Charlie Cheever's The Reunion

The “Reunion” is the shortest yet most powerful reading by far. In my own opinion, the biggest thing we as humans waste is sweet, sweet time. It is taken way too much for granted, and it seems that we only appreciate it when we’ve realized we’ve run out of it. The people you take for granted today may turn out to be the only ones you need tomorrow. As spoken in the lyrics of the Maccabees, “let’s make time work for us”, “because time can mean so much” (Maccabees).
The son, Charlie, tells his story about having an extra hour and a half between trains and wants to see his father. After extending a written invitation to his father, his father’s secretary responded and confirmed the reunion. The fact that his secretary responded tells us that, after not seeing his son for three years, he wasn’t overly exhilarated about seeing him. We can assume that he didn’t have ‘time’ to personally respond to his estranged son. But nevertheless, he agreed to meet. Seeing his father coming through the crowd, Charlie “felt that he was my father, my flesh and blood, my future and my doom” (Cheever
At this point, Charlie was close to ending their reunion. The ludicrous behavior the father took on was a building tool that was used cleverly by the author so that the last sentence of his story portrayed what his meaning was; “’Good bye daddy, I said, and I went down the stair and got my train, and that was the last time I saw my father.” (Cheever 126). The last line was clearly used pathos to affect the feelings of the reader. So throughout the short story “Reunion” we see how John Cheever uses the insane behavior of the father to use pathos to add sentiment to the short story. Cheever’s message portrays the misuse of time; always be an example for your child, love on them, you never know how long you have