Analysis on the Company Man
Rebecca Casarez
Caddell
Comp. 1301
9/23/12
The Company Man In “The Company Man” by Ellen Goodman, Phil is a fifty-one workaholic who lost everything to his job. He had lost connection to his family and had no outside or extracurricular activities. In the story, Goodman uses repetition, precise statistics, irony, and different viewpoints from his family to show and describe Phil’s life. Once you read the story, you see that the author has used some repetition throughout the story. “He worked himself to death, finally, and precisely, at 3:00 A.M. Sunday morning.”(Goodman1). This is repeated several times throughout the story, thus making it stay in one’s head as a reminder. In describing Phil, Goodman uses “Type A”, “workaholic”, and “overweight”, to portray a vivid description of his physical appearance. Goodman also uses many precise statistics to describe Phil. It says that he worked, “six days a week, five of them until eight or nine at night.”(4). It goes on to say that he “always ate egg salad sandwiches at his desk,” and on Saturday he wore sports jackets to work. She also gives the exact time and day of Phil’s death, and the exact time and day of Phil’s funeral. Phil did not have a relationship with his family. The author goes into describing each family member and his/her viewpoint of his/her father. The first member is the wife, Helen, who is forty-eight years old. It says that Helen had “given up trying to compete with his work years ago, when the children were small.”(7). In regards to a company friend commenting on knowing how much she will miss him, she simply replied,” I already have.”(7). “Missing him all these years,” she must have given up part of herself which had cared too much for the man.”(8). This is showing us that
Caddell
Comp. 1301
9/23/12
The Company Man In “The Company Man” by Ellen Goodman, Phil is a fifty-one workaholic who lost everything to his job. He had lost connection to his family and had no outside or extracurricular activities. In the story, Goodman uses repetition, precise statistics, irony, and different viewpoints from his family to show and describe Phil’s life. Once you read the story, you see that the author has used some repetition throughout the story. “He worked himself to death, finally, and precisely, at 3:00 A.M. Sunday morning.”(Goodman1). This is repeated several times throughout the story, thus making it stay in one’s head as a reminder. In describing Phil, Goodman uses “Type A”, “workaholic”, and “overweight”, to portray a vivid description of his physical appearance. Goodman also uses many precise statistics to describe Phil. It says that he worked, “six days a week, five of them until eight or nine at night.”(4). It goes on to say that he “always ate egg salad sandwiches at his desk,” and on Saturday he wore sports jackets to work. She also gives the exact time and day of Phil’s death, and the exact time and day of Phil’s funeral. Phil did not have a relationship with his family. The author goes into describing each family member and his/her viewpoint of his/her father. The first member is the wife, Helen, who is forty-eight years old. It says that Helen had “given up trying to compete with his work years ago, when the children were small.”(7). In regards to a company friend commenting on knowing how much she will miss him, she simply replied,” I already have.”(7). “Missing him all these years,” she must have given up part of herself which had cared too much for the man.”(8). This is showing us that
Cited: Goodman, Ellen. “The Company Man” From Close to Home. N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1979. Rebecca Casarez Caddell Comp. 1301 9/23/12 Paper 3: Referential Analysis The Company Man