Setting

Physical setting

Part of the events described in the short story “Reunion” by John Cheever takes place in Grand Central Station in New York:

The last time I saw my father was in Grand Central Station. I was going from my grandmother’s in the Adirondacks to a cottage on the Cape that my mother had rented, and I wrote my father that I would be in New York between trains for an hour and a half and asked if we could have lunch together. (p. 1, ll. 4-7)

Charlie and his father go through four restaurants during Charlie’s short stay. They are invited to leave the first restaurant because of the man’s condescending and aggressive attitude. Charlie and his father leave the second restaurant because the father refuses to admit whether his son is underage or n...