The Stories of John Cheever

This is an excerpt from the paper...

John Cheever, in The Stories of John Cheever, includes a number of stories which are clearly critical of suburbia and its effects on the people who live there. This study will examine his critique of this environment and the upper class individuals and families which reside there in what is all too often self-centered vacuousness. At the same time, it should be noted that there are characters in his stories who seem to be fairly satisfied with their lot---at least as satisfied as any individual outside of suburbia. Cheever is hardly saying that every person in suburbia is a miserable wretch. However, the thrust of his stories in this regard emphasize the negative impact of suburbia on its denizens. The characters on whom these stories focus are miserable, indeed, but if all the characters were similarly unhappy the main characters would not stand out in the general malaise.

Above all, Cheever's fictional analysis focuses on the lack of spiritual substance in these people's lives. In "Goodbye, My Brother," Lawrence symbolizes this lack of spiritual, emotional and psychological grounding which has created in him a sense of desolation and isolation. He is a truly miserable man who is not able or willing to make the internal choices which would enlighten him and allow him to rationally see what is good and bad about his environment and his family. As a result, he concludes that everything about his family and the environment in which he lives must be judged, condemned and discar

. . .
imming pool and seaside home. The thrust of Cheever's stories, however, is that this dream hides a darker reality, a reality in which the bright symbols of suburbia are exposed as shallow and empty. The flight to suburbia is not merely a flight from the city, but from reality itself. Human existence is difficult, and the characters' attempt to escape those difficulties brings not serenity but greater difficulties. They seem incapable of dealing with those difficulties when they appear, because they have been in denial. Bibliography Cheever, John. The Stories of John Cheever. New York: Ballantine, 1991. Maxine Hong Kingston, in The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, explores, among other themes, the significance of Asia in relation to America for the people in her book. Kingston examines the impact on herself and others of the cultural clash they experience as they try to fashion a hybrid reality out of contrasting American and Chinese cultures and perceptions of life. Among the many questions the book tries to answer in this regard, there are the following: Chinese-Americans, when you try to understand what things in you are Chinese, how do you separate what is peculiar to childhood, to poverty, insanities,
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Goodbye Lawrence, Bullet Park, Referring Chinese, Asian American, America Kingston, Seaside Houses, John Cheever, Despite Kingston, Chinese-Americans Kingston, American Chinese, cheever's stories, swimming pool, ills city, life america, john cheever, chinese tradition, escape ills city, stories dream, american dream, american life, kingston 136, stories john cheever, cheever's stories dream,
Approximate Word count = 2948
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)

The Stories of John Cheever

More Essays on The Stories of John Cheever