In the story, "The Company Man", Ellen Goodman describes the insensible life of a corporate man towards his family. Phil is a workaholic who ultimately dies of a heart attack. He left behind a wife and three adult children. His wife felt she"d lost him years ago to his work, and his children did not know him well. .
One of the many important passages in the story is, "worked himself to death finally and precisely at 3:00a.m. Sunday morning." The author must have meant for us to pay close attention to this passage seeing that she repeated it three times throughout the story. She uses adverbs to express how Phil worked himself, (finally and precisely), and what time or when he worked himself, (at 3:00am). She uses the word "finally" to show us that everyone was waiting or expected for him to die. This is proven when on the last time she repeated this passage she added, "no one was really surprised". The word "precisely" and "3:00am" were used to support the idea that every thing was done in an established, uniform manner. .
Another important factor that stood out is that Phil felt everything was okay, while everyone around him seemed to sense otherwise. For instance, in the fourth paragraph, it talks about how he was overweight, by 20 or 25 pounds, but he thought it was okay because he didn't smoke. Conversely towards the end of the story, it states, " .Phil was a hear-attack natural. You could have picked him out in a minute from a lineup". .
Goodman also uses irony in the story. Something I found quite interesting is that he was " one of three who might conceivably-if the president died have moved to the top spot". In turn, there were three men seriously considered for his job, and as soon as he died, there were making inquires about his position. What is so ironic about the day that he dies, is that he dies on his day off. .
A workaholic seeks for the success in their careers.