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The Company Man Ellen Goodman Summary

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The story written by Ellen Goodman named, “The Company Man” is a wonderfully written story about a man who, quite literally, works his life away. The message I took from this story is, “You’re always replaceable, no matter how hard you work.” The man in the story named Phil was the vice president of the company for which he worked for. Phil dies at age fifty-one, which is very young for a man, being that the average life expectancy is nearly eighty for an American. The story constantly refers back to the obituary written for Phil pointing out that it mentions his “survivors”, who includes his wife and children.
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