In Raymond Carver's 'The Bath' and rewritten version of the story entitled 'A Small, Good Thing', the author tells the same tale in different ways, and to different ends, creating variegated experiences for the reader. Both stories have the same central plot and a majority of details remain the same, but the effects that the stories have upon the reader is significantly different. The greatest character difference is found in the role of the Baker, and his interaction with the other characters. The sparse details, language and sentence structure of 'The Bath' provide a sharp contrast emotionally and artistically to 'A Small Good Thing'. In many ways, 'The Bath' proves to have a more emotional impact because of all that it doesn't say; it's sparse, minimalist storytelling gives the impression of numbed shock and muted reactions. The descriptive storytelling of 'A Small Good Thing' goes deeper into the development of the characters and although it tells more story, it ends on a note of hopefulness, instead of fear or desperation. Each story has it's own magic that weave it's a powerful. When compared to each other the true masterpiece of each story is best revealed.
Both stories open with the same happy task; a mother is choosing a birthday cake for her son, Scotty. In 'The Bath' we are given details of appearance of the cake and a detailed description of the baker, but no real insight into the inner thoughts of the characters. In 'A Small Good Thing' we are treated to the mother's thoughts on the baker and her reflection on what commonalities they may have. She finds herself disliking the baker, “He made her feel uncomfortable, and she didn't like that...She gave up trying to make friends with him” (Carver ) In each versi...
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... words, and they had better be the right ones, with the punctuation in the right places.” n each of these stories, Carver makes those words take reader to the same scene twice and end up in a new place each time. He is a master wordsmith and the uniqueness that is 'The Bath' and 'A Small Good Thing' is a masterpiece.
Works Cited
Carver, Raymond. "A Small Good Thing, by Raymond Carver." University at Buffalo- Wings Central Campus Web Server. Web. 01 Dec. 2010. .
Carver, Raymond. "Carversite: Raymond Carver Quotations (on Reading, Writing and Rewriting)." Carversite: Raymond Carver. Web. 01 Dec. 2010. .
Carver, Raymond. "The Bath." Writer's Presence: a Pool of Readings. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. 919-25. Print.
With an evident attempt at objectivity, the syntax of Passage 1 relies almost entirely on sentences of medium length, uses a few long sentences for balance, and concludes with a strong telegraphic sentence. The varying sentence length helps keep the readers engaged, while also ensuring that the writing remains succinct and informative. Like the varying sentence length, the sentence structures vary as complex sentences are offset by a few scattered simple sentences. The complex sentences provide the necessary description, and the simple sentences keep the writing easy to follow. Conversely, Passage 2 contains mostly long, flowing sentences, broken up by a single eight word sentence in the middle. This short sentence, juxtaposed against the length of the preceding and following sentences, provides a needed break in the text, but also bridges the ideas of the two sentences it falls between. The author employs the long sentences to develop his ideas and descriptions to the fullest extent, filling the sentences with literary elements and images. Coupled...
"Unit 2: Reading & Writing About Short Fiction." ENGL200: Composition and Literature. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 49-219. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
Upon reading Raymond Carver's short story of the Cathedral one will notice the literary devices used in the short story. When analyzing the story completely, one then understands the themes, motifs, metaphors, and the overall point of the piece. This leaves the reader with an appreciation of the story and a feeling of complete satisfaction.
Have you ever read short stories by ray bradbury? In this essay i will be taking you through the similarities and differences i found while i was reading the three stories. I will also be discussing the characters and how they helped to give a better picture of the settings. Shall we begin.
'Tender Mercies,'; written by Horton Foote, is a screenplay, which presents to the reader ordinary people, who are trying to live decently in an unpredictable and violent world. The reader comes to be aware of many dramatic scenes where the central characters have come to experience many complex but yet fascinating situations in their lives. Reading this screenplay the reader will come to acknowledge one of the centralized themes in 'Tender Mercies,'; which is the theme of redemption. For those who are unaware of the word, redemption as it applies to the screenplay 'Tender Mercies'; is the literary word meaning to be saved or saving someone from an experience or a situation. The reader can observe this redemption at various times through many characters, such as: Mac, Rosa Lee, Sunny, and Dixie. Each one of these characters has been redeemed by other characters or has been the redeemer of other characters. Thus, in the paragraphs to proceed, the reader will be introduced to these exact characters and to the situations from which these characters were redeemed from or whom they had redeemed. Alongside, the reader will also come to recognize how this theme provides the clearest reason why 'Tender Mercies'; is neither a Tragedy nor Pathos.
