In the short story The Country Husband, the author John Cheever uses the character of Francis Weed to portray the struggle of living within the suburbs of Shady Hill in the 1950’s. The story starts off with Francis surviving a plane crash. However, when he arrives home and tries to tell his family about what happened, no one seems to care about what he has to say. Instead, everyone seems to be more engrossed with their materialistic items and possessions. The actions of not only his family but also everyone around him help to develop and expand the theme throughout the length of the story. Cheever uses the behavior of the characters around Francis to capitalize upon his idea of suburbia as being an entity which serves to repress the individual …show more content…
and his independent beliefs or ideas. Within the first few opening scenes, the narrator describes Francis’ arrival at his home and the chaos that ensues thereafter.
In this scene we begin to see the first glimpses of the amount of repression present within the neighborhood of shady hills. We are able to see this clearly when Francis is trying to explain to his family about his plane crash but nobody seems to care. When everyone is sitting at the dinner table, the narrator states “Francis says that he must be understood; he was nearly killed in an airplane crash, and he doesn’t like to come home every night to a battlefield. Now Julia is deeply concerned. Her voice trembles. He doesn’t come home every night to a battlefield. The accusation is stupid and mean” (299). In this quote, Julia is upset over her husband’s comment more so than his brush with death. Her thought process seems quite strange, and almost child-like. Instead of dealing with the main subject, the crash, and talking about it she chooses to completely overlook and ignore it. Thus her actions and thinking serve to further emphasize the theme. Her character is a symbol for the ideals of suburbia. She is self-centered and lacks the ability to communicate thoroughly, or in fact chooses not to. She chooses to keep living within her unrealistic idea of the perfect …show more content…
family. As the story progresses, we learn that Julia places her external appearance as well as how she’s perceived by other families within her neighborhood over anything else.
To her it is of utmost importance that she is liked by everybody, a thought which is based upon and solidified by the amount of diner parties she is invited to every week. Her character is the perfect example of the materialistic views which Cheever believes the suburbs to uphold. Julia is not alone in her beliefs, as it seems everyone else in shady hill possesses the same ideas. We can see this through Francis’ thought process when he recognizes the maid at that Farquarsons house as the same woman who he saw being punished while he was at war. He realizes he cannot tell anyone the details of the gruesome event he witnessed because to do so would be “… a social as well as human error” (301). The narrator then goes on to describe the people at the dinner. “The people in Farquarsons living room seemed united in their tacit claim that there had been no past, no war-that there was no danger or trouble in the world” (301). We can derive from this quote the assumption that the people living in shady hill were persistent in keeping the outside world at bay. They saw their suburb as a reclusive land, where reality or the outside world could not touch them. They merely lived their lives as if nothing bad did or was ever going to happen. Any negative idea was repressed, even going so far as to deny the fact that there
had ever been a war. Perhaps not by doing so literally but rather by refusing to acknowledge or talk about it. Cheever uses the town of shady hill to critique the suburbs. His writing showed that he felt as though life in suburbia was unrealistic and almost unattainable. It was entirely focused on external appearances and encouraged the conformity of the group rather than encourage the individual. We see that Julia is portrayed as a symbol and embodies the ideals of the suburbs. Francis’ character serves to test the boundaries of shady hills and allow for us to see the extent of what it means to live there. Through him, we are able to understand the theme of repression and the extent that people will go to keep up the façade of the perfect family, neighborhood, and life.
Several works we have read thus far have criticized the prosperity of American suburbia. Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums, Philip Roth's Goodbye, Columbus, and an excerpt from Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poem "A Coney Island of the Mind" all pass judgement on the denizens of the middle-class and the materialism in which they surround themselves. However, each work does not make the same analysis, as the stories are told from different viewpoints.
The theme that has been attached to this story is directly relevant to it as depicted by the anonymous letters which the main character is busy writing secretly based on gossip and distributing them to the different houses. Considering that people have an impression of her being a good woman who is quiet and peaceful, it becomes completely unbecoming that she instead engages in very abnormal behavior. What makes it even more terrible is the fact that she uses gossip as the premise for her to propagate her hate messages not only in a single household but across the many different households in the estate where she stays.
Thornton Wilder’s Our Town is a work of “sentimental fiction” because it connects all the people living in the small town of Grover’s Corners. In a small town like Grover’s Corners everybody knows each other within the town, so there is a deeper connection of companionship, friendship, and love within the town. The residents of Grover’s Corners constantly take time out of their days to connect with each other, whether through idle chat with the milkman or small talk with a neighbor. So when love and marriage or death happens in the town, it will affect the majority Grover’s Corners residents. The most prominent interpersonal relationship in the play is a romance—the courtship and marriage of George Gibbs and Emily Webb. Wilder suggests that
Physical surroundings (such as a home in the countryside) in works of literary merit such as “Good Country People”, “Everyday Use”, and “Young Goodman Brown” shape psychological and moral traits of the characters, similarly and differently throughout the stories.
