John Cheever's 'Reunion'

This short story is one about father and son relationships. As we have all read it, we know that the son has not seen the father in a very long time, three years.

The point of view in the story is first person. The narrator is telling us something that happened in the past. The setting of the story is in New York. It starts at the ‘Grand Central Station’ then it moves on to a bunch of restaurants and bars. I get the feeling that the time of the story is maybe between the 1950s and 1960s because the father mentions baseball and that period is when it got really famous.

The diction and word choice is simple. The story was probably written like this so that less educated people could read it and have a good time reading it. It is a funny story, the father is loud and humorous. He sometimes is rude such as to the old waiter and newspaper boy, but all this contributes to the storyline. The father uses a touch of French, Italian, and German. He knows a bit more Italian than French and German.

For the symbols, I can say that the simple hug or handshake or the pat on the back show the caring and love between the father and son. The father, though, is a tipical stereotype of a macho. He is a big strong man but gets irritated at little teasing comments. He looks so selfdetermined to take care of anything. He talks loudly and is sarcastic all the time, he has no shame and does whatever he wants. Swearing at, shouting at, yelling at people, and trying to make others look like idiots are his main concerns. He is that type of a character.
The boy, on the other hand, is calm and peaceful. He came there to see his father and to make the best out of the little time that they can have together after such a long period. He didn’t come there to see his father playing macho. He is withdrawn and held back boy. Calm and quiet, he doesn’t complain about the situations except for the end where he can’t stand the nonsence any more and he just leaves. I think the boy could...