About the author John Cheever is a Pulitzer Prize-winning short story writer and novelist. He is recognized as one of the most important short story writers of the twentieth century. Cheever often wrote about the everyday lives of suburban men and women in and around the northeastern United States. A recurrent theme in his fiction is the spiritual and emotional emptiness of life .
Summary Charlie (we do not get his exact age),the narrator had a chance to have an hour and a half meeting in Grand Central Station in New York City with his father. The boy hopes to reconnect with his father because he has not seen him for three years, but he slowly comes to the realization of his father's obvious character flaws, which are centered around his poor treatment of service workers and his abuse of alcohol. After four –time more abusive exchanges with waiters and a fifth with a newspaper stand seller, the boy leaves his father with a curt goodbye, leaving us to assume he has decided never to meet his father again.
Significance Charlie: It shows the irony of a son, with high expectations and admiration for his father, who comes to realize by the end of the story that in reality his father falls short of the expectations.
Father: He is a loud talker and combative with strangers. He wants to show off in front of his son. He wants to make people angry- "I want to get a rise out of this chap". By using his secretary to write a letter to his son, it shows that the father does not care much for his son and doesn't want to waste his time writing to him.
1. In this fiction, how many years do Charlie’s father and mother divorce? Three years. 2.What kind of function does Grand Central Station is in this story? Grand Central Station is where the father and son meet, and they go to four separate restaurants and a newspaper stand. The setting of the train station builds a idea of the boy going in a new direction in his life after coming to a new understanding of his father. 3.Why does Charlie want to meet his father ? He hopes to reconnect with his father because he has not seen him for three years. 4. How does Charlie feel before and after he meets his father ? With high expectations ;however, he realized that in reality his father falls short of the expectations in the end.
5. What kind of person do you think Charlie father is? : He is a loud talker. He wants to show off in front of his son. He wants to be seen as 'higher up' than other people.
Link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reunion_(short_story) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na5zv7sj7ME (Reunions by John Cheever) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws75zerRos8 (The Swimmer - Official Trailer) http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/317807/Swimmer-The-Movie-Clip-Here-And-There.html (Swimmer, The (1968) -- (Movie Clip) Here And There)
Week 3: 3/6
ReplyDelete本週進度：Reunion / John Cheever
起始頁碼：p.179
報告組員：
UL1.02 林相瑜 Lily
UL1.04 吳銘哲 Mike
UL1.21 李映燁 Sophia
Reunion - John Cheever
ReplyDeleteSummary by Lily and Sophia
About the author
John Cheever is a Pulitzer Prize-winning short
story writer and novelist. He is recognized as one
of the most important short story writers of the
twentieth century. Cheever often wrote about the
everyday lives of suburban men and women in and
around the northeastern United States. A recurrent
theme in his fiction is the spiritual and emotional
emptiness of life .
Summary
Charlie (we do not get his exact age),the narrator had a
chance to have an hour and a half meeting in Grand Central
Station in New York City with his father. The boy hopes to
reconnect with his father because he has not seen him for
three years, but he slowly comes to the realization of his
father's obvious character flaws, which are centered around
his poor treatment of service workers and his abuse of
alcohol. After four –time more abusive exchanges with
waiters and a fifth with a newspaper stand seller, the boy
leaves his father with a curt goodbye, leaving us to assume
he has decided never to meet his father again.
Significance
ReplyDeleteCharlie: It shows the irony of a son, with high expectations
and admiration for his father, who comes to realize by the
end of the story that in reality his father falls short of the
expectations.
Father: He is a loud talker and combative with strangers. He
wants to show off in front of his son. He wants to make
people angry- "I want to get a rise out of this chap". By
using his secretary to write a letter to his son, it shows that
the father does not care much for his son and doesn't want
to waste his time writing to him.
Discussion
ReplyDelete1. In this fiction, how many years do Charlie’s father and mother divorce? Three years.
2.What kind of function does Grand Central Station is in this
story? Grand Central Station is where the father and son
meet, and they go to four separate restaurants and a
newspaper stand. The setting of the train station builds a
idea of the boy going in a new direction in his life after
coming to a new understanding of his father.
3.Why does Charlie want to meet his father ? He hopes to
reconnect with his father because he has not seen him for
three years.
4. How does Charlie feel before and after he meets his father ? With high expectations ;however, he realized that in reality his father falls short of the expectations in the end.
5. What kind of person do you think Charlie father is? : He is a loud talker. He wants to show off in front of his son. He wants to be seen as 'higher up' than other people.
Link
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reunion_(short_story)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na5zv7sj7ME (Reunions by John Cheever)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws75zerRos8 (The Swimmer - Official Trailer)
http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/317807/Swimmer-The-Movie-Clip-Here-And-There.html (Swimmer, The (1968) -- (Movie Clip) Here And There)
Resource from
ReplyDeletewikipedia
youtube
and
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tcm.com