Having to live in a culturally diverse country such as the U.S. would influence many interpretations and adaptations to lifestyles from all over the world. Due to this, it has become customary to develop a social stereotype just being in a certain part of the world. But, everyone does their own things a little differently than the next, speak a little differently, eat different foods, and live their life a different way - but it works out. Two great example of this is in In A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor, and Why I Live at the P.O. by Eudora Welty. These two short stories seek to expose myths about family relationships. Most people would assume that many Southern families are close knit and that there is a healthy relationship between every member. Welty and O’Connor challenged those stereotypes with their two short stories. It goes to show that although family relationships aren’t always perfect and these two examples show how these families fail to recognize the importance of each other.
... Evidently, Maria Teresa is being selfish and failing to recognize her sister’s bold act in hoping to achieve freedom. Focusing on her own freedom and safety, Maria Teresa loses sight of the kind consideration that she developed in her childhood.
Cheever begins the story explaining the Westcotts’ social class standing, stating, “Jim and Irene Westcott were the kind of people who seem to strike that satisfactory average of income, endeavor, and respectability that is reached by the statistical reports in college alumni bulletins.” (Cheever 101) It is assumed that the other residents of their apartment complex live a similar lifestyle. Through the development of the Westcotts’ neighbor’s personal lives via “the enormous radio,” Irene realizes that the middle-class households surrounding her are living...
Growing up in a small community can be hard, I won’t be the only on to tell you that, but living in one in the 1800’s was tougher. This is especially true when there’s a murdering robber who wants revenge lurking about. But it’s got its good qualities too, I mean, there’s the picnics and the adventures and everybody knows everybody so no ones threatening anybody with their strange presence. This is why The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain display such a realistic life; it portrays both the Good and Evil in a little society.
These 40 men were between 35 to 45 years in age and they worked as either
...ent efforts, or men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (23). Here, The Valley of Ashes is regarded as complete destitution and hopelessness. The people known as the lower class do not wish to live in the valley of ashes. This is why people, like Myrtle try to do anything to get away from it but instead it becomes unachievable for them. When Myrtle tried to escape from the ashes by trying to be with a rich man like Tom, she dies. This embellishes how The American dream is unattainable. When Tom goes and sees George, you can see how the higher classes look down on the lower classes because of their different social positions. The higher-class people such as, Tom, Daisy, and Jordan represent the unstructured bodies of ashes within the valley. They are inconsiderate and conceited people arising from the dead ashes, changing the American Dream.
Is it typical for an average, happy couple to fantasize and even role-play the lives of their neighbors? The answer lies within Raymond Carvers short story “Neighbors”. It is clear that Bill, a bookkeeper, and Arlene, a secretary, find their lives less exciting and are envious of their wealthy, close friends and neighbors, the Stones’. The Millers are described as an unsatisfied couple living vicariously through their neighbors as they are away on vacation. Bill and Arlene impersonate their neighbors, don’t get sexually active unless they have recently visited their neighbors apartment, and travel individually to experience their fantasy instead of fantasizing as a couple.
John Cheever, a novelist and short story author, wrote “The County Husband” in 1954. The author tells the story of how Francis Weed is not satisfied with his life. He comes to realize that his life makes him feel very “trapped” or complacent in a standard life that will never change with his life brief rebellion against the unexciting norms of his wealthy, dull community. Francis is frustrated and unsatisfied with his life. He feels as if something is missing. Without any idea of it, that something in his family and in his life is wanting. Francis is not happy with his marriage and wants something else.
Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People" is a story told through the examination of the relationships between the four main characters. All of the characters have distinct feelings about the others, from misunderstanding to contempt. Both Joy-Hulga, the protagonist, and Manley Pointer, the antagonist, are multi-faceted characters. While all of the characters have different levels of complexity, Joy-Hulga and Manley Pointer are the deepest and the ones with the most obvious facades.
The two of them go through the anger stage at a similar time. When they start to blame each other for Maybelle’s illness, the two of them are angry over more than what they are yelling about. They really don’t blame each other. It isn’t anyone’s fault that their daughter died. They just need a place to channel their ...
Voice of the Country-House Poem There exists a small genre of poetry, dating from the early seventeenth century, known as the country-house poem. Ostensibly the impulse of these poems was to praise and please a wealthy patron, thereby gaining favour, status and wealth. A less apparent facet also existed within these poems, and that was the poet's embedded observations with regard to social values of the time that subtly and effectively criticized and praised the existing system. The dexterity with which a poet combined these opposing purposes, while avoiding implicating the intended patron in the criticism ultimately ensured continuation of the crucial patronage, which pervaded all aspects of the period's social system. Ben Jonson's To Penhurst, often touted as the prototype of the country-house poem, extols the Sydney estate as the archetype of the country estate that is both bounteous and cultured, while subtle irony reveals the innate criticism of the system of which Penhurst is a part without endangering the indispensable patronage.