Summary Of The Company Man By Ellen Goodman

In the cautionary tale “The Company Man”, the author Ellen Goodman, depicts her antipathy and animosity towards Phil, as he is in her eyes chose to be routine, insensitive and replaceable. From the beginning the story is very impersonal and repetitive; it is treated almost as a factual crime scene report, rather than a heartfelt, sympathy filled story of the loss of a hardworking father. There are moments throughout where anecdotal dialog is used to display the universal feeling that Phil provided very little for his family aside from his income. By the end of the text Phil’s boss is already looking for the next hardest working employee displaying even how little of an impact his hard work had on the one place where he was successful. Goodman

The author chooses to use several quotes from family members displaying their indifference for for Phil. The first example of this is from Phil’s wife Helen, she says, “I already have [missed him].” This response from Helen illustrates how she had missed Phil long before he died, presumably because he was never there for her when he was living. Phil has clearly been absent as a husband to Helen for a long time. Another example of a family member who felt no real connection to Phil is his son. According to the story the favorite son once said, “My father and I only board here.” By saying that he and his father only board together, the son is saying that there is really no father son bond between them and that the only time his Phil is home is when he comes home to sleep.This is a boy who was willing to do anything to keep his father at home. Phil clearly valued his work more than his family and this disgusts Goldman. The author includes this quote to display the effort Phil’s family members put in to keep him at home. It displays the fact that Phil was not going to work to get away from his family because they loved him, but he loved his job more. Overall most of Phil’s family seems unfazed by his death but this is not because they are heartless people, but rather that Phil was no more than the man that paid their bills and slept in their home. He truly made no impact on their lives and Goodman is attempting to express the importance of changing lives around you, especially those of the people who love you most. Instead Phil wasted his time in the office doing nothing other than helping a business that could care less about