Caitlin Stevenson CW 104-B Craft Essay October 11, 2011 The Ceiling by Kevin Brockmeier The Ceiling is a story

about a family and the struggles that they face. The author, Kevin Brockmeier uses a mysterious object in the sky to parallel the difficulties that the narrator and his wife are facing. The story starts out at their son Joshuas birthday party. Right from the beginning we are shown that there is trouble in paradise for the narrator and his wife Melissa. The thing about this piece that works so well is that the author never really comes out and says exactly whats going on between Melissa and their neighbor Mitch nor does the narrator actually go into depth at what he is feeling. Nonetheless the readers are given this information through symbols. For instance, we are alerted to a sketchy relationship between Melissa and Mitch when we get this scene: Playing as you should isnt fun, she said: Its design. She parted her toes around the front leg of Mitchs lawn chair. He leaned back into the sunlight, and her calf muscles tautened (2). This scene is filled with sexual imagery and innuendo. The use of symbols clues the readers in while keeping characters in the story in the dark. Right away I pinpointed that they were having an affair. That night is when the mysterious object appears, obstructing the moon. The narrator asks his wife what it is, she responds that her life is a mess and from this moment on the object in the sky, or the ceiling as they come to cal it, becomes ever closer so too does the bombshell of Melissa and Mitchs affair become closer and closer to becoming discovered. The use of the ceiling creates a physical manifestation for tension in the narrator and Melissas marriage. There is something between them that is blocking them from one another

and something is making them change the way that they see one another just as the ceiling is changing the way the town sees itself. The use of this symbol creates a tangible dread and ominous tone that would come off as corny or not relatable if this story was solely about the narrators discovery of his wifes infidelity. The whole story has been leading to the moment that the ceiling meets the ground and in turn when the narrator figures out that his wife is cheating on him. Both collide and have similar results. The town is pandemonium, things are falling apart around them but there is no mention of attempts to escape the pending doom. Just as the narrators family is put through hell when he and his son all but catch Melissa in the act of cheating but they stay together. The affair is never even addressed between the two, as far as we are shown. When the ceiling finally descends it is ironic and actually fitting that the narrator and his family are pinned down right next to the man his wife has been cheating on him with. They are trapped together in a town that is doomed, in a relationship that is doomed.