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Popular Mechanics Raymond Carver Essay

Decent Essays

In the story “Popular Mechanics” written by Raymond Carver, the author exploits character development to set the mood and add emotional depth to the tragic piece of literature. He scatters vivid adjectives, a dreary setting, and sharp dialogue throughout the text. By leaving out punctuation, Carver implies an intense and rushed mood. Once can infer the personalities and inner-conflicts of the two main characters by focusing on the character’s dialogue and actions. As a reader, Carver’s techniques aid one in understanding and analyzing the emotions concealed beneath the event of the story and the characters. Within the text, literary techniques convey the level of intensity brought on by the adult’s fight over their child. Throughout the story, Carver does not place quotation marks around the character’s speech. This tactic indicates that the speech is being said quickly and angrily, which explains the verbal element of the quarrel. Carver applies the frequent use of violent, descriptive adjectives and verbs within his writing to portray the physical part of the fight. An example would be, “her fisted fingers.” indicating that the mother is very angry, or “He crowded her.” showing that the man invades the woman’s space forcefully. The author helps his audience visualize the violence and …show more content…

Nowhere in the story shows any dialogue of the parents caring for and loving their young child, which suggests that Carver purposely makes the parents selfish and blinded by their infernos of rage towards each other. “She would have it, this baby. She grabbed for the baby’s other arm. She caught the baby around the wrist and leaned back.” (lines 53-54). Both parents aggressively tug at the baby’s limbs, and this conflict shows readers how illogical the characters act out of hate and rage. Also notice how the mother does not call her own baby by its name, and refers to it as “this

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