Ellen Goodman's Essay Analysis: The Company Man
Duncan Rice
Fox
Writing and composition
1/12/2015
The Company Man Analysis In the essay “The Company Man,” the author, Ellen Goodman, expresses her feelings towards the man Phil. Throughout the selection, Goodman uses a plethora of rhetoric devices to convey her attitude from the perspective of the narrator, Phil’s wife, towards Phil. Goodman portrays her disdain towards Phil and the workaholic lifestyle that he led. Goodman shows her disdain as early as the first sentence where she says “finally and precisely” which shows how emotionally disconnected she was from Phil, even when thinking about his death. When someone usually thinks about their spouse it’s in a loving manner, or in a sad tone because they loved them. In the essay Goodman describes his death as “finally” which is cold to the point that it’s disrespectful to Phil. She then goes onto say that Phil’s family and friends only took “five or ten minutes” to reflect on Phil’s lifestyle. The essay is very well written in the point that Goodman makes you feel mixed feelings towards Phil. Goodman deliberately doesn’t name his family members to portray …show more content…
their importance to Phil, almost none. Goodman then moves onto telling the reader that Phil worked like the “important people,” which showed that even though Phil was a workaholic and worked his life away, he still wasn’t valued by the company which points to the underlying tone of dislike of Corporate America. Goodman obviously wants to make sure that the reader knows that she is resentful of Phil and his ways by repeating “He worked himself to death, finally and precisely, at 3:00 a.m.
Sunday morning,” which shows undoubtedly that she has some sort of “axe to grind” with people like Phil. Helen, Phil’s wife, personifies Goodman by saying that she “already [has]” mourned Phil, which would refer to sometime in the past where she gave up trying to compete with his work for his attention. Phil’s addiction to work is also shown to have affected his family, mainly by when Goodman writes that Phil’s eldest son had to find out what his father was like from the neighbors. Goodman also shows other strains in his family life such as his youngest son trying to “grab at his father” to get him to stop working and be the family man that his family wants, and craves him to
be. At the end of the selection Goodman reiterates the disdain that she holds towards Phil by utilizing the statement “”whose been working the hardest,’’” which was said by the company not even a week after Phil’s death in his search for someone to replace Phil. That again touches on Goodman’s underlying tone of disdain towards Corporate America, who takes advantage of workaholics like Phil who just want to advance in society and turn them into prey for the corporations to do with as they wish.
Fox
Writing and composition
1/12/2015
The Company Man Analysis In the essay “The Company Man,” the author, Ellen Goodman, expresses her feelings towards the man Phil. Throughout the selection, Goodman uses a plethora of rhetoric devices to convey her attitude from the perspective of the narrator, Phil’s wife, towards Phil. Goodman portrays her disdain towards Phil and the workaholic lifestyle that he led. Goodman shows her disdain as early as the first sentence where she says “finally and precisely” which shows how emotionally disconnected she was from Phil, even when thinking about his death. When someone usually thinks about their spouse it’s in a loving manner, or in a sad tone because they loved them. In the essay Goodman describes his death as “finally” which is cold to the point that it’s disrespectful to Phil. She then goes onto say that Phil’s family and friends only took “five or ten minutes” to reflect on Phil’s lifestyle. The essay is very well written in the point that Goodman makes you feel mixed feelings towards Phil. Goodman deliberately doesn’t name his family members to portray …show more content…
their importance to Phil, almost none. Goodman then moves onto telling the reader that Phil worked like the “important people,” which showed that even though Phil was a workaholic and worked his life away, he still wasn’t valued by the company which points to the underlying tone of dislike of Corporate America. Goodman obviously wants to make sure that the reader knows that she is resentful of Phil and his ways by repeating “He worked himself to death, finally and precisely, at 3:00 a.m.
Sunday morning,” which shows undoubtedly that she has some sort of “axe to grind” with people like Phil. Helen, Phil’s wife, personifies Goodman by saying that she “already [has]” mourned Phil, which would refer to sometime in the past where she gave up trying to compete with his work for his attention. Phil’s addiction to work is also shown to have affected his family, mainly by when Goodman writes that Phil’s eldest son had to find out what his father was like from the neighbors. Goodman also shows other strains in his family life such as his youngest son trying to “grab at his father” to get him to stop working and be the family man that his family wants, and craves him to
be. At the end of the selection Goodman reiterates the disdain that she holds towards Phil by utilizing the statement “”whose been working the hardest,’’” which was said by the company not even a week after Phil’s death in his search for someone to replace Phil. That again touches on Goodman’s underlying tone of disdain towards Corporate America, who takes advantage of workaholics like Phil who just want to advance in society and turn them into prey for the corporations to do with as they wish.