Analyzing Raymond Carver's 'Popular Mechanics'

Paul Newman once said, “People stay married because they want to, not because the doors are locked” (74). There is no such thing as the perfect relationship, however, being involved in a healthy relationship is essential for a person to feel valued, safe, and happy. Unfortunately, in the situation of Kelly Sundberg’s personal essay “It Will Look Like a Sunset,” and Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of An Hour,” include extreme examples of unhealthy relationships. The essay “It Will Look Like a Sunset,” shares painful experiences of Sundberg’s physical and emotional abusive relationship with her husband Caleb, while “The Story of an Hour,” shares a rare reaction of a married woman, Louise Mallard, who explores her emotions cautiously when hearing about the death of her husband. Each woman faces their own prison created by their husbands. The two marriages represent the figurative meaning of doors being locked in a marriage. Both pieces of literature convey the theme of confinement by using the literary devices of foreshadowing, imagery, and conflict.

In “Popular Mechanics”, Raymond Carver’s visual details help the readers adapt to the text. Carver’s vocabulary makes the mood understandable. Repetitive words makes it clear that people can hurt the ones they love. People hurt the ones they love as simple as having an argument leading to who takes the baby, just like the short story describes. The use of descriptive words help know the story has to do with divorce

In the short story “Popular Mechanics,” by Raymond Carver there is a relationship between vanity and the human predisposition to rage when faced with loss. This is an analysis of the nature of human relationships and how tragedy tends to result from the vanity of certain individuals.

Obviously, family problems could affect all aspects of the society. In “Popular Mechanics,” a story written by Raymond Carver's in 1988. Shows the husband was ready to leave his wife. Then, it turned into an argument between them, which rapidly escalated into a physical scuffle over who will keep the baby. In this complexity; parent’s separation can lead to a massive destruction of their child’s life. Because separation can shake the faith in dependency on parents who now behave in an extremely unreliable way.

In the story “Popular Mechanics”, Raymond Carver writes in a minimalistic manner causing the text to have more meaning than it seems. Carver uses symbolism, repetition, and metaphors to characterize the woman as distraught and agitated towards the man. This displays that the relationship between the man and the woman is very dysfunctional. Throughout the story, the woman seems more affected by the situation than the man. Also, the story ends on a devastating note, depicting the deep meaning behind their relationship and leading to a universal theme.

Raymond Carver's symbols, use of details, and his inventive title really bring together this unusual story, to convey the theme that not all relationships end happily. He describes every little bit of this story with brilliant detail. The symbolism is indescribable, and the title is tricky but yet it makes absolute sense when you pick it apart. Popular Mechanics is truly a very meaningful short story. Carver packs so much significance into such a short piece of literature that this is no other word for it but amazing.

The short story “Little Things” by Raymond Carver deals with the humanity’s spiteful nature and its desire to flaunt what others can not have. On the surface, the story is about a man, a woman, and baby, none of which have a confirmed relation to each other, and a dispute over who should keep the baby after the man leaves. As the story reaches its end, there is no clear winner and the reader has a sense of unease based on the last line, “In this manner, the issue was decided” (Carver). Carver’s use of dialogue, allusion, and sight/sound imagery help build the darker mood for the story, and his use of those elements ultimately leads to one of Carver’s main messages. By utilizing the previously listed items, Carver highlights the idea that

Correspondingly, the kitchen light, which is used as image technique, is also employed as symbol to give a deeper meaning to the story. In the beginning when her father leaves the kitchen, the light goes off. Successively, after killing the coyotes “her father came back in, turned the kitchen light out.” (59) The light symbolizes the good and the warmth of the house. When the light goes off, the author represents the disruption well-being and happiness, consequently, when the father turns the light on this gesture represents the return of

