Jerry and Molly and Sam Carver Short Cuts

“I promise I will be back before the sun has set on the horizon. Lie down and rest, when you awaken I shall be home.”

Mildred Pierce, by James M. Cain, begins in pre-Depression California, and ends during World War II times, also in California. The main character, Mildred Pierce, is a very attractive housewife of 29, raising two daughters, Ray and Veda. Although Mildred loves both her daughters, Veda is a particular obsession with Mildred. She constantly slaves away throughout the novel to do whatever she can to make Veda happy, despite the constant abuse and deception Veda inflicts upon Mildred. After a divorce from her first husband, Bert, in the opening pages of the novel, Mildred is forced to sacrifice her pride and become a waitress in order to support her family. If Veda were ever to find out, she would be appalled; a constantly recurring

2. Scott’s dog waits every afternoon in the front room for Scott to come home. He knows when he hears the garage door open, Scott will come in and take him out

7)  "I'm going away," he said. "And I want you to know that I'm coming back. I love you…because the entire universe conspired to help me find you…"I'll return, just as your father came back to your mother," he said." (page 122)

“I was just scared. The worst thing was that I thought it was all over....” (263)

The setting of the story occurs in various locations. The book starts out in Natchez, Mississippi in the 1930’s and carries on to the north. Wright spends most of his time going from one place to another, due to the fact that his family is poor and can never pay their rent. This frequent moving makes Wright’s life unbalanced and out of control. He’s never had a place to call home except for his mother. An example would be when Wright went to live with his Uncle Clark, while his mother was ill. After living with his uncle, he realized his real home was where he was with his mother. Wright’s mother was the only person in his life to show him how to act out of love.

At first it was hard for Jeanette to get a job until she got a waitressing job, she decides that it wasn’t for her, so she began to look for a different job. Jeanette later began to intern for The Phoenix which was a newspaper company. As time goes on, she is now working there fulltime, things are starting to look good for her until she learns that her parents are coming to New York. At first the parents were living with Jeanette until they were acting back to their old ways, they got kicked out and forced them to live in their van. But their van ended up getting towed which then caused them to become homeless.

Set in the 1930’s, the novel begins in Oklahoma, and follows the Joad family as they move west to California,

Many people struggled during the Dust Bowl but since Doris’ father and his friend started their own taxi company, they lived well. Doris said, “My dad was an

"The dog fell off a cliff and landed in the lake, but he's okay." I swear the dog gave me a dirty look. From my place in the back seat I could see Dad looking at me in the rearview mirror; his eyes told me he knew there was more, but he never asked.

“I am here. He could not take you from Me. Let them take the house! You still have Me! You win! You win! It’s too much for you. It has become a burden. I have another house for you. I’m tearing you down, to build you back up. You will start from here, here, and then here.”

Her name is Catherine, and in 1925, she was born in an era called the hopeful time. Catherine had six siblings all with jobs, and washing job she did was the laundry and cooking. However, Catherine’s curiosity often got the best of her, for she followed her father on horseback into the fields of wheat. When Catherine eventually went to school, she and her six siblings were in a one-room schoolhouse. She had a cheerful childhood, but hard times were upon them, beginning with the Great Depression. Millions of people lost their jobs. The stock market plummeted, and prices of certain materials drastically fell. For example, wheat prices dramatically changed, leaving farmers with less and less money. Sadly, the large group of farmers . For Catherine and her family, life just got harder with a large drought in

Raymond Carver’s “Jerry and Molly and Sam” is a short, but realistic, assessment about a man named Al.  Al is struggling in life to the point everything around him induces a high level of stress in return. Throughout the story he uses alcohol, driving or both as coping mechanisms instead of facing his problems head on. By using these juvenile strategies, Al “ wished he could keep driving and driving and driving tonight…stopping when he came to where his mother lived, and never, never for any reason ever, ever leave again.” (Carver 19). This shows that Al wants to be a child and doesn’t want the responsibility. As a result, Al’s hardships and anxiety send him into a deep state of depression and mid-life crisis.

I didn’t think that anything was wrong. So, once again I was wrong. I got in the car and asked him why he looked so depressed. He gave me a certain look, and I immediately knew what was wrong. It seemed as in an instant I broke into a screaming tear. No, my dog is not dead, well yet anyway.

This story takes place in 1970’s Kentucky during a bad recession. Leroy is home for 4 months—convalescing from a truck accident in which Leroy hurts his left leg—when his semi truck jackknifes. When he is at home—helpless—he begins to do art and crafts while Norma Jean is lifting weights. She is the bread winner working at Rexall drugs. Not only is she the bread winner, she also does the cooking and cleaning. Leroy is happy to sit and watch her while he smokes a