Ellen Goodman's The Company Man

Moreover, Phil’s youngest son said about his father, “My father and I only board here.”. This further conveys the amount of time Phil spent at the office rather than at home; his own family didn’t even consider him in permanent residence at his own home. Other than anecdotes, Goodman additionally uses varying syntax to illustrate her annoyance at Phil’s choice of lifestyle. When describing Phil’s daily routine, her sentences are short, definitive, showing her distaste for Phil. “To Phil, it was work. He always ate egg salad sandwiches at his desk….On Saturdays, Phil wore a sports jacket to the office instead of a suit, because it was the weekend.” Goodman contrastingly uses lengthy, detailed sentences and phrases when describing Phil’s family, to convey her pity for them and show that Phil should have been spending more time at home rather than at work. “The youngest is twenty, a boy, a high school graduate who has spent the last couple of years, like a lot of his friends, doing enough odd jobs to stay in grass and food. He was the one who tried to grab at his father, and tried to mean enough to him to keep the man at home.” Although Goodman describes Phil’s family with sympathy and care, she does use sarcasm as a means to criticize the obituary’s description of the family. “She would be ‘well taken care of’.’”, Goodman quotes from the obituary, in reference to Phil’s wife, and she says “His ‘dearly beloved’ eldest of the ‘dearly beloved’

Lately, questions have arisen about the true meaning of work. Work has been a significance to humans since the time around the middle 1600’s. Although work began at this time, it evolved into something more powerful and advanced a couple more centuries later. During the late 18th century, the work force began to boom during the industrial period. The world was heavily influenced by the work field and managed to establish one’s sense of character. If one worked their determination and values were clearly sought out by others. The importance of work begins with women becoming involved, wanting to make a difference in society and show the men they could do it too. Consequently, leaving the world to wonder if work is even a necessity to the civilian

The descriptions of Phil in “The Company Man” are sardonically accusatory of the present way people live in society. Goodman makes light of how Phil is a heart attack waiting to happen, his seventy-hour workweeks and egg sandwiches. “Of course,”

Work and its role in society has become the subject of considerable public commentary and debate in recent years. Work, for many Americans, has changed significantly over the past 25 years. Some people believe that the world of work is changing so thoroughly and quickly that we should consider ourselves pioneers of a new historical era. Some say that the idea of a job has become antiquated.

Goodman places a lot of subtle sarcasm throughout the story to emphasize her negative attitude toward Phil. Her sarcasm can easily go unnoticed, looking like compliments, but it is actually poking fun at Phil. When talking about Phil’s children, Goodman sarcasm is often emphasized through her use of quotes. For example, to emphasize the lack of Phil’s family life, Goodman refers to his son as “His ‘dearly beloved’ eldest of the ‘dearly beloved’ children…” Later in the paragraph, she talks about Phil’s three children, each of whom shows to have no connection with their father. The oldest has to ask around the neighborhood to see what his father is like, the daughter doesn't know enough about him to even have a conversation with him, and the youngest states that his father lived there only as a

Going through the “significant parts” of Phil’s life, Goodman stays away from going into detail about Phil’s relationship with family and work life. She explains a conversation said at the funeral: “... the sixty-year-old company president told the forty-year-old widow that the fifty-one-year-old deceased husband had meant much…” Calling the people by their age and titles, names, and not including exactly what they say. Goodman approaches Phil’s situation with an emotionless and bitter attitude by labeling the people in the passage with very little

Corporation life consists of putting work and your career in front of everything else, and author Ellen Goodman uses her writing to warn others of its downsides. In the passage “The Company Man”, Goodman uses many rhetorical devices to illustrate her displeasure and irritation towards Phil. Goodman incorporates a unique style of diction, repetition, and anecdotes in her writing to achieve her emphasis on Phil’s lifestyle and to caution the reader about prioritizing work over personal health and family. In the brilliantly written piece of satire, "The Company Man", Ellen Goodman discreetly attacks the atypical hard-working middle class men in the 1980's society, who tend to be blinded by the illusion of wealth and prosperity and forget what is truly important – their own families and their own values. It seems that almost everyday on the news there is a new death mentioned of someone taken far too soon. There are always different stories behind them

Roszak makes a point in his essay about jobs being our salvation, where he describe there is no end to a working life. Roszak describes the waste of time in people’s jobs and that most employees don’t even put all of their effort into them. He figures

Trapped by the constant work schedules and fear of losing their jobs, the men could only hope to escape their daily routine and "tell the mills to go to hell"(33).

