Reunion: W. St. John Taylor
Main Theme
We do not choose our family
The first-person narrator writes early in the story, "He was a stranger to me [...] but as soon as I saw him I felt that he was my father, my flesh and blood, my future and my doom" (183). Our parents determine our genetics, which in turn help determine our personality, traits, and habits. Even though the narrator says "that was the last time I saw my father" (185), his father will "return" every time he finds himself acting similarly to his father.
Intelligent people can be the worst
The father has a secretary, shows up on time, and at different points speaks French, Italian, and German. We do not learn his profession, but the father projects an educated air, albeit one which is abusive to the service staff.
The "sorrows of gin"
Cheever struggled with alcoholism himself, and the character of the father indeed drinks gin. While the reader is left to make sense of why the father acts like a raging alcoholic, at a simple level this character does not know how to relate to his estranged son in any sort of healthy, normal way, so he fills the void with abusive interactions with waitstaff, to the mild horror of his son.
Main Theme
We do not choose our family
The first-person narrator writes early in the story, "He was a stranger to me [...] but as soon as I saw him I felt that he was my father, my flesh and blood, my future and my doom" (183). Our parents determine our genetics, which in turn help determine our personality, traits, and habits. Even though the narrator says "that was the last time I saw my father" (185), his father will "return" every time he finds himself acting similarly to his father.
Intelligent people can be the worst
The father has a secretary, shows up on time, and at different points speaks French, Italian, and German. We do not learn his profession, but the father projects an educated air, albeit one which is abusive to the service staff.
The "sorrows of gin"
Cheever struggled with alcoholism himself, and the character of the father indeed drinks gin. While the reader is left to make sense of why the father acts like a raging alcoholic, at a simple level this character does not know how to relate to his estranged son in any sort of healthy, normal way, so he fills the void with abusive interactions with waitstaff, to the mild horror of his son.
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