Ellen Goodman: The Company Man

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This activity contains 3 questions.

Goodman’s essay is marked by irony throughout. Analyze the use of irony here—in language, in juxtapositions of images, and within scenes. Do you find the level of irony appropriate, or does it ever strike you as heavy-handed?

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

Goodman wrote this essay in the early 1970s. What values and social constructs does it suggest were common at the time? Using evidence from your own experience, would you say that things today are different or pretty much the same?

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

Using Goodman as a model, write an ironic portrait of a personality type you know well. You may base your portrait on a real person or on a composite of different people. If appropriate to your subject, you may wish to focus more on humorous aspects of this personality type.

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

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