Diction and syntax play more prominent roles in the formation of the piece, but the satirical references add interest and further advance Goodman’s conveyal of her feelings. The Onion, a humorous newspaper, uses satire to make fun of society humorously and ironically. Goodman uses this same technique to mock the harshness of the workforce and poke fun at Phil’s “perfect Type A” life. This straightforward article makes fun of fake obituaries and the typical businessman’s lifestyle. Goodman makes it very apparent that Phil lived the life of a typical businessman. She cleverly mocks his relationship with his family, calling them “dearly beloved,” likely taking that form his obituary, then continuing to explain the distance between himself and his family members. His “dearly beloved” children either say “had nothing to say” to him or asked others for clues on their father’s life. Goodman includes another line of satire in the seventh paragraph. A colleague of Phil gave his regards to Phil’s wife, Helen, saying “I know how much you will miss him.” She answered, “I already have.” Phil was likely “dead” to the family long before his actual death from coronary thrombosis. What did he have to live for besides his uber-important job and the family he barely knew? Maybe the “egg salad sandwiches at his desk” and “monthly game of golf helped him survive his workaholic lifestyle a little longer than seemed

Before we can understand the varying fates of these two men we must examine the prior years of life that scripted them. Morrie Schwartz lived for people and the opportunity to welcome them into his heart. He took the time to pursue a relationship with the student that would one day write his dying testimony, he took the time to cultivate a fruitful marriage and he took the time to give his fullest attention to everyone he encountered. Morrie cast off the deceptions of status and wealth, instead devoting himself to his family, his students, and the bouncing rhythms of the dance floor. Above all else, Morrie Schwartz clung to his guiding principle, "love each other or perish" (Mor, 91).

The piece “The Company Man” by Ellen Goodman employs many rhetoric techniques commonly used by writers today. The story revolves around Phil; a recently deceased businessman who many claim “worked himself to death”. Ellen Goodman attempts to make a statement about business men and their devotion to only their job with no true emotions. Goodman utilizes her rhetoric techniques to convey her opinion on the death of the protagonist Phil.

"Hello, Phil Morter! I am writing to you because at last remembered everything so wanted to forget my mind. That I killed Jill and the unknown man, whose name was not able to remember. I can not understand why I did it, but I know that to live with this further simply can not. After your visit, everything changed. Me began to torment the nightmares in which I have seen, as I stabbed a man to dwell on the ill-fated road, as himself shut in the car, as kill the girl, whom I loved more than life

In the writing “The Company Man”, the author, Ellen Goodman, gives us a brief, yet, fulfilling summery of a big company man’s attributes, life, and death. In this work, the author uses referential writing as her primary purpose of writing, while she also uses narration as her primary pattern for the analysis of the writing. She begins, opening up with “He worked himself to death, finally and precisely, at 3:00 AM Sunday Morning.” in order to grab our attention. She then goes into the different aspects of his life, starting with his devotion to his company and some of the different characteristics about him. Next, she lists, in chronological order, the different people in his family, and analyzes what he meant to each person listed. Finally, in closing, the author repeats some of her work, reflecting her writing in her introduction, closing with more elements about him and his work ethic, but also reminding us of how he sacrificed work for family. She then finishes her writing with “So when he finally worked himself to death, at precisely 3:00 AM Sunday morning, no one was really surprised”

Another example of Willy’s sufferings was when he lost his job. For instance, Willy is dissatisfied with his career and decides to ask his boss Howard to work in the town instead of traveling for work from New York to New England every two weeks. Howard ends up saying “there just is no spot here for you” (Miller 56) and ends up firing him. Although Willy had a long career with the company and was very productive, Howard let him go. Willy defends himself by saying “I put thirty-four years into this firm, Howard, and now I can’t pay my insurance!” (Miller 57). Howard fires Willy at a time when he was most desperate. This shows the “change in the hero’s fortunes” (Nardo 73). Regardless being fired from his job, Willy still had hopes for his sons Biff and Happy to start a new business. Things did not go according to the plan and the business ends up not happening which causes Willy to suffer even more. Willy goes through financial troubles which prevent him to achieve the American Dream, keep his job, and provide for his family. These are all signs of disappointment and