How Does Raymond Carver Create A Frame Story

546 Words2 Pages

Memories are ways that people stir emotions in others. Raymond Carver exploits his characters memories in "Everything Stuck to Him" to create a frame story. A frame story, or story within a story, allows for an author to have a third person account of characters lives. This careful development from Carver allows for his diction, minimalistic style, and characterization to impact the meaning of the piece.




In Carver's frame story, he uses diction to establish that the couple in the man's story is generic, and their names are not as important as their actions. By omitting the characters' names and simply saying things such as, "They were kids themselves but they were crazy in love, this eighteen-year-old boy, and this seventeen-year-old girl when they married". …show more content…

This impacts the story because it causes the reader to view the frame story as a ------------- that could happen to any young family. This establishes an understanding that the young family is unsure of all their choices and mistakes.




Carver continues to change how the story develops with his minimalist writing style. This impacts the story because many things are left unsaid. Because of this the reader then has to draw conclusions from what Carver writes in the text. Carver uses this strategy to create the family dynamic when the boy is bathing his baby. Such an example from Carver is, "He powdered the tiny body. He powdered between fingers and toes. He emptied the bath into the sink and went upstairs to check the air". From first glance, it appears as if the boy is simply cleaning the baby when the boy is, in fact, doing more than that. These simple sentences force the reader to draw the conclusion that he cares for the baby. Carver shows this by being sure to mention how the boy cleans the smallest parts of the baby. Therefore, this minimalistic style develops the loving family aspect of the story. Carver further

Show More
Related

  • The Change of Perspective in the Author of Sky High

    791 Words  | 2 Pages

    Then, as you move through the passage you get a more serious mood and tone in the writing until the final paragraph where the perspective of the author’s backyard and washing line has changed altogether. The structure has no jumping back and forth in it; no going from the child’s perspective to the adult’s, the story is able to flow easily. The structure is almost in the form of stepping stones, where the change in perspective can go from one point of view to the other, child to adult.

    Read More

  • Bruce Dawe - Americanized

    723 Words  | 2 Pages

    Stanza two shows us how the baby is well looked after, yet is lacking the affection that small children need. The child experiences a ‘vague passing spasm of loss.’ The mother blocks out her child’s cries. There is a lack of contact and warmth between the pair.

    Read More

  • Lullabies for Little Criminals

    924 Words  | 2 Pages

    Baby narrates her story through her naïve, innocent child voice. She serves as a filter for all the events happening in her life, what the narrator does not know or does not comprehend cannot be explained to the readers. However, readers have reason not to trust what she is telling them because of her unreliability. Throughout the beginning of the novel we see Baby’s harsh exposure to drugs and hurt. Jules raised her in an unstable environment because of his constant drug abuse. However, the narrator uses flowery language to downplay the cruel reality of her Montreal street life. “… for a kid, I knew a lot of things about what it felt like to use heroin” (10). We immediately see as we continue reading that Baby thinks the way she has been living her life is completely normal, however, we as readers understand that her life is in fact worse then she narrates. Baby knows about the impermanent nature of her domestic security, however, she repeatedly attempts to create a sense of home each time her and Jules move to another apartm...

    Read More

  • The Role Of The Narrator In Raymond Carver's Cathedral

    570 Words  | 2 Pages

    Carver writes about three different characters with a focus on the development of the narrator himself. Although the reader never know her name, the narrator’s wife plays a small role in the story. She introduces the reader to the blind man. When the wife is in the room with both of the men, things seem to go wrong between the two men. The narrator seems to be almost nervous and upset with the wife for paying so much attention to the blind

    Read More

  • Literary Devices in Carver's Cathedral

    1505 Words  | 4 Pages

    Carver tells the story in first person of a narrator married to his wife. Problems occur when she wants a friend of hers, an old blind man, to visit for a while because his wife has died. The narrator's wife used to work for the blind man in Seattle when the couple was financial insecure and needed extra money. The setting here is important, because Seattle is associated with rain, and rain symbolically represents a cleansing or change. This alludes to the drastic change in the narrator in the end of the story. The wife and blind man kept in touch over the years by sending each other tape recordings of their voices which the narrator refers it to being his wife's "chief means or recreation" (pg 581).

    Read More

  • An Analysis on the Similarities and Differences in Raymond Carver's“A Small Good Thing” and “The Bath”

    2726 Words  | 6 Pages

    ... 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.

