whore complex desexualizes their relationship and causes him to disrespect her.

Biff is Willy's oldest son. Like everyone else in his family, he has failed to grow. In high school, Biff was big man on campus, and absolutely in love with his father (reverse Oedipus). After flunking math and catching his father in an affair, Biff is heart-broken and stunted. He is a kleptomaniac and cannot form healthy relationships with women. Biff sees the foolishness of Willy and hates him for his betrayal. He cannot, however, move past it and be mature, so he lives in disillusioned, unilluminated misery. He is constantly going out west to try and find himself, but always ends up back home, hating himself.

Happy is Willy's younger son. He is completely ignored by Willy both in the present and in the past when he lived in his big brother's shadow "Look Pop, I lost weight!" :( Happy (ignorance is bliss) does not have the ideals of Biff, but cannot form healthy relationships with women either, and sleeps with the fiances of his superiors. He keeps alive Willy's childish dream of making it big with no skills, because he can't face the existential hell which Biff lives in.

Ben is Willy's older brother, and a "role model" for him. Ben and Willy's father abandoned him when he was a baby and this has forever infantilized him. Ben's catch phrase is "When I was seventeen, I walked into the jungle. And by twenty-one, I walked out. And by God, I was rich!" ugh. He is Willy's idol, and represents what Willy thinks he could have been (yeah right). *Linda doesn't like Ben.

Charley and Bernard are foils to Willy and Biff. Bernard studied hard and became a successful lawyer, while Charley is a shrewd business man. However, these men are not petty and jealous like Willy. Charley gives Willy every week and tries to offer him a job. Bernard worries for Biff, and confronts Willy about the incident that ruined Biff.

Other characters; there is a Woman who Willy has an affair with, and other women whom Biff and Happy abandon their father for. There is so much Madonna/Whore in this play. Also, a waiter is the only man who will be kind to Willy when he is having delusions in a restaurant bathroom.

A very brief synopsis of Death of a Salesman: 
Willy Loman can't keep his mind to driving and keeps drifting of the road. He goes home to his wife Linda, and his son Biff, who he is always fighting with (also Happy, but he couldn't care less). He tells his sons to go ask Bill Oliver for money to start a family business. They don't get the money because Biff had stolen from him when he worked in the warehouse. At dinner with their father, they try to break the news to him, and he goes into another flashback. He goes home, tries to plant a garden, and has it out with Biff. A hallucination of Ben encouraged Willy to commit suicide to give Biff some start up money, so he goes and crashes his car. Nobody comes to his funeral but Bernard and Charley. 

The flash backs: in every flashback, Biff is a strapping young football star with no respect for authority or women. He is admired by all and loves no one better than his father. When he flunks math, he expects that Willy can get him out of it. When he sees his father's fall, he is shattered and looses faith. 

The central themes of Death of a Salesman are the failure of the American Dream, betrayal, and delusions of grandeur. Willy cannot face his failure (that he is not well-liked, nor a good salesman) so he lies lavishly and pretends to his wife and sons that he is much more successful than he really is. His obsessions with outward appearances and popularity prevents him from developing strong values and skills. This illusion crumbles around him when Biff catches him having an affair - his betrayal is his downfall. 



Other motifs:
The flute represents Willy's father, an entrepreneur who worked with his hands. Willy has not lived up to the father who abandoned him.
North, South, East, and West all represent different things. North is purity and self-reliance (he thinks Ben goes to Alaska), South is hedonistic and without reason or rule (where Ben actually makes his money, and where Willy keeps his woman), East is your roots (Willy never leaves the east so he never evolves or matures), and West is self-discovery and adventure (Biff spends all his time there, but ends up returning East to his roots). 
Stockings symbolize Willy's guilt
The car and the pipe represent technology replacing humanity- note that Willy dies crashing his car.
Dairy Products - Willy is constantly drinking milk or eating cheese. This is because he is still a child, and sees Linda as his mother, not as a sexual creature or an equal to him.

Response to Course Materials #4

So, this past month, we've finally gotten to hear the famous "Holmes-ey stories" that seniors from classes passed have told me about. And they are awesome. As far as the curriculum.... well I really appreciated an insight on the 'method to madness'. The sequencing of AP has at times baffled me, but I completely understand why we are reading the books in the order we do. American Dream is crazy and post-modern, so all of the symbolism and deeper meaning is really obvious, because otherwise the entire thing would be completely random. Then, Death of A Salesman is also about disappointment and failure of the American Dream, but its more subtle and gets into family relationships in a much more intimate, emotional way. So much Oedipus! I was simultaneously disturbed and impressed by the complexities of Willy and Biff relationship. I never would have interpreted their relationship to be Oedipal, nonetheless liek lover, but the text speaks for itself.  How they 'spoke on the phone together for hours' and how they embrace and cry and Biff kisses him (so awkward). So, speaking of incest, its time for Hamlet! I am a huge fan of Shakespeare, so this is probably going to be my favorite unit. I've also found that reading The Other Boleyn Girl has actually been very helpful to understanding the dynamics of the court of Elsinore. At this time of year, lit teachers generally ask us to write sonnets, and that is actually my very favorite part of English. Freshman year, I wrote twelve (so much extra credit, I didn't have to work for the rest of the year), and in Brit Lit, I got to write a condensed Twelfth Night in iambic pentameter. So, yes, I am very excited to be reading Hamlet.