John Cheever Reunion

Narrator’s in stories are the characters, if they happen to be characters that influence reader’s the most. The narrator lays out all the information to us as they see it and they tell the story how they want it to be heard. Although they are telling the story from their point of view, it is our job as readers to interpret, that what they are telling us is fair an just. Some narrator’s often won’t tell the whole story, but just what they want you to hear. In John Cheever’s, Reunion the narrator, Charlie is a narrator that cannot be trusted. He is very critical and unfair to his father and wants the reader to think that his father is a failure, not only as a father, but as a person in general.

Charlie begins to influence us early in the story, when he subtly points out that his father’s secretary wrote him to tell him where they would meet, implying maybe that his father is treating Charlie like a client of his. He also refers to his father as his “future and his doom” Cheever pg.272 . So before we even meet his father Charlie has depicted him as a failure and ultimately himself to be a failure. Upon meeting Charlie’s father we learn that he is a successful businessman in New York and is probably a very busy man, so perhaps this is why he had his secretary contact Charlie. The first thing Charlie’s father says to him is, “Hi boy, I’d like to take you to my club, but it’s in the sixties and if you have to catch an early train I guess we’d better get something to eat around here.” Cheever pg.272. If Charlie sees himself growing up to be something like his father, being successful and belonging to a private club of some kind can hardly be described as doomed.

As Charlie and his father go from restaurant to restaurant, if you were to side with Charlie about his father’s behavior and actions you would think that his father is a very loud, obnoxious, and rude person. The first restaurant they go to is empty. In an empty restaurant you would think that the waiter would come to serve the only two people in the restaurant quickly, but the waiter in this restaurant does not immediately approach Charlie and his father, so Charlie’s father who is probably used to being waited on head and foot at his club hails the waiter over. The waiter still does not come. Only after being clapped at does the waiter shuffle over to the table. Charlie tells us that his father is being boisterous and in the rest of the dialogue it would seem that his father is in fact, being rude to the waiter. In his defense though the waiter is clearly not trying to be very helpful to him, so why wouldn’t he be a little upset. In the second restaurant, Charlie’s father only starts calling the waiter when his glass is empty. Another case of a bad waiter perhaps. Considering the waiter served Charlie a drink without asking how old he was until his father ordered a second round of drinks could suggest that he was not very concerned about how he did his job. By the time they get to the third restaurant you can tell that Charlie’s father is getting angry. To make matters worse the waiter in this restaurant only makes him more angry by being rude to him. The waiter makes two different comments that make him look bad. So when they get to the fourth and final restaurant Charlie’s father is outraged by this time. All of the previous waiter’s have contributed to his bad mood, so he doesn’t even this one a chance and who could blame him. When they leave this restaurant it is time for Charlie to catch his train. His father apologizes to him for how bad their lunch went and offers to buy him a paper for his ride on the train. Still in a bad mood I think he tries to make himself feel better by trying to get a rise out of the young clerk at the newspaper stand. Charlie sees this as the last straw and finally just walks away from his father for the last time.

As the story develops, Charlie never makes any mention as to why his father make be acting the way he is, he just sits there the whole time silently and speculates about how rude and obnoxious his father is, but put yourself in his father’s shoes. He hasn’t seen or heard from his son in three years after what seemed to be a pretty rough divorce between him and Charlie’s mother considering it has been three years without a word. Out of nowhere comes Charlie who wants to meet with his father for an hour and a half for lunch between his trains. An hour and a half is not a lot of time to catch up for three years of lost time.

There is almost no dialogue between the two in the whole story, except for when they first meet and when they part ways. The only mention of the two talking in the middle of the story is when Charlie’s father talks to him about baseball. Baseball though, is probably one of the only things that the two may have in common at this point, but the way it is put into context