Boxes by Raymond Carver

In the 1960’s the author was growing up with her mother and five other siblings, moving from place to place in search of a home where the

While reading “Little Things” by Raymond Carver I began to realized that he was using several different literary devices to compose a story of many interpretations, such as: imagery, foreshadowing, symbolism, communication, conflict, expression, and suspense. “Little Things” is a tale of two stubborn parents that are separating without any self-tolerance or consideration of how their actions can affect their child. The statement made by Carver is that actions or words can lead to catastrophic endings. At the end of the story, he wrote “in this matter, the issue was decided” to imply that when a relationship involves a child, the intimate relationship between parents should be more empathic. A similar story that touches the same statement

She tells of the feeling of shame which emerge from not even having a bed throughout her entire childhood (3). She does reassure that she has the security of her family being the only constant in her life, “Close and sweet and loving. Lucky me on my small pallet on the floor” (4). Travelling every summer “We never knew from one day to the next, from one year to the next, where we would go or live or what we would do” (127), her security of her family seemed always there “Having lived in other people’s houses, barns, and in migrant housing in various stages of decay and repair, it felt as though we could make a home out of anything” (99).

It has been days. I stumble, foot over foot to the crack of sunlight that beams into the car. I feel the train rock back and forth, side to side as we tumble over the tracks to a “better life.” A better life. More bread. They care about us. I hear the screech as the cars stop as we are all tossed forward. “Welcome to Auschwitz, Jews.” I hear a man scream be strong. I hear the crack of a whip and gun shots. I know they lied.

In the short story “Miss Brill”, the primary conflict is internal between herself: “But today she passed the baker’s boy, climbed the stairs, went into the little dark room—her room like a cupboard—and sat down on the red eiderdown. She sat there for a long time… But when she put the lid on she thought she heard something crying” (Mansfield 105). Miss Brill realizes she is no longer a part of the youth. She old, and now sees herself as isolated from the play she used to be part of. She “heard something crying” (Mansfield 105). This, results an internal conflict with herself of how she feels. Likewise, “The Yellow Wallpaper” also plays an internal conflict between herself: “I did write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal—having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition” (Gilman 473). The protagonist is living further away from society where she is treated as an individual, isolated by others, even her baby. She is given limited opportunities controlled by her husband and her brother as an attempt to do what’s best for her as a sick woman. They both force her to accept the idea of her own thoughts do not qualify reality, which represents the insanity of loneliness.

On her short home visit she was able to see the different between her formal life and her new life. She was struggling to pay rent because her jobs didn’t pay her enough. In previous life she was only concern about writing and she did have to worry about rent money or finding a job.

In “The Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, a man named Robert is coming to spend the night at the narrator’s house. Robert is a friend of the narrator’s wife who happens to be blind, which doesn’t sit well with the narrator. Robert and his wife have a ten year relationship which started with her working for him. Since then they’ve stayed in contact by sending audiotapes to each other. When Robert reaches the house, the narrator is a bit uncomfortable. The first reason being because the man is blind, and secondly he’s not really sure what to say to a man who has a past with his wife. Soon after, the narrator sees that Robert isn’t initially what he thought the man would be like. Robert’s suggestion for the narrator to close his eyes while drawing the cathedral creates a different perspective for him, which allows him to realize it is he who is limited and cannot see, not Robert.

Joy felt bogged down in her home, with only Mrs. Freeman and her mother for company, Joy felt she was surrounded by intellectual peers. Mrs. Freeman and her mother’s conversations made Joy irritable, Joy’s affection toward her mother was low due to the way her mother described her “[I] thought of her still as a child because it tore [my] heart to think instead of the poor stout girl in her thirties who had never danced a step or had any normal good times” (O’Connor 6). The absence of love in her home allowed her vulnerability to have a harder presence.

Women in the early Victorian Era were very limited in their individualism as they were expected to conform to societal norms. The narrator craves freedom from the society she lives in, dreaming of having a room "downstairs that opened on the piazza and [has] roses all over the window." (Gilman 3) The narrator wants nothing more than to be able to express herself, yet she is held back as she reveals that "John would not hear of it." (Gilman 3) She knows her place is not to question her husband, so she finds other creative outlets that she keeps secret. She knows that these outlets of creativity are found, she risks her husband’s reputation as she would disrespect him. Throughout the narrative, the heroine acknowledges the importance of status in society. Even when her madness drives her to contemplate committing suicide, she says, “I wouldn't do it. Of course not. I know well enough that a step like that is improper and might be misconstrued.” (Gilman 15) Even in the most stressful times, it is the fear of ruining her husband’s reputation that keeps her from obtaining what she wants. Finally, the narrator breaks free of her confinement by tearing off the wallpaper, saying, "I've got out at

The author has used all of these examples to accurately portray alienation and loneliness. The poor woman is so alone and isolated, and she doesn’t try to hide it in the least. Everything she writes about is how she is alone, crying, or trying to make someone else happy by doing something, or by not doing something, or she’s hiding what she’s doing to avoid getting in trouble. She can’t do anything that makes her happy. She’s trapped in this huge, ugly room with tattered wallpaper and bars on the windows. In fact, she focuses so much on the horrible paper that her condition continues to worsen. She’s told what to do and when

The author emphasizes the drastic contrast in the speaker's emotional state through the setting she finds herself in. She is taken from the comfort of her home and thrust both an environment and mind state of isolation. However, the setting also helps fuel the hatred that develops in the wife's mind for her husband. The speaker is ambivalent of her feelings for her

Living in England during World War II had an impact on her life because it coincided with the time that she was moving around, making it symbolic of her life at that time. She would be lured into a false sense of security in a new home (think of the times in between bombings) and then her world would be turned upside again as she was moved away from her father, and into beaten down homes, and then again to a somewhat

We live in the age of constant technological innovation and endless information; in which we are so connected and dependent on the technology we use that we sometimes don’t even realize how much we’re relying on it. In The Glass Cage by Nicholas Carr, Carr defines automation as, “the use of computers and software to do things we used to do ourselves,” and argues that there are daunting consequences to our reliance on technology (Carr 1). In his book, Nicholas Carr sets up three arguments related to automation, tacit knowledge, and the idea of work. His main arguments throughout the novel are that humans are overestimating the benefits of automation, losing tacit knowledge through our reliance on technology, and

The young woman in this story had ordered a package. A nice new big bed, but with this purchase came along sadness and loneliness. She realized that she didn’t have anyone to share this new bed with. She believed that finding a boyfriends or a soulmate to share with would make her happy. The bed might not have been the only thing that made her realize she was lonely and wanted to share her time with someone, although it is how Alan Heitz has decided to depict the struggle of this young woman.

Two minor characters in this novel also decide to live depressing lifestyles after losing their loved ones. They are Mr. Black in the apartment above Oskar and Ruth Black in the Empire State building. These two feel they cannot function anymore and hid from the world. Mr. Black has not left his apartment in “twenty-four years” because “there hasn’t been any reason too” now that his wife died (162.) He turned off his hearing aids “a long, long time ago…[to] save batteries” (165.) Oskar finds tree stumps in his bed that contain nails representing each day his wife had been dead. The man is over 100 years old and has been through so much in his life. He explains that for most of it he was at ward and “treated [his wife] as though she didn’t matter.” The bed was “the first thing [he] got her when he came back”(161.) As Mr. Black continues to put nails in it and shut the world out, he is always thinking of his wife. He no longer explores or interacts because she is not there.