Now we have examined three stories written by two well distinguished authors known for their Southern Gothic Literature and found many similarities in each story. Each story has its form of the grotesque we have Miss Emily, the Misfit, the Grandmother, and Marley Pointer and let’s not leave out Helga. The characters of each story has some form of cringe inducing quality, meaning some kind of attitude about themselves that gets under ones skin. Then as we can see from the stories they all are Southern based each story is in a Southern setting. And the final thing we look for in Southern Gothic literature is tragedy which all three stories possessed.
Therefore, Oliver’s incorporation of imagery, setting, and mood to control the perspective of her own poem, as well as to further build the contrast she establishes through the speaker, serves a critical role in creating the lesson of the work. Oliver’s poem essentially gives the poet an ultimatum; either he can go to the “cave behind all that / jubilation” (10-11) produced by a waterfall to “drip with despair” (14) without disturbing the world with his misery, or, instead, he can mimic the thrush who sings its poetry from a “green branch” (15) on which the “passing foil of the water” (16) gently brushes its feathers. The contrast between these two images is quite pronounced, and the intention of such description is to persuade the audience by setting their mood towards the two poets to match that of the speaker. The most apparent difference between these two depictions is the gracelessness of the first versus the gracefulness of the second. Within the poem’s content, the setting has been skillfully intertwined with both imagery and mood to create an understanding of the two poets, whose surroundings characterize them. The poet stands alone in a cave “to cry aloud for [his] / mistakes” while the thrush shares its beautiful and lovely music with the world (1-2). As such, the overall function of these three elements within the poem is to portray the
Both of these stories served as mile markers in the history of children's literature, and marked turning points in our Society. For the first time, children were allowed to think freely, and learn. They independently formed their own thoughts on life, God, and many of the other highly regulated aspects of their society. Until this time most of the children were taught to think as their parents or feel the wrath of vengeful and often cruel God.
Piper’s use of imagery in this way gives the opportunity for the reader to experience “first hand” the power of words, and inspires the reader to be free from the fear of writing.
Suffering from the death of a close friend, the boy tries to ignore his feelings and jokes on his sister. His friend was a mental patient who threw himself off a building. Being really young and unable to cope with this tragedy, the boy jokes to his sister about the bridge collapsing. "The mention of the suicide and of the bridge collapsing set a depressing tone for the rest of the story" (Baker 170). Arguments about Raisinettes force the father to settle it by saying, "you will both spoil your lunch." As their day continues, their arguments become more serious and present concern for the father who is trying to understand his children better. In complete agreement with Justin Oeltzes’ paper, "A Sad Story," I also feel that this dark foreshadowing of time to come is an indication of the author’s direct intention to write a sad story.
Raymond Carver uses strategic dialogue and point of view to articulate themes in his short stories. Another tactic Carver uses in his writing is analyzing basic human skills such as the ability to define love through intimate relations between characters that reveal deeper meaning. In the short stories “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” and “Cathedral,” he investigates relationships and how the characters develop the true meaning of love. While reading these two short stories the reader is able to comprehend the similarities that draw Carver’s works together. Through these stories the reader is also able to understand his outlook on love and human kinship. Carver uses certain strategies and techniques that allow him to bring a parallel between his different stories, but there are also definite things that set each story apart.
In Raymond Carver's "Cathedral," the husband's view of blind men is changed when he encounters his wife's long time friend, Robert. His narrow minded views and prejudice thoughts of one stereotype are altered by a single experience he has with Robert. The husband is changed when he thinks he personally sees the blind man's world. Somehow, the blind man breaks through all of the husband's jealousy, incompetence for discernment, and prejudgments in a single moment of understanding.
Within every story or poem, there is always an interpretation made by the reader, whether right or wrong. In doing so, one must thoughtfully analyze all aspects of the story in order to make the most accurate assessment based on the literary elements the author has used. Compared and contrasted within the two short stories, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, and John Updike’s “A&P,” the literary elements character and theme are made evident. These two elements are prominent in each of the differing stories yet similarities are found through each by studying the elements. The girls’ innocence and naivety as characters act as passages to show something superior, oppression in society shown towards women that is not equally shown towards men.
Wilson, M. & Clark, R. (n.d.). Analyzing the Short Story. [online] Retrieved from: https://www.limcollege.edu/Analyzing_the_Short_Story.pdf [Accessed: 12 Apr 2014].
Raymond Carver’s The Bath is a revised version of his early work of A Small, Good Thing. In his two pieces of the short story, the length of the story significantly varied as The Bath is a lot shorter. Moreover, his former work has more detailed emotional expressions while The Bath lacks communications and leaves to the reader a suspenseful ending. The story begins in a third person view with a mother has her son’s birthday cake made to order at a bakery. Then his son is hit by a car when crossing the road. The mother and father come to hospital and exchange words from the doctor. Finally, the story ends with an unfinished ending which doesn’t show any sign of boy’s fate but a strange phone call that says the son’s name. There are several things