Marriage in The Ceiling by Kevin Brockmeier - 892 Words

In today’s society, the notion and belief of growing old, getting married, having kids, and a maintaining of a happy family, seems to be a common value among most people. In Kevin Brockmeier’s short story, â€Å"The Ceiling,† Brockmeier implies that marriage is not necessary in our society. In fact, Brockmeier criticizes the belief of marriage in his literary work. Brockmeier reveals that marriage usually leads to or ends in disaster, specifically, all marriages are doomed to fail from the start. Throughout the story, the male protagonist, the husband, becomes more and more separated from his wife. As the tension increases between the protagonist and his wife, Brockmeier symbolizes a failing marriage between the husband and wife as he depicts†¦show more content†¦The city lights were burning, and Joshua was sleeping in his room† (Brockmeier 94). In society and in most modern cultures throughout the world, the aspect of city lights and brightly lit stars, gives off the sense of love and intimacy. However, the bright lights and stars, did not give off a sense of love and intimacy. Instead, the narrator describes the couple mentally broken and distraught as they sat in silence pondering about their problems. They sat together, but respected each other’s stillness as they â€Å"wrapped† their own silence. Although right next to each other, they were both in their own worlds and not sharing their thoughts and emotions. This scene is a significant indication of understanding the beginnings of their skewed relationship. Brockmeier shows Melissa as someone who ceases to exist. Throughout the short story, Melissa is limited in dialogue, and the few instances when she speaks, it seems as if Melissa is hiding and concealing her genuine thoughts. The night of her son’s birthday, the narrator realizes that he is faced with a distressed wife as she reveals that her, â€Å"life is a mess† (Brockmeier, 94). She foreshadows the object of the sky or the ceiling as a symbol, as it comes closer to the ground. Like