Raymond Carver Essay

Many writers suffer from the real problems of the world. Such as depression, alcoholism, schizophrenia, and other mental illnesses. They often show their real life problems in their stories. Raymond Carver is an excellent example of a writer that has been affected by alcoholism, which influenced most of his short stories. According to the biographical school Carver’s childhood and several relationships were also the result in his short story themes about disappointment and loss.

Raymond Carver was born on May 25, 1938, in Clatskanie, Oregon, a sawmill town in the Columbia River. His father, Clevie Raymond Carver, worked in the sawmill as a saw-filer. Raymond worked for the mill at the age he became old enough to work. His father was a vicious alcoholic; ultimately foreshadowing Raymond's alcohol problem. Carver's mother, Ella Casey Carver, she was employed to raise the families income by acting as a waitress and retail jobs. His working class family faced poverty among other families in his neighborhood. Carvers father enjoyed telling and reading stories to him. Carver's father let him know stories about his heritage and likewise read to him stories. When Carver was able to pick his own books or magazines to read, Carver read magazines like "Sports Afield," "Argosy" and "Outdoor life," and some of his most loved authors included Thomas B. Costain and Edgar Rice Boroughs. Readings from these scholars motivated him to start writing his own stories at an early age.

At the age of eighteen Carver married his pregnant girlfriend Maryann Burk by the age of twenty he had two children. In 1958 Carver attended Chico State College. He then graduated from Humboldt State College in 1963. Trying to obtain an education and providing fo...

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Ironically, however Robert is physically blind, it is the narrator who is the one who is bling to the world. The narrator is a troubled individual; from the discussion with his wife, it is uncovered that he doesn't have companions. Like Carver's life, the storyteller's utilization of alcohol is destroying his marriage with his wife; she rather discuses personal problems and converse with Robert and not her husband. The strong friendship between the narrator's wife and Robert aroused his insecurities and bias opinion. He is envious of the relationship between Robert and his wife; he feels like "she has told him everything or it so it seemed" about their marriage. The narrator tries to hide behind his hopeless life by drinking; almost identical to Carver addiction to alcohol when he was bankrupt and could not support his family with his minimum wage job.