In the short story, “Neighbors” written by Raymond Carver, a number of symbols were projected through various objects; from the separation of houses to the cat locked away in the bathroom, this is all for the purpose of conveying meaning to an overall theme. The story first introduces us to Bill and Arlene Miller, a so-seemed normal suburban couple with neighbors Harriet and Jim Stone who live just across the hall from where they do. As the story progresses on, the Stones give Bill and Arlene two simple tasks: feed Kitty and water the plants; but little by little, the significance of the two tasks become negligible in the eyes of the Millers and the life of Harriet and Jim Stone becomes vital to the wholly-preoccupied Bill Miller. The more …show more content…
From simply slipping medication into the pockets of his own to taking nibbles of cheeses, Bill Miller simply loses his consciousness. Kitty represents his subconscious; once free and focused has become dazed and locked away. Not only is Kitty a symbol, but she was also the one to bring Bill back from his unachievable fantasies; he simply ignored the reason why he was there in the first place and locking Kitty in the bathroom assisted his deranged mind to craft his new found “life”. Furthermore, the symbol of Kitty helped to illustrate the overall theme of the short story: the envious state of human nature. Ironically enough, just as Bill has locked away Kitty, the Millers have been locked away from their escape. Symbols such as the two houses and Kitty in the short story “Neighbors” helped to convey the overall theme of human nature. The separation of houses showed the two sides: the Millers and the Stones, one with a more luxurious life and the other more basic. The Millers reflected upon the other side, and tried to place themselves into the alternate to have that source of freedom. As for Kitty, she was simply Bill’s mind. Bill locked his true self away, and ironically enough, he was locked out of his fantasy and the single thread has been trimmed. He should’ve just fed the
Inside the house there were “piles of Tupperware and glass dishes” (19). Outside there was a shed, garden, trees, and a river. There was an office. There were “brass numbers” hanging “on the front porch” (19).
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).
Is it typical for an average, happy couple to fantasize and even role-play the lives of their neighbors? The answer lies within Raymond Carvers short story “Neighbors”. It is clear that Bill, a bookkeeper, and Arlene, a secretary, find their lives less exciting and are envious of their wealthy, close friends and neighbors, the Stones’. The Millers are described as an unsatisfied couple living vicariously through their neighbors as they are away on vacation. Bill and Arlene impersonate their neighbors, don’t get sexually active unless they have recently visited their neighbors apartment, and travel individually to experience their fantasy instead of fantasizing as a couple.
In Raymond Carver’s “Neighbors” the speaker’s attention seems to be more directed on the Bill and Arlene Miller. The Millers are a married couple who were once a happy couple but as the years went along they felt grew apart. It seems as though they are too busy comparing their lives to the Harriet and Jim Stone, which are their neighbors, that they don’t have time to fix their marriage. The Stones do what married people should do and that’s “go out for dinner, or entertaining at home, or traveling about the country somewhere…(70).” The Millers are given the responsibility of looking after the
In a world full of cheaters, liars, and con artists, the last person anyone should lie to is themselves. However, that is exactly what took place in Raymond Carver's, "Neighbors." In this story, Bill and Arlene Miller were left with the opportunity to take care of Jim and Harriet Stone's apartment while they were away visiting family for ten days. The Millers had grown weary of their lives and often felt jealous of their neighbors, who they felt lived a happier and more exciting life than they. In their neighbors' absence, the Millers acted very strangely; trying on their clothes, drinking their alcohol, and spending excessive amounts of time in their apartment. They tried living the life of the Stones until one day they were locked out of their own apartment with no way of returning to their own dreary lives. This story shows that a person should never try to be something they are not. If a change is needed, it should always be from within or else you eventually find yourself lost, with nowhere to turn except for the long, dark, and deceitful world of lies.
Ingrained within the American identity is a restless spirit that is never content to be defined by the same terms for too long. Yet the things Americans value remain the same, evidenced by the titles they strive so hard to attain—husband, wife, mother, father. These titles represent who Americans are as much as what they are. They are the roles that give Americans purpose and meaning. The defining aspect of Raymond Carver's short story, “A Small, Good Thing,” is the fact that its characters are undeniably American. “A Small, Good Thing” was originally published in 1981 as “The Bath” in Carver's second major publication, What we Talk About When we Talk About Love, before reappearing two years later in Cathedral, longer and revised. The second version includes a new ending that lends more closure than its predecessor but completely changes the meaning of the story, painting the conflict in a new light, creating a tone that saturates the story like a colored filter over a lens; however, what the new ending offers most is deeper insight into the identity of the characters involved—who they are, what they hope for, what they're afraid of, and what has the power to heal them.
