It isn't always possible for a person who is as emotionally numb as Blake is in the Cheever story, The Five Forty Eight to find redemption in his world of unhappiness, not even when it is staring him right in the face. Blake avoids confrontation and honest expressions of his feelings at all costs by ignoring things and people in his life who stimulate emotions. Is this a result of his self-involvement?

There are two women in Cheever's story. One is an ex-lover; the other is his wife. One night when Blake stepped out of the elevator from his office building he was surprised to find his ex-lover waiting in the lobby. "Her face took on a look of such loathing and purpose that he realized she had been waiting for him" (551). However, Blake...