The Company Man Essay

Inside the satirical article “The Company Man, ” Ellen Goodman criticizes the lifestyle of Phil, dehumanizing the “American Dream” through the use of contradictory repetition, pathetic persuasive tactics, and sterile and clean diction. Using repetition Goodman emphasizes the value of Phil dying over a Sunday by three the next day because he was still worrying about work, even for the one time and day having been off. That’s where she highlights that work murdered him.

This highlights that he passed away striving for the “American Desire. ” He was so centered on gaining everything that he believed would make him happy; he never have to experience his own your life. Goodman challenges this point because it accentuates that the “American Dream” might be an “American Nightmare. ” Through the use of pathos Goodman shows the expense of a life striving for the “American Dream”; no human relationships with his family members or anybody for that matter except for with his job. She procedes emphasize this kind of through describing his relatives, a typical suburbia family.

The oldest was just like him, a workaholic Type A person, the center child was a girl and just like her mom, finally the youngest child was a troublemaker and was always aiming to gain dad’s attention. At this moment she puts an emphasis on how following he passed away the earliest had nothing to say about his daddy, so he went around asking friends and neighbors about him, now she implies that he had zero relation with them both. This attracts attention to the truth that he was close to no person and the cause was him striving for an “American Dream” that might not be because appealing because what it is broken up to be.

Goodman uses diction to dehumanize people and make them seem similar to statistics than people; within an essence delivering a universal quality to individuals of this tale, making them easier to replace.