Story: The Wrysons by John Cheever
Students, after reading the short story you will answer the following questions in a well-
developed, complete answer.
1. What is wry about the Wrysons?
The name of the protagonists give away that tone and throughout the entirety of it, Cheever
manages to remain the promise of presenting this tale as an exercise in wry, irony humor. I think
that what is wry about them is how they find everything outside of monotony, unpleasant.
2. What “sort of old people” (paragraph 1) would the Wrysons not want in Shady Hill? What
would be their stated reason for not wanting these old people in the neighborhood? What would
be their real reason?
Maybe they didn’t want old people with so many grandchildren, people that play music too loud
or that are looking at others life. As they say, they don't want to change the lifestyle in the
community, they want the tranquility to continue on. The real reason could be that they are bitter
and selfish, they are not satisfied with the space that they have in their house. They want
everything to be done at their convenience.
3. What is “upzoning” (paragraph 1)? What does the Wrysons’ pursuit of upzoning say about
them?
Upzoning allows a greater density and congestion in the area which affects the current
occupants, but in the case of this short story it allowed the construction of a retirement
community. They pursuit of upzoning was clearly with the purpose of controlling who will be
around them, in this case they’ll be all grown up people that have already retired.
4. What lurks beneath the ordered and controlled surface of Shady Hill?
I think that here the most important thing is the appearance and how you show yourself to those
around you. The Wrysons demonstrated to have many friends sending so many letters (600)
even though they had few. Also its a selfish surface.
5. Why is the medicine cabinet (paragraph 4) not in order?
It brings up memories from Dolly’s illness and had rests of every little medicine that she had
once.
6. Who is Dolly? Why do we not learn much about her? Why is her name an apt one?
Dolly is the Wrysons young daughter. There is not that much to talk about her, the emphasis is
in both his father and mother stories. Her name means how she is growing to be a child who has
been raised by parents who like things their way.
7. What was your reaction to Cheever’s abrupt and unemotional way of killing off Donald and
Irene? What might have been his reasons for treating his characters this way?
I didn’t expect from the author to kill them both this way, I think that’s just what they got from
being the way they are.
