StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

Raymond Carvers Short Stories - Book Report/Review Example

Cite this document
Summary
Raymond Carver is, by popular literary consensus, a minimalist. His stories are short, his language is stark, his characters are uncomplicated and his symbols are basic. None of this, however, implies poverty of meaning as Carver's short stories are about the meaning of life, the meaning behind relationships and the meaning underscoring human action (Hallett, pp…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER93% of users find it useful
Raymond Carvers Short Stories
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Raymond Carvers Short Stories"

Download file to see previous pages

It is, thus, that a comparative analysis of "Cathedral," "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love," and "A Small Good Thing" are replete with meaning regarding light and dark, faith and love. In all, and as will be argued in this essay, the mentioned meanings/themes are symbolized through the male-female relationship. Human relationships, the way in which men and women interact with one another, conveys a spiritual, even biblical theme, in the three named stories. "In A Small Good Thing," bread symbolizes faith and religion.

At the end of the story, Carver allows his characters to meet, discuss their predicament and explore their loss. Scotty's parents confront the baker and even though he had made several menacing calls regarding Scotty, the confrontation assumes an air of spirituality. Instead of turning into a violent or bitter exchange, it becomes a moment of shared experiences. As Scotty's parents recount their loss, the baker explains what happened to him, apologizing for having harassed them. A connection, a union, is formed between the baker and Scotty's parents.

He offers them bread, "a small good thing," and they eat, they talk, and they come to terms with one another and with their suffering. The bread, symbolizing the crystallization of the relationship between the parents and the baker, is not just "a small good thing," as the baker describes it but, is reconciliation with others and with oneself, such as which comes through faith. In other words, within the context of this seemingly simple story and this very common symbol, bread, Carver, provides an in depth glimpse into that which keeps people going and allows them to survive - faith.

Light and dark, symbolized through the male-female dichotomy and the sight-blindness imagery, dominate in "Cathedral." As with "A Small Good Thing," Carver takes a single moment/incident and dissects it in order to come up, not with a story, but with a commentary upon the nature of life and human relationships. The wife symbolizes light. Certainly, she has had moments of darkness, including ones of utter despair such as when she attempted suicide but, she is able to hang on and persist because she has an innate faith in the presence of goodness.

Thus, she writes poems to immortalize/capture important personal experience, continues her friendship with a blind man over the years and, when that man suffers a personal loss, invites him to spend some time with her and her husband. Her belief in the presence of light/goodness, extends to faith that her husband will go out of his way to entertain her blind friend. Needless to say, her husband does not go out of his way but a bond, nevertheless develops between the husband and friend. That bond, forged over cannabis, becomes that "small good thing" of the previous story - it becomes the crystallization of faith in the presence of goodness.

The theme of light and dark is further reflected in the sight and blindness imagery which pervades "Cathedral." The blind man is revealed not as the one who lives in the dark but, paradoxically, in light. He sees the infinite possibilities which the husband,

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Raymond Carvers Short Stories Book Report/Review”, n.d.)
Raymond Carvers Short Stories Book Report/Review. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1505615-raymond-carvers-short-stories
(Raymond Carvers Short Stories Book Report/Review)
Raymond Carvers Short Stories Book Report/Review. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1505615-raymond-carvers-short-stories.
“Raymond Carvers Short Stories Book Report/Review”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1505615-raymond-carvers-short-stories.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Raymond Carvers Short Stories

Raymond Carver - Short Stories with Depth

Raymond Carver – short stories with Depth short stories are in literature hold a special place.... short stories take a different skill and technique altogether for writing.... In this essay we are going to analyse two stories written by one such accomplished writer Raymond Carver.... We are going to compare and contrast these stories and also discuss Raymond Carver's style of writing.... The stories we are going to compare are, ‘Nobody said anything' and ‘Will you please be quiet please?...
4 Pages (1000 words) Research Paper

Cathedral Story by (Raymond Carver)

Connections between Myself, Carver and his story Cathedral Carver is the author of several short stories inclusive of the Cathedral.... This aspect is depicted in his stories where unemployment and fear of bankruptcy are the major worries of most characters.... As such, the stories are depictive of Carver's past (Kirszner 22-25).... How my life relates to that of Raymond Carver and His Story Cathedral Born in May 25, 1938, Raymond Carver is one of the most influential short story and poetic writers in American history....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

Raymond Carver: The Poetry Foundation

Raymond Carver an esteemed name in English literature is considered to be the most influential American writer of poems as well as short stories of this era.... In the year 1964 his work "Brass Ring" and "The Furious Season" was published in "The Best American short stories".... During this tenure, Carver was charged for bankruptcy and therefore had to move to another place where his other work was included in "The Best American short stories" in 1967....
6 Pages (1500 words) Book Report/Review

Biographical Influence of Raymond Carver

He is considered “surely the most influential writer of American short stories in the second half of the 20th century” (King).... Carver's literary career included five collections of short stories, two chapbooks, and three volumes of poetry.... ?His stories were included in The Best American short stories, and were nominated for various awards, including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.... Raymond Carver's short story, “Cathedral,” is one of his most-anthologized and popular stories....
8 Pages (2000 words) Research Paper

Biographical and Literary Analysis of Raymond Carver

Although his biography states he started his writing career as a poet, he confessed he was never a "born" poet (Liukkonen) and although he eventually had his poetry published, it never received the acclaim of his short stories.... His father, a sawmill worker, was an alcoholic, and although his father shaped him by the stories he told, Carver found it difficult to deal with his father's alcoholism.... His story "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please" was written in 1967 and with the editing expertise of Gordon Lish, he published a collection of stories of the same name set in Eureka, California in 1976 (Boddy)....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

Short Stories, Like Houses by Raymond Carver

This review "short stories, Like Houses by Raymond Carver" discusses reading short stories that last for an ephemeral span of time, in the hands of the reader, and helps him dive into a different world altogether for a few moments.... Some excellently written short stories have the ability to make the reader feel different emotions every time he turns the pages and goes through it again.... aymond Carver's Cathedral has been included as a part of Best American short stories published in 1982 as one of his finest pieces of work written with simplicity and elegance....
4 Pages (1000 words) Article

Cathedral and a Clean Well-Lighted Place

 The two stories also use the same stylistic devices to approach their subjects.... Carver and Hemmingway effectively employ the bare minimum style in their stories.... In both stories, the work comprises mainly of short sentences and dialogue that lacks emotion sense.... This essay declares that there is an appreciable similarity between 'Cathedral' by raymond Carver and 'A Clean Well-Lighted Place' by Ernest Hemmingway....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love By Raymond Carver

The objective of this assignment is to analyze the short story entitled “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” written by Raymond Carver.... hellip; In the short story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” by Raymond Carver, two married couples, Mel and Terri and Nick and Laura sit around a kitchen table at the McGinnis' apartment in Albuquerque, New Mexico, drinking gin and discussing about the meaning of love....
11 Pages (2750 words) Assignment
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us