Marriage can be the best thing that has ever happened for some people but for others it could be an altercation. For some of those altercations end up in a divorce with a kid that now only has one parent or two lives. John Cheever's "Reunion" takes place in Grand Central Station, New York where the main character, which is also the narrator, is to meet his father. Little is said about the father before the story begins only that the main character hasn't seen him in three years. The main character, Charlie, is happy to see his dad again but when he wrote to his father that he wanted to get some lunch his father's secretary was the one to respond not the father. This could mean that he is a busy man but couldn't make time for his son? Further into the story we find out that it's not that he didn't have enough time, it that he was probably not sober enough to .
write. .
Charlie was glad to see his father meaning that in the past when his parents were still together they probably got along well. Charlie "hoped that someone see [them] together. [He] wished that [they] could be photographed. [He] wanted some record of our having been together." (254) He loved his father and wanted a strong memory of his father to remember him by. He also calls him daddy and not by his first name also another example that they had a father son bond in the past. He also points out that his father is his own "my flesh and blood, my future and my doom." (254) He specifically points out "my doom" which could be true. Like father like son right? The main character sees his future through his father but is it true? I highly doubt it considering that he points out that it will be his doom means that he's already accepted what could happen to him and it's up to him to change that.
The first thing his dad greets him with is a firm handshake and a strong pat on the bad with the follow up of "Hi, Charlie" which at the time got me thinking maybe he's a friendly character but as I kept reading I realized he was probably tipsy at the time.