    Read More

  • Everyday Use by Alice Walker: A Look at Symbolism and Family Values

    893 Words  | 2 Pages

    Presenting the story from a third person perception and having the narration by the mother or “Mama” gives the story great relevance to real life situations that ha...

    Read More

  • Raymond Carver's Cathedral

    1088 Words  | 3 Pages

    A transformation took place during the story and it is evident through the narrator?s character. In the beginning he was lacking in compassion, he was narrow minded, he was detached, he was jealous, and he was bitter. Carver used carefully chosen words to illustrate the narrator?s character and the change. Throughout the story his character undergoes a transformation into a more emotionally aware human being.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Popular Mechanics By Raymond Carver

    1012 Words  | 3 Pages

    Carver tells the story mainly through what happens in the story, rather than through the narrator’s perspective or the characters’ emotion and personalities. He connects all the events in the story in a logical way by using the elements rising action and climax. Therefore, he drew the reader 's’ attention and raise their curiosity toward what would happen next in the story. At the end, Carver finishes the story with an open ending which is a great way to end the story when the characters are not fully described in both emotion and personality. Therefore, the readers couldn’t predict what the characters would do to solve the conflict. By ending the story with an open ending, Carver allows the readers to create their own ending and satisfy with their own

    Read More

  • Summary Of What We Talk About When We Talk About Love And Cathedral By Raymond Carver

    834 Words  | 2 Pages

    Raymond Carver uses strategic dialogue and point-of-view to illuminate the themes of his stories. After reading “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” and “ Cathedral” the reader is able to mend each piece of work together and understand how Carver creates his short stories.

    Read More

  • Raymond Carver's Use Of Dark Humor

    1157 Words  | 3 Pages

    Though “A Small Good Thing” ends in an epiphany, both stories have a resolution that falls back to the implementation of dark humor. In addition, both stories are alike simply in that they have a clear resolution. Many times, Carver will simply end the story with something for the reader to interpret, and no true, fully explained, resolution. However, in “A Small Good Thing” the couple, Ann and Howard, meet the baker that was unknowingly causing them strife through his calls, and speak to him. They discuss his life and his food. In “Whoever was using this bed”, the couple, after Jack comes home from work, finally resolve their discussion, and promise never to talk of it again. When the woman calls, looking for Bud, the wife unplugs the phone, signifying the end of their uneasy and morbid topic of discussion. In “A Small Good Thing” their talk with the baker symbolizes something similar, a resolution to strife, a final security. Either way, each story provides a clear break from the dark humor plot into

    Read More

  • Attack on Titan

    1777 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...verything around us is made by our actions. Positive or negative they cause an effect that will ultimately lead to a different story base on how we interpret life. Narrative elements are used as a bridge by the directors in their film to create any master plot that is currently known. Any modification at any narrative element used by the director at important moments inside the story can help you portray a different master plot. This used of narrative elements can be best described as an ever changing process that takes place inside an individual’s head. Depending on the individual that may be exposed to those narrative elements can create different meanings. This new interpretation can be different for everyone. We have to be aware that one change in the surface scenery can lead to many ideal outcomes in our minds and that is the main power the audience has.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Are You A Doctor

    885 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ellectual challenge. Carver doesn’t tell us what happens exactly because it leaves some doubt and that gets the brain working and intellect going. When Arnold arrived to the mysterious house of Clara, the reader expected the meeting to be important because Clara said she had to say something to Arnold. As the encounter between Clara and Arnold progresses, it because more evident that the only reason Clara wanted Arnold to come over is because she is lonely and wants a man and that it is a very pointless meeting. If Craver would have just told the reader what was going on, the short story would be less interesting. It is the uncertainty that makes the reader figure out what is going on, and when they piece the puzzles together,

    Read More

  • Raymond Carver's Popular Mechanics

    627 Words  | 2 Pages

    The narrator tries to apprise us in this line “He was in the bedroom pushing clothes into a suitcase when she came to the door.” That the husband was at home packing his belongings and he determined to leave the house and his wife, which gives an emphasis to the finality of the relationship between them. Carver also uses short sentences throughout the story, as mentioned in this line,

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Raymond Carver's The Bath

    1226 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

More about How Does Raymond Carver Create A Frame Story

Open Document