Country Husband
The Country Husband
The Country Husband John Cheever’s short story “The Country Husband” is a story about life in suburbia or in the story Shady Hill, New York. Francis Weed is the main character in the story. He is a husband and father of four children, two girls and two boys. Some would even venture to say that Francis has “the ideal combination for the ideal family” (Flora, 2006). His wife, Julia, is an underappreciated housewife that looks forward to the parties that they are always invited to. Cheever’s story really centers on Francis and his life, but what caught this reader’s eye was the distant relationship between Francis and his wife. This paper will focus on the relationship between Francis and Julia. It will attempt to point out the misunderstandings in Julia’s character and the problems in their relationship from the start to finish. Francis never really made Julia feel appreciated, and that is what leads to the bigger problems in the relationship.
The story starts out with Francis being in a plane crash and returning home to tell the story to his family, which really didn’t bother to listen to him. The children were too busy bickering and Julia, his wife, was off preparing for dinner. Francis felt like nobody cared that he had just been in a plane crash. He felt like life just went on as normal for everyone else. The kids continued doing their normal kid routine and Julia, his wife, had just entered the room as the story was over and the commotion with the kids had ended. This section of the story throws up some red flags. Why would a family/wife not care that their father/husband was nearly killed? One could claim that it’s because they never felt a connection to each other.
When dinner starts, the bickering among his children continues. Francis asks Julia if the children could have eaten earlier, because the arguing was annoying him. Julia doesn’t have time between raising four children and taking care of a household to make two separate
The Country Husband John Cheever’s short story “The Country Husband” is a story about life in suburbia or in the story Shady Hill, New York. Francis Weed is the main character in the story. He is a husband and father of four children, two girls and two boys. Some would even venture to say that Francis has “the ideal combination for the ideal family” (Flora, 2006). His wife, Julia, is an underappreciated housewife that looks forward to the parties that they are always invited to. Cheever’s story really centers on Francis and his life, but what caught this reader’s eye was the distant relationship between Francis and his wife. This paper will focus on the relationship between Francis and Julia. It will attempt to point out the misunderstandings in Julia’s character and the problems in their relationship from the start to finish. Francis never really made Julia feel appreciated, and that is what leads to the bigger problems in the relationship.
The story starts out with Francis being in a plane crash and returning home to tell the story to his family, which really didn’t bother to listen to him. The children were too busy bickering and Julia, his wife, was off preparing for dinner. Francis felt like nobody cared that he had just been in a plane crash. He felt like life just went on as normal for everyone else. The kids continued doing their normal kid routine and Julia, his wife, had just entered the room as the story was over and the commotion with the kids had ended. This section of the story throws up some red flags. Why would a family/wife not care that their father/husband was nearly killed? One could claim that it’s because they never felt a connection to each other.
When dinner starts, the bickering among his children continues. Francis asks Julia if the children could have eaten earlier, because the arguing was annoying him. Julia doesn’t have time between raising four children and taking care of a household to make two separate
References: Cheever, J. (2004). The Country Husband. In S. Lyn, Literature Reading and Writing with Critical Strategies (pp. 225-242). Boston: Pearson Education Incorporation. Dessner, L. J. (1994). Gender and structure in John Cheever 's "The Country Husband". Studies in Short Fiction, 31(1), 57. Flora, J. M. (2006). The Country Husband: Overview. Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Hipkiss, R. A. (2000). The country Husband-- A Model cheever Achievement. Short Story Criticisim, 27(4), 577-585. Wagner, J. (2009, August 19). Character Review from the Country Husband by John Cheever. Retrieved March 11, 2013, from Yahoo! Voices: http://voices.yahoo.com/character-review-country-husband-john-4057675.html?cat=38