Sunday, April 24, 2011

Bullet Park by John Cheever



This novel was written in 1969 and takes place in a suburban neighborhood known as Bullet Park. The beginning of this novel is told through a man named Eliot Nailles. This suburb is a typical United States neighborhood at the time the novel was written. It is made up of families where the father or husband goes off to work every morning and the mother or wife remains at home cleaning and cooking and whatever else their husbands expected. Eliot Nailles' family is an example of a typical suburban family, except he and the rest of his family are not living as happily as one may believe. They each have their reasons for their signs of disgust and disappointment and they all have their own set of problems. Their son is not doing as well as he should in school and this highly disappoints his mother, Eliot's wife. And Eliot's career of being a chemist is also somewhat failing. Eliot's life changes when he meets a man named Paul Hammer who has just recently moved into Bullet Park. As strange as it sounds, Eliot is drawn to this man due to the pun created by their last names, Hammer and Nailles (Nails). The second part of the novel is told through Paul Hammer and is about his past. This occurrence of these two men meeting each other changes both their lives for many reasons.


1) In this novel, most of the wives or mothers of the families remain at home to do chores or cleaning or other other roles that women were expected to perform. Do believe that it is right for women to stay at home all day to do house-work while their husbands are off working and raising money to support their family. Do you think women have just as much ability to work as men do. Is it wrong to stereotype someone just based on gender?

3 comments:

Bojana Duric said...

1. I don't think it's right for women to stay home all day to cook and clean. Women should have the same rights as men and are capable of doing just as well as men. I think every woman should have the option to have a career. Whether they choose to have a career or not should be left up to them. In my opinion, it is wrong to stereotype someone based on gender. However, this has occurred for a very long time and still occurs today.

Kali D. 13-14 said...

I think women should be treated the same as men and be able to do what they want. Women should get to choose if they want to stay at home or go out and get a real job to help support their families. Many men believe women are not capable of being as successful as them but we are just as capable of anything that they are.

allie s 11-12 said...

1) i don't think its right for woman to stay home all day and do all the work while the husband is off working. But if the woman wants to be home that's OK, but she shouldn't be forced to not work and stay home. I believe that women have the right to choose for themselves. Women in my opinion have as much ability as men when it comes to anything ( and I'm nit saying that cause im a girl) :) And i do think stereotyping is wrong in any situation including when it has to do with gender.