In ?Everyday Use?, Alice Walker chooses to develop the idea of poverty by focusing exclusively on the environment in which her protagonists live. Setting attributes, such as the ones used to describe the house in which the protagonists reside, enables us to better understand the theme. In fact, the dwelling does not even have any real windows. Instead, it has holes cut in the sides, like the portholes of a ship, but not round and not square, with rawhide holding the shutters up on the outside. Then, Walker proceeds with inside description of the house as she points out that the protagonists use benches for their table instead of chairs because they cannot financially afford any. Further, the author supports the theme by providing us with some physical description of specific objects. The use of quilts that ?Grandma Dee? sewed from the scraps of her dress and the churn that Uncle Henry whittled from the wood is not derived from the protagonists? intention to preserve ?family values? but rather from a necessity to ?survive?.
Laughter echoing, voices chattering, people began to gather on the front porch. Not many people actually talk and visit with each other now a days. In “The Front Porch,” Chester McCovey speaks of how garages have replaced the usage of the front porch. When I first looked at the short story, I didn’t realize how much people really did sit on the front porch all the time. I’m one of the many few people that still gather on the front porch. Today we teenagers might not even talk on the front porch, but on the beds of our trucks instead. My brother, friends, and I used to talk about all our problems or just about life itself. We’d crack up and would have a marvelous time enjoying all the memories we would recall. Actually, the front porch conversations
As the narrator blatantly admits, 'since I have a poet's weakness for symbols', symbols are central to The Glass Menagerie (Williams 30). Symbols are merely concrete substitutions used to express a particular theme, idea, or character. One major symbol is the fire escape which has a separate function for each of the characters. This fire escape provides a means of escape for Tom from his cramped apartment and nagging mother. Therefore, the fire escape for him represents a path to the outside world. For the gentleman caller, the fire escape provides the means through which Jim can enter the Wingfield apartment, thus entering their lives. For Amanda, the fire escape allows Jim to come into the apartment and prevent Laura from becoming a spinster. The significance of the fire escape for Laura is that it is her door to the inside world in which she can hide. It is ironic that when Laura does leave the security of her apartment, she falls. This symbolises Laura's inability to function properly in the outside world.
Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” uses storytelling to establish an emotional connection with the reader emphasizing a message of positive transformation through human contact. This short story blends the qualities of minimalism with the poetic emotionalism of realism to provide a narrative about attitudes and relationships. Although this story is not the classical example of minimalism, Carver uses the negative element of emptiness to portray this style. On the surface, this is a simple story told from the viewpoint of the narrator, a close-minded husband who lacks deep connection in his life, “‘I don’t have any blind friends,’ I said. ‘You don’t have any friends,’ she said” (Carver, 745). Initially the narrow-minded narrator paints a feeling
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.
The first three stanzas present an image of neighbor as a secretive, but shrewd farmer. He is shrouded in mystery to the narrator and her companions, as is his great prize-winning sow, impounded from public stare. He obviously views the sow as a source of great pride, but also something very secret and personal. Even his barn takes on a mystical quality as the narrator wanders its lantern-corridors as if in a maze. In fact, the speaker will only venture in at dusk to try and catch a glimpse of the wonderous beast.
Throughout the story, the cat is used as a symbol to exemplify the narrator’s suspicion of the supernatural manifestations. The narrator is constantly aware of his cat’s actions. He personifies
Another example of symbolism used in the story is when the shapeless splotch of white hair on the black cat is signified as a structure to hang criminals, bringing the narrator into madness by the cat’s physique, During one night drunk at a tavern, the narrator who had just finished off Pluto finds a cat who looked exactly like the one he had killed, but with a minor difference, just a white shapeless splotch on its breast. Noticing its affection for him, he took the cat in as his pet, but soon found himself being annoyed by it, and then that feeling turned into hatred. However, he still kept it as a pet until he nervously and frantically realized the white splotch actually meant. He said, “This object, above all, made me hate and dread the monster. I would have gotten rid of it had I
In his poem The Young Housewife, William Carlos Williams uses a series of images to capture a fleeting moment in time, an emotion of admiration and desire. As a man who has endured a few heartbreaks and regrets in life, I identified with the contrite and “solitary” speaker who watches a struggling woman whom he used to love (4). The poem’s main focus is this young woman; newly married, who was most likely involved with the speaker in the past. In the first stanza, Williams gives the reader a glimpse of the woman in "her husband's house" (3). His description is somewhat voyeuristic as he depicts the woman “at ten A.M. […] in negligee behind / the wooden walls,” but yet somehow he is still able to see her (1, 2-3). Whether he is literally seeing her move about the house in her undergarments or if it is just in his imagination is unknown to the reader. Although this seems purely lustful, I believe the speaker has more innocent feelings than are apparent. He sees her, the woman whom he once treasured and desired, living a mundane life with an ungrateful spouse. I can imagine that this would be quite difficult to watch. Having witnessed past sweethearts make imprudent decisions and live consequently unhappy lives, I know how it can be unsettling. The speaker “pass[es] solitary in [his] car,” feeling empathy for her, but unable to lend aid (4). This is a very relatable situation that most ex-lovers will face; a sense of distance and a resulting feeling of helplessness.