The readers first impression of the couple is dialogue. Dialogue is a very important element that contributes to the tone in “Popular Mechanics”. The dialogue in this story is almost exclusively short. The first time the reader gets dialogue is after the author sets the scene and initial mood. “I’m glad you’re leaving! I’m glad you’re leaving! She said. Do you hear?” (277). This automatically sets an aggressive and tense tone to the story. The reader is never told what the couple is breaking up over, the only thing the reader gets is that the couple is fighting over keeping the baby. The couple only really says that they want the baby, that is the majority of the dialogue in the story. Unspoken dialogue in “Popular Mechanics” is immensely important to the story. “He was in the bedroom pushing clothes into a suitcase when she came to the door” (277). This example shows the distance between the couple. The woman is constantly backing away and seemingly running away from the man, especially with the baby. There is finality in the story even though the reader never knows what the issues are in the relationship, why the man is leaving, or why they are separating. “In this manner, the issue was decided” (278). This short sentence sets the final tone of the story. There is something sinister and aggressive about this sentence. The audience does not know exactly what the issue is, but with the small

Carver begins with the story?s conflict, a relationship between a man and woman that has already gone extremely wrong. He does not need to tell the reader why or how this relationship came to this point. Carver relies on the reader to know the usual reasons that cause people to split up. Therefore, this gives readers the opportunity to attach their own explanation. As the title, ?Popular Mechanics? implies, it is the common workings of relationships that can be applied throughout this story.

The “male gaze” is a philosophical concept that implies that men use the eyes to communicate with females in a manner that is both critical, or can be described as “sensual” in nature. This is the case in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short stories, “Rappaccini’s Daughter” and “The birthmark.” In “The Birthmark” Aylmer’s gaze of the birthmark is not only an obsession, but an erotic feature that leads him to commit unethical practices to get rid of his wife’s imperfection. Rappaccini’s Daughter” makes Beatrice feel guilty for her sexual allure. In addition, both male characters feel the need to dominate and control the women in their lives for feared of being overpowered by their sexuality. The male characters regard the female character as a symbol of sin for simply being women. Both characters in Hawthorne’s Rappaccini’s daughter and The Birthmark the male gaze is used to dominate women in the form that is use to influence and manipulate women in a

The author Diana Divecha expressed her emotions by telling about how unprotected she felt at her own house in her childhood. When parents are violent so the security damage to kids can last a lifetime. During marriage or parenthood, Divecha was very vigilant. Her family psychologist Sheri Glucoft Wong told her that having child creates more conflicts even for couples who were doing well before they became parents. But Diana Divecha knew there could be some better ways to handle the conflict than the encounter she faced in her childhood. She discussed this with her husband and they decided they won’t fight in front of their parents. Further, the author discusses destructive conflict further by taking help from a book ‘Marital conflict & children’.

The turn of the story per say and the realization the conversation might have started with interracial marriages but was proving to be the difference in their relationship. The relationship to his standards should work fine because they are both white. He notices this in the story when the wife goes to the living room after he says no I would not marry you if you were black. The narrator write “he knew that she was too angry to be actually reading it, but she didn’t snap through the pages the way he would have done (Lynn, 2004 p. 162). As the night continues the wife is in the bathroom and the husband is lying in bed and he turns the light off and it is like he sees the bigger picture. The narrator states “the room was silent. his heart pounded the way it had on their first night together, they way it still did when he woke at a noise in the darkness and waited to hear it again-the sound of someone moving through the house, a stranger. (Lynn, 2004 p. 163) this is the realization that the argument over black and white lead to the indifferences between the husband and wife and made them a statistic of the white couples who do not

“Where I’m Calling From” by Raymond Carver is a short story about a man’s struggle with Alcoholism, and his encounters at a drying-out facility or treatment center. The story itself seems very straight forward in the way it’s presented, 3rd person perspective, narrative writing style, realism (ENotes.com), but in actuality there’s a lot more to the story. The story displays numerous themes such as the narrators own self-destruction, his fight to overcome his addiction, and his possible feelings of regret and responsibility. Carver also uses tone, imagery, and symbolism to take the audience to places they might not experience in their own life. This short story by Raymond Carver is worth analyzing because there’s much more to it than what is on the surface, from the numerous themes presented throughout the story, to the use of imagery and symbolism to drive the story through its stages.

   This cynical look at a less than ideal marriage keeps the reader at a distance. The opening sentence startles in its baldness "Mr. and Mrs. Elliot tried very hard to have a baby" and the second sentence destroys any illusions that the Elliots are enjoying this by stating that "They tried as often as Mrs. Elliot could stand it"(Hemingway 85).