A Sense Of Menace In The Bath By Raymond Carver

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“The Bath” is the first story by Raymond Carver that I remember reading. Despite it being a seemingly normal short story about a boy who falls into a coma after a car accident, it’s intriguing how when Carver writes from a detached narrative point of view, he transforms ordinary events into unusual or creepy ones. Clearly, though, this is his intention since in “Fires: Essays, Poems, Stories”, Carver is quoted as saying, “I like it when there is some sense of menace in short stories” and “There has to be tension, a sense that something is imminent” (1983). We can sense this menace in the way he presents the butler as a rather unfriendly or gruff person who is reluctant to talk or interact with his customer since he offers “No pleasantries,

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