John Cheever’s Satirical Tone in “The Wrysons” Essay

The American literature of the post-war period can be characterized by the authors’ concentrating on the depiction of the peculiarities of the usual Americans’ lives with references to their social position and the role of politics in their everyday activities. In his short stories, John Cheever often focuses on representing the life of the Americans who live their ordinary lives in the suburbs. How do these people find themselves in the rapidly changing world? What aspects make the basics of their everyday life? At first sight, many American authors concentrated on describing these elements in their works. However, John Cheever’s short stories which were written in the 1950s are rather unique in their extreme satirical tone presented by the author in order to accentuate the people’s intentions to preserve their comfortable life and good public appearance. Thus, “The Wrysons” is the most vivid example of John Cheever’s representation of his vision of the public’s attitude to their good appearance or even oddness with the help of the satirical characterization.

The main characters of John Cheever’s “The Wrysons” are Irene and Donald Wryson who have the daughter Dolly. The author emphasizes the main idea of his short story which is the fear of changes in the first lines of his work with the help of concentrating on the description of the peculiarities of the main characters, the Wrysons’ family. Thus, “the Wrysons wanted things in the suburb of Shady Hill to remain exactly as they were. Their dread of change – of irregularity of any sort – was acute” (Cheever 319). The reader has the opportunity to pay attention to the author’s strict tone in portraying the characters from these first sentences, and this tone becomes more and more satirical with every next word. Moreover, it is possible to speak about the author’s usage of the satirical tone as the main device to present the necessary characterization in the text (Dyer).

John Cheever’s word choice and the structure of sentences also address his task to represent the images of the Wrysons quite critically and to evoke the readers’ definite feelings with the help of the open satire. Cheever is satirical in his representing the personal images of the characters with focusing on their appearance and providing the readers with the opportunity to understand that Irene was unpleasant, however, she “was not a totally unattractive woman”, and people did not like Donald because he “had a laugh like a jackass” (Cheever 320). Thus, the author focuses on the details and states that, “the Wrysons’ taste in painting stopped at marine sunsets and bowls of flowers” and then he generalizes that “the Wrysons were stiff; they were inflexible” and even “they were odd, of course” (Cheever 320). The “oddness” of the Wrysons is the main topic of the story. Both spouses have different odd ideas, dreams, and occupations which they hide from each other.

The readers learn the Wrysons’ odd ideas with following the author’s detailed descriptions of this or that oddness which has some history and definite peculiar features. Depicting Irene’s oddness which is her dream about the explosion of a hydrogen bomb, Cheever satirically remarks that “in the light of day, her dream was inadmissible, for she could not relate it to her garden, her interest in upzoning, or her comfortable way of life” (Cheever 320). Furthermore, paying attention to Donald’s favorite activity to bake cakes late at night, the author accentuates the possible absurd of this idea with the help of the satirical question, “was there any reason why a lonely boy should rebel against the feeling of security that he found in the kitchen on a stormy night?” (Cheever 322).

Moreover, it is possible to determine two notions using which the author creates the basics for developing his satire in the short story. These notions which are frequently used in the text are “oddness” and “upzoning”. If the notion of “oddness” reflects the main topic of the story, and it is associated with Irene and Donald’s characters, the concept of “upzoning” is closely connected with the characters’ position according to the social life and possible social changes which can influence the alternations in the Wrysons’ everyday life. The author states that the Wrysons’ civic activities “were confined to upzoning, but they were very active in this field, and if you were invited to their house for cocktails, the chances were that you would be asked to sign an upzoning petition before you got away” (Cheever 319). From this point, “upzoning” is the reflection of the Wrysons’ oddness and limits which are represented in their interactions and social life. Cheever uses one more chance to accentuate the characters’ avoidance of their social progress.

Reading ‘The Wrysons”, the readers can feel John Cheever’s intention to represent the idea that Irene and Donald Wryson with closing their eyes while facing their odd dreams and occupations try to prevent themselves from any changes which can ruin the comfort of their private worlds. The author concentrates on the characters’ ability to preserve their good appearance which is based on their oddness with using the elements of the rather satirical tone.

Works Cited

Cheever, John. The Stories of John Cheever. USA: Vintage, 2000. Print.

Dyer, John. John Cheever: Parody and the Suburban Aesthetic. n.d. Web.