“The Company Man” written by Ellen Goodman is about a man named Phil who sacrificed his entire life devotedly working for a company. He worked so devotedly that he even didn’t have time to give his family.
“The Company Man” Summary
-By Ellen Goodman
Ellen Goodman
in her essay “The Company Man” narrates
the life of Phil, a hard working
businessman who eventually worked
himself to death. She uses the name
‘company man’ to show that Phil was
not just a man, but he was an extension
of his work. In the essay, Goodman uses
Phil’s name only a few times. By not
saying his name, she uses Phil as a symbol for all businessmen and women
who work themselves to literal death
i.e. they sacrifice their life for the sake of a company (job).
Ellen in
“The Company Man” is creating a biting satire to the mechanical and hectic
life of those people who sacrifice
their entire life for companies and also to those who exploit the life of innocent factory workers.
The character Phil was 51 years old
and his wife was 48. His wife worked in an office before marriage but left the
work to take care of her children. Phil’s eldest son was a hardworking
executive in a manufacturing firm. His second child was a girl, who is 24 and
has just married. His youngest son is 22 years old a high-school graduate. The
family members knew little about Phil because he stayed more at office and less
at home.
Phil worked
at a company where sixty people worked. Phil was over overweight and worked too hard. Phil worked six days a week and five of them, he
worked 8 or 9 at night. He assumed
himself to be a part of the company where he worked. He didn’t have much time
to have food with his family members. So he manages to eat egg sandwiches at
work. He was too busy to give time to his family.
Phil died in
his office on holiday (Sunday) while
he was at work. At the funeral, the
sixty-year-old company president told Phil’s wife that would be missed. She
replied to the president that she already missed him for forty years.
The essay
shows that companies, in industrial age, seek and count only for dedicated,
hardworking and devoted workers who sacrifice their entire life for the
company. Company just looks for the benefits and welfare of its business and
workers are mere (मात्र) factory workers who are exchanged and replaced by other
people at any time.