Sam Haddad
Mrs. Sejkora
AP English 12 Per. 2
21 Feb, 2011
The “Not So Secret” Secret
What goes around comes around; everybody knows the phrase. It has riddled the playgrounds and run rampant through the halls of every school. It is the simple idea that everything you do will eventually come back to you. This is the essential argument of The Secret. The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne, was released in 2006 and quickly became a best seller. In her book, Rhonda Byrne argues that people are connected to the universe through their energy, and because of this, people can control their own energy to affect the energy that the universe returns to them. In correlation with the childhood saying, if a person exudes positive energy, then positive energy will be returned to them, often times in the form of wealth and good health. While many people defend Byrne’s claim with miracle stories of their own, some people, such as Arthur Miller, another best selling author, would strongly disagree. Although he died a year before Rhonda’s book was released, it is quite evident that based the writings in popular novels The Crucible and Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller would not support her argument.
A fundamental aspect of The Secret is optimism. According to Byrne, in order to receive a good life from the universe, you have to put out positive energy. This entails thinking, feeling, and acting positive at all times; you must be an optimist. However, based on his literary work, Arthur Miller was a realist. Realists have a more honest, sometimes depressing or hopeless outlook on life than optimists. Realism is defined as the depiction of subjects as they appear in everyday life, without embellishment or interpretation. The term also describes works of art which, in revealing a truth, may emphasize the ugly or sordid. Arthur Miller writes both Death of a Salesman and The Crucible under these guidelines.
According to definition, Arthur Miller’s novels reveal truth in the world. Also in tandem with the definition of realism, Miller stresses the ugly or poor tendencies in human nature. The Secret requires people to be “good.” However, Arthur Miller shows that at the very core of their essence, people, like Abigail Williams, are bad. In The Crucible, Abigail Williams conspires a group of girls in the city to construct an elaborate scheme to accuse certain residents in the community of being witches. She does this out of a spiteful rage and jealousy for John Proctor’s love. Abigail fully understands the punishment of witchcraft. She knowingly places half of her community in death’s finger tips out of pure malice. In discrepancy to The Secret, Abigail’s ill actions are not penalized, but instead make her the single most powerful force in the novel. Byrne states that to acquire power and wealth, you must give off positive energy, but Abigail acquires it by doing just the opposite.
Miller also accentuates the notion that the few people in the world that are good get abused by their bad counterparts. Rhonda Byrne explains that the universe will reward the decent, wholesome, and hardworking citizens, but Arthur Miller’s novels show that the world will walk all over the decent, wholesome, and hardworking.
In The Crucible, John Proctor was a good, hardworking man. He was respected amongst his piers in his community before he was falsely accused of being a witch. Although John was noble and in all aspects a “positive” influence on his community he was condemned to death. In a desperate attempt to save the other innocent citizens Proctor sacrifices his own life, but states “I speak my own sins; I cannot judge another. I have no tongue for it.” With this quote John Proctor effectively saves the rest of his community by accepting his own death in bargain to save them. If The Crucible shared the beliefs of The Secret the story would have ended happily. Rhonda Byrne would likely argue that the positive energy put out by John Proctor would have been retuned to him with a prosperous life instead of an unjust death.
Another key element to The Secret is the ability to work for what you most desire. It suggests that you can go from having nothing, to having everything you could dream with positivity and hard work. This idea is also commonly referred to as The American Dream. “Americans have traditionally centered their efforts on thrift and hard work.”(Americandream) Authors have written about the American Dream for centuries, and Arthur Miller is no exception. However, while many authors write heart-warming stories of people enduring constant hardship until they at last achieve the success they crave, Miller writes a very different story. In Death of a Salesman, Miller writes bleak tale of a salesman, Willy Loman, desperately trying to provide for his family.
Willy works his entire life trying to attain The American Dream to no avail. He is eventually driven to insanity and rides off in his car, abandoning his life and his family. Willy’s family holds a funeral for him, to which no one shows. Throughout the course of the book Willy starts with nothing, and ends with nothing. At his funeral Willy’s wife, Linda, states that the family would have been fine if only Willy had a “little salary.” To this Charley, Willy’s successful neighbor, replies, “No man only needs a little salary.” Charley’s reply establishes the idea that in life, some people get everything, and some people get nothing. In an article concerning The American Dream, one author, Matthew Warshauer, explains that society believes that in life, “the one who dies with the most toys wins.”(Americandream) Willy Loman died with no wealth or toys to speak of. He played the game of life and lost. No amount of positivity or hard work could save him.
The American Dream and The Secret both share the concept of being able to change your life for the better no matter what your starting point is. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Miller sheds light on the other side of the argument which suggests that some people have an inescapable fate. Miller would argue that, opposed to the notion of The Secret, some people, like Willy Loman, are simply doomed for failure, while others are destined for success.
Based on his lack of expressing any form of positivity or generosity in his novels, Arthur Miller cannot be a believer in The Secret. His tendency to place his characters in hopeless situations demonstrates his belief that life itself is hopeless. Miller’s realism contains opposite values to that of The Secret. The stories he writes criticize it, and his own life story encourages the idea that The Secret is not factual. Arthur Miller practically achieved his own fame by denouncing the idea of The Secret before it was even written. Arthur Miller, in no way, shape, or form, could believe in The Secret.
Work Cited
"Realism in American Literature." Washington State University - Pullman, Washington. Web. 13 Feb. 2011.
"The Secret (book)." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 13 Feb. 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_(book)
"What Is “The Secret”? What Is the Law of Attraction?" Bible Questions Answered. Web. 13 Feb. 2011.
Miller, Arthur, and Gerald Clifford Weales. Death of a Salesman. New York: Penguin, 1996. Print.
Miller, Arthur. Collected Plays, 1944-1961. New York: Library of America, 2006. Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment