Last Fragment, By Raymond Carver

Why, honey? is a short story written by Raymond Carver. The story has been written in the form of a mother’s letter describing the problematic and untrustful relationship between a fearing mother and her son. Fear, trust and desperation are constantly present in this story which Carver has written to hint a treacherous and heartless image of powerful people masked into a story about a boy and a mother.

The short story What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, by Raymond Carver, is about two married couples drinking gin and having a talk about the nature of love. The conversation is a little sloppy, and the characters make some comments which could either be meaningless because of excessive alcohol in the bloodstream, or could be the characters' true feelings because of excessive alcohol in the bloodstream. Overall, the author uses this conversation to show that when a relationship first begins, the people involved may have misconceptions about their love, but this love will eventually die off or develop into something much more meaningful.

The Short Story “My Father’s Life,” by Raymond Carver illustrates the difficult task of a son trying to find his own sense of identity and individualism while watching his father’s life unravel. Carver explores the relationships of his parents and his own struggle with sharing the same name with his father and the similarities and differences between them.

Age does negatively affect the ability of two people to achieve the life they want, raise a child, and maintain a relationship. In “Everything Stuck to Him” by Raymond Carver, the boy and the girl can’t live a life they want. Carver states “They were kids themselves, but they were crazy in love… Not all that long afterwards they had a daughter” (985). They were both young and with not so much responsibility until the baby. Raising a child at a young age is also very difficult at a young age. Raymond shows us this when he says “I don’t know what’s wrong, the girl said, walking back and forth with the baby” (986). The girl seems stressed because she can’t figure out what is wrong with the baby. The boy wanted to go out with his friends, but the girl didn’t let him. Without the experience, she couldn’t understand what the baby needed. At a young age with a child can be

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.

In almost every story there is a meaning, whether that meaning is obvious or not is up to the readers’ interpretations. In some stories, that meaning hides behind a character, how that person acts, thinks, or express themselves and how they change throughout resembling growth. In Raymond Carver’s “The Cathedral”, the unnamed husband narrators the tale of his wife’s old blind friend Robert coming to visit after not seeing each other for years. They had remained in contact through audiotapes, but the husband seems to not understand the significance of their relationship, showing distaste with the visit for the majority of the story, due to his uncomfortableness. In this story, the writer displays his tale and its morals; by using the narration of the husband; Carver shows that there comes to be more meaning behind this bitter man that meets the eye, which argues the fact that perhaps this unlikable narrator is truly the antihero.

One of the points that is consistently brought up in Toni Morrison’s Paradise is that of the all black town “Ruby”. Paradise uses the setting of Oklahoma to discuss how many black towns are shaped by past history and religion. While the town in this novel is fictional, there have been real all black towns in the United States, and it seems that these towns influenced many aspects of the town Ruby, which is why it is so easy to imagine that the story could actually be real. Many authors have written in general about the novel, and specifically about the town within it.

Some of the most common themes in contemporary biographical films revolve around social life as well as the accompanying problems that living in today's society entails. By making connections to individual personal lives, these films help most people make sense of the world in which they live. In this regard, this paper focuses on the film, The Pursuit of Happyness outlining various cultural issues as well as problems faced by the starring; Will Smith playing Chris Gardner in the movie. Moreover, the paper discusses how such factual films reflect and create popular ideas about social problems.

You can never seem to know what's going on in another ones life, unless you put your feet in there shoes, so to judge, is simply ignorance. Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" is a story about how the narrator is uncomfortable with having his wife's blind friend, Robert, over. Roger has lost his wife, and to cope with her death, he planned to visit the narrator's wife. Without any knowledge whatsoever on how to act in accompany towards a blind man, the narrator seems to get a glimpse of what it is to truly fit into the blind mans shoe.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee ventures with the reader through a world filled with

The short story “Little things” by Raymond Carver which was previously titled, “Mine” was included in Carvers 1981 collection, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” and later got the title, “Little Thing’s” and was included in his 1988 collection, “Where I’m Calling From.” In this story the author uses symbolism of metaphor and foreshadowing to present the themes such as lack of communication, struggle and separation. The short story also has more than one tone which are hostile, unfriendly, and aggressive. The author demonstrates in this story that little is more by the lack of names and details he uses, but still can express the feelings, and points of the story for the reader to establish while reading the story. Even though it may

There are many reasons why people experience things differently; every living organism has different perspectives and backgrounds that influence how they experience a place or event. My experience with New York, for example, I have never been fond of Manhattan because every time I went there I just followed my parents around and never actually did anything. I have never had a good experience in Manhattan; meanwhile, my friends love Manhattan because they always have fun when going there. There are many influential factors that determine whether someone has a good or bad experience and one of the main reasons why people experience things differently is because of past experiences. The racial difference between blacks and whites and their differing experiences with New York shows in James Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time,” Ralph Ellison’s “New York, 1936,” and Allen Ginsberg’s “Mugging.” With blacks being treated harshly for years through slavery and discrimination, they are trained to fear and despise whites and feel more comfortable with people of their own background.

“Everything Stuck to Him” This is the short story, “Everything Stuck to Him” by Raymond Carver. This story is about a father who is asked by his daughter to tell a story of when she was little. The story he tells is about a Girl, a Boy, and a baby. The boy decides to go hunting, but when the baby girl gets sick the boy has to make a choice. He could go hunting or commit to his family.

As the class continued I have been exposed to many different articles, authors, and videos. I have enjoyed all of the reading and videos thus far. I had a few of the assignments stand out to me, and take a deeper meaning than others. One of the activity’s that I had a strong opinion on is one we covered most recently in class named “One Last Time”, written by Gary Soto. This article has stood out to me the most this semester because it is strongly related to me and my family. My mom’s sister, Aunty Patty about 10 years ago married a Mexican guy that goes by the name of Paul Gonzales. He is from Mexico and has crossed illegally with his three brothers and 3 nephews with I am very close to. They came over to America hoping for a better life and hoping to make more money. They were stuck doing many jobs under the

‘Boxes’ is a short story that focuses on the limits that people are confined to either by their own doing or by society; it is a story about physical and psychological boxes that they put their emotions and true feeling into. The story focuses on the mother who, plagued by depression, contains her emotions and relies on lies and manipulation to achieve her goals; her son, the narrator, who cannot bring himself to ‘unbox’ his true feelings about his mother; and Jill, whom serves as a foil to both characters by having no walls or barriers.