Novel of John Cheever The Bullet Park and The Five Forty Eight by John Essay

Novel of John Cheever The Bullet Park and The Five Forty Eight by John Cheever - Essay Example The great thing about John Cheever was his capacity for invention. (Donaldson,1998).He merges compassion and wit while maintaining the absurdity of the surroundings’ and pointlessness of their behaviors and actions, his stories hold out the hope of redemption in love and sense of revenge and unforgiving attitude Such as in the story â€Å"Five-forty-Five† and his novel† The bullet park†. John Cheever was a complex person himself and during the course of his life he was saddled by the habit of alcoholism and infidelities but he presented himself so earnestly as a Man in Brooks’ brother suit, his life was as contradictory as his characters and so his writing is not neat and raises so many questions and answer’s very less.(The guardian,2009).  Cheever rightly described himself near the end of his life, in a heartbreaking sentence: "I am one of those old men; I am like a voyager who cannot remember the streams he has travelled." (Gottlieb,2002). Vengeance and conflict due to spiritual and moral emptiness is evident between contradictory characters. In the novel â€Å" The Bullet Park†, author portrays an array of well kept houses and more than well mannered people of the town the Bullet Park but Cheever’s characters always has a double meaning to them and an unobserving reader might fail to see the crouching beast dangerously hidden behind those well kept houses. The story unfolds as a fateful intersection of two men the innocent Eliot Nailles and his nemesis, Paul Hammer, whose object is to murder his neighbor's son, takes place. The novel has an aura of retribution from the beginning. For example the chosen names for the characters are Hammer and Nailles, which show the exact opposite of each other and every quality of hammer is lacked in a nail. It is the first impression of reckless and conflicting situation between the two characters and the author tried to expose their rivalry for each other by his blunt , quite witty and creative writing.(Shannon,1998) Cheever’s view of rivalry and revenge is also seen in the description of his characters as the two main characters’ were exactly opposite of each other, in short the characters are also in the state of conflict, not just in their names but also in their defining characters as well. In the beginning the complete description of Elliot Nailles is given as person, who is responsible, loving and caring in short a good man but incomplete because he is a simple minded optimist who keeps his expectations to the sky no matter what befalls him. He is a simple man so uncomplicated that the intricacies of life disgust him. According to him anything but action should be taken in demanding situations or emotions should not be valued so much in front of responsibilities. Elliot’s son Tony is another one of his dilemmas, as he refuses to leave his bed just because he feels sad and Nailles is stumped the plight of his son. On the other hand Hammer is everything Nailles is not, a bastard son of a mother and absent father. With his dashing looks Hammer represents instability, restlessness and irregularity of his character. Where Nailles was utterly simple, Hammer is so complex that he is unable to understand himself. His sinful life became a reason for depression and he takes decision to sooth his conscience with sacrifice. Now here what is notable, is lack of logic behind the planned murder. There is no explanation of why and what. In Cheever’