Act 2 Part 1- Sports

As mentioned earlier, business does not have the best reputation in this play. Sports on the other hand, is a snippet of past pride that Willy had for the glorious Biff. The Ebbets Field game is significant in that it is the last “happy” occasion to occur to Willy, Biff and his family. After the football game, “ nothing good” happened to Biff in Willy’s eyes. As a flashback, the talk about the Ebbets Field game shows that sports was something important to Biff and Willy. Charley makes some jokes about the big game, which suggests that he doesn’t take sports as seriously as Willy does. Willy getting angry with Charley emphasizes the value that Willy put on sports.

To be honest I’m not too confident about what the significance of this might be. The one catch in sports is that it cannot last forever. An athlete can only perform for so many years until another athlete replaces him. In the same manner, there is the moment, like the Ebbets Field game for Biff, that will only come once and should be enjoyed and cherished. I think maybe this reveals certain characteristics of Willy and Charley. Willy appreciates things that receive a lot of attention, even though it might be momentary, while Charley doesn’t mind such things.