What Makes John Cheever's "Reunion" An Effective Story?
A family who ends up in divorce with a child stuck in the middle has become a typical and common entity in American culture. Most of us know someone or is a victim of similar backgrounds. Even if not, it doesn't take much of a genius to figure out that if both separated parents do not take full responsibility and become an active participant throughout the child's life, it may cause unnecessary emotional pain with mixed feelings and confusion about his/her caretaker. John Cheever's "Reunion" is a story about such family turmoil. Charlie is a boy of divorced parents. On his way to a cottage in the cape from his grandmother's in the Adirondacks, Charlie takes a brief stop at Grand Central Station to meet with his father and hopefully spend some quality father and son bonding time. Upon their meeting, Charlie is only set up for continuous disappointment after another due to his father's actions. Charlie's father takes him to a series of restaurants to get something to eat, but only ends up getting a few drinks and then kicked out of each one for his rude behavior towards the wai
Although this may be a very short story, John Cheever's style of writing gives an abundant amount detailed thought to effectively have the reader understand the cold reality of this tragic father and son relationship.
Charlie and his father are the only two characters in this story. The author does not provide us with much background information on these two characters.
Although we don't know much about them, the author's choice of characterization helps us to relate to both characters. As the story begins, Charlie seems to be
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