The Ceiling By Kevin Brockmeier Analysis

Failed Marriage in Kevin Brockmeier’s “The Ceiling”

Renowned motivational speaker Tony Gaskins once said, “Communication to a relationship is like oxygen to life. Without it…it dies” (Live Life Happy). For instance, the ignorance of the narrator in Kevin Brockmeier’s “The Ceiling,” showcases how oblivious he is to his wife’s growing infidelity, as an equally disturbing surface descends from the sky upon his town. While the object approaches the earth and becomes more apparent, his marriage is falling apart to the point of no return. The text illustrates how the lack of acknowledgement or emotional presence from a spouse will often result in a failed marriage. This is demonstrated through the unobservant nature of the narrator and his troubled

The object is not yet visible to the eye, but its presence can be felt. Noticing that there was a “tension and strain to the air, a shift in its customary balance” (31). This is analogous to their relationship because there’s the sense of something problematic but there’s no clear issue to be pinpointed on. Furthermore, while walking back from the barber shop, the narrator realizes that if the “ceiling” in its “smooth black polish” were to remain at its current level “we might come to forget that it was even there, charting for ourselves a new map of the night sky” (35). The object symbolizes how the narrator perceives his relationship, that as long as there aren’t any bumps or scratches, his marriage will remain as steady as he assumes it to be. In particular, the plane of the object is no more than a few inches above the ground, and the narrator, his wife and Mitch, along with their kids, were lying underneath the “polished undersurface of the ceiling” (39). As far as shown, the affair remains unaddressed which may make it seem as if their relationship is perfect without any flaws despite the knowing complications and their avoidance to discuss it. Ironically, not only are they trapped in a town that’s coming to an end as the ceiling nears the ground, but they’re also trapped in a doomed marriage with equally no way

In particular, the night of Joshua’s birthday, she was crying into her pillow, and the narrator watched her “fall into a deep abstraction” and was “shrinking away from me” (31). Although seeing her in this state, he doesn’t make it a point to discuss why she was feeling this way, while she simply brushed it off reasoning that she was in “need to sleep” (31). Whenever the narrator and Melissa would be alone together and he’d ask her a question, there would be a “certain brittleness to her, a hesitancy of manner that suggested she was hearing the world from across a divide” (32). She appears to isolate herself and enter into her own world, and by doing so, she’s secluding her husband from her thoughts and her life. Namely, while Melissa was out on a date with Mitch Nauman and her eyes connected to the narrator, at first, “her face seemed to fill suddenly with movement, then just as suddenly to empty” (38). Initially she panics at being caught, but due to the emotional gap that’s been created between them, her guilt seems to quickly disappear. Despite still married and physically together, they’ve become strangers to each other where they aren’t able to openly talk about their problems or