The Company Man Ellen Goodman Analysis

“Tuesdays with Morrie” and “The Death of Ivan Ilych” both portray a character who is dealing with a serious terminal illness and advance knowledge of their deaths. One story is based on the realistic life of an American professor with the story’s characteristics tone from the 1990’s while the other is set during nineteenth century Russia. Even though Morrie Schwartz and Ivan Ilych both suffered from the illness, their dissimilar lifestyles and beliefs led to different perspective on facing death. One views the knowledge as a blessing and an opportunity to share his life experiences before making his final good-byes, the other agonizes in pain and begs for an

In the satirical eulogy “The Company Man,” Ellen Goodman addresses the flaws in the business world through mourning the wasted life of Phil. Phil; one could say he lost his life but the people that knew him would ask what life? Through Satire, Goodman uses rhetorical strategies to convey her annoyance and disappointment towards Phil illustrating that value is lost in life when it derives from pursuing commercial success as an unfeeling instrument rather than pursuing emotional generosity and relationships.

In “On Natural Death,” Thomas appeals to the readers by contemplating the subject of death with an academic approach that includes facts, data, and information. Thomas successfully transforms death from an awkward, emotional subject to a more comfortable intellectual one. This engages the readers by placing contemplation of death and dying within the confines of a more manageable and rational context. His gradual exhumation of death eases the audience into pondering the subject in the absence of emotional stress. The essay transitions from the death of an elm tree to that of a mouse. This is followed by Thomas giving a significant amount of attention to a scientific explanation of death, and then finally the description of the near death experience of a human. This use of an academic appeal moves the audience to a comfort zone with the subject of death and circumvents the common response of avoidance. The reader is simultaneously desensitized to the gravity of subject matter and given permission to consider death and dying without the normal societal negative stigma associated with the subject.

Painful as it may be, such experiences brings home the finality of death. Something deep within us demands a confrontation with death. A last look assures us that the person we loved is, indeed, gone forever.” (108) Cable finishes his essay by asking, Tim if his job ever depressed him. Tim in reply says, “No it doesn’t, and I do what I can for people and take satisfaction in enabling relatives to see their loved ones as they were in real life.” (108) After reading this essay I feel as though sometimes we don’t understand death so therefore we do not talk much about it. By reading about what goes on after your loved one dies and is sent to these places to be prepared and ready for burial, it helps to understand why morticians and funeral directors do what they do. Knowing that someone enjoys taking the responsibility in providing that comfort in a sorrowful time makes me appreciate these people in these occupations a bit

Death is the final stage of an organism’s life. Death can come at anytime and by any means, whether it be severe injury or natural causes. However, death is always an inevitability that comes to every living being on Earth, and is an unavoidable fate. “The Masque of The Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson both present these realities of death to the reader, but by different messages and occasionally methods. Poe focuses on the aspect of time, while Jackson moulds death around luck.

Phil is an exceedingly hard worker who values order and knowledge. Goodman begins the passage with “He worked himself to death, finally, and

By biological logic, we human beings will face death sooner or later in our life and death has its very own ways to approach us - a sudden deadly strike, a critical sickness, a tragic accident, a prolonged endurance of brutal treatment, or just an aging biological end. To deal with the prospect of death come different passive or active reactions; some may be scared and anxious to see death, some try to run away from it, and some by their own choice make death come faster. But Viktor Frankl, through his work Man’s Search for Meaning, and Bryan Doyle; in his essay “His Last Game” show us choices to confront the death, bring it to our deepest feelings, meaningful satisfaction. To me, the spirit of the prisoners at deadly concentration camps, Frankl’s Logotherapy theory of “. . . striving to find a meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man.” (99), as well as the calmness of Doyle’s brother on his last ride, like an awaken bell, remind us of how precious life is, how we should find the significance in every act of living, determine to live a meaningful life at any circumstances; hence, when death comes, we can accept it without anxiety nor regrets.

Human-kind has a complicated relationship with death. We intellectually regard it as something inevitable, but that doesn’t stop us from feeling baffled or victimized by it. Wit by Margaret Edson portrays an attempt at understanding this relationship. Its main character, Vivian Bearing, is an accomplished literature professor who is facing the last stage of ovarian cancer. Following Vivian’s last days of life, the work explores mortality by examining one’s personal relationship with death through literature and society’s responsibility toward the dying through characterization.

In “The Company Man” by Ellen Goodman, The author attacks a typical hardworking middle classmen. This piece portrays diction, imagery and tone in order to exemplify the intended theme the author wants to convey. With these attributes, the theme that those who tend to be blinded by the illusion of wealth and tend to forget those who are important in their lives are destined to die lonely and disregarded by those closest to them.

Ellen Goodman knows how to get an audience thinking. In Goodman’s story, Company Man, the character Phil is made to seem as an irrelevant and unnecessary member of society through Goodman’s uses of repetition and tone.

Throughout the piece, Goodman paints a picture of the eventual obituary of Phil and the average American. This is done through the use of repetition of the phrase “...worked himself to death at precisely 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning…,” This was used to show how Phil will only be remembered by his sudden death circumstances, not his life that is left behind. While the obituary mentions his family, the main idea is how he was taken unexpectedly, through a stress related attack. This could happen to anybody, especially a worried, working middle class American who is trying to provide a better life for their family. Goodman’s distaste in shown in the lack of variety and the formal saying of these words, as if she is reading off a cue card and has nothing to

Death is an inevitable event that will occur in a life. When, how, and where are the beginnings of questions posed about the topic, and the fear of not knowing this leads it to be a taboo subject in many discussions. Edgar Allan Poe defied this sense of taboo and wrote many works centering on the topic of death. It is Edgar Allan Poe’s discussion of death in his works that reveals the innate human perversion of the discussion of death. The reason for his discussion of death may find roots in his personal life.

So you work harder. You get the job done. The boss, however, does not thank you. He asks for more.” Despite the complications he faces, Death keeps working, focusing on the color of the sky rather than the reality of the situation.

She uses repetition of various phrases to build a strong logical argument that Phil’s life was entirely controlled by his work. Goodman repeats that Phil died “precisely at 3:00pm”, implying that that one detail is the most notable thing about him, and she repeats his “type A” personality, signifying that regardless of character, workaholic lifestyles consume one’s life and drain one of character. These repetitive details convey a strong argument that Phil’s life was empty, and evokes empathy and pity from the audience at Phil’s

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”