Carver, Raymond. (1938 - 1988), Father worked sawmill, mother waitress. Live in Washington State Father was an alcoholic and beat wife.Carver at 18 went to work at sawmill, marriedWent to Community College and got interested in writing “If it sounds like the story of a life, okay” Style: “dirty” realism (struggling working class writing); simple writing without “ornaments”; “love” and tone of respect for his characters“don’t call me minimalist”ordinary, underperceptive, and despairing
Common topics/themes: living on with working class loss, anxiety and torment in everyday life; Theme: Ordinary people can take part in the deep secrets of life and epiphanies of “high” literature in how they treat each other dealing with life’s daily problems Dirty Realism style in the 70’s: inspiration and impt to 70’s writers as Hemmingway was for earlier generation IN THE TRADITION OF: Chekhov, and Ernest Hemingway are the obvious influences
join the Iowa Writers' Workshop on poetry scholarship.
Writing awards but still poverty, becomes alcoholic, along with wife described himself as "a cigarette with a body attached to it"
Hospitalized 4 times for acute alcoholism, given 6 months before liver failure 1976 – short stories nominated for national book award and quits drinking remarries, many writing awards, professor
dies of
lung cancer in 1988
Raymond
Carver QUESTIONS:
SUMMARY:
Any difference
between soap opera melodrama and this story?
Significance of
title, A Small Good Thing?
Any images or
scenes that are memorable or elicited emotion?
How goes the first interaction
between Anne and baker?
CHARACTERIZATION:
baker's
"thick neck" and "coarse
features"
Why does
Dr. Francis say "no coma" to the parents? He repeats this again later
on. He says, "He's just in a very
deep sleep. . . . He's out of any real danger, I'd say that for certain, yes" . Should he
have said these things?
Father:”Until now his life had gone smoothly and to his satisfaction – college, marriage, …Fatherhood”
Why do you
think Carver included the African American family in his story
When Ann
gets back to the hospital she silently tells the teenage girl in
Symbols? Trace the roll of eating in the story:
Cake for
celebration
Eating for
sustenance and breaks
Eating at
end
The baker phones the parents' home
in the dead of night
Why is it important that Anne and
Howard confront the baker in the middle of the night?
Why the anger towards
the baker and not the doctors?
The baker
is stunned to learn about the child's death; he begs forgiveness and offers
them warm delicious cinnamon rolls. "Eating is a small, good thing in a
time like this"
SETTING:
What is the weather like on the drive to the bakery? How does the atmosphere of
the inside of the bakery contrast to the cold night?
CONFLICT COMES FROM… miscommunications and how they play in the story.
What are
the miscommunications?
SIGNIFICANCE
OF ENDING PAGE
WHICH
ERATTTTIC besides “Tradition” for Carver?
A small Good Thing Vs Birthday, Somebody, and Scales???
Which has
more right to be in a compilation of literature and why?
@
Why does
Ann give up "trying to make friends with the baker? Is there any significance
to age and look to characterization?
Ann Weiss's age?
Do the
baker's "thick neck" and "coarse features" match
his personality?
What
happens to the birthday boy on the day of his birthday?
Why does
Ann Weiss want to talk more with the family of the boy Franklin? What is it that they have in common?
Contrast
the behavior of this family with the hospital staff.
Why do you think Carver
included the African American family in his story
When Ann
gets back to the hospital she silently tells the teenage girl in
The
baker phones the parents' home in the dead of night
Why
is it important that Anne and Howard confront the baker in the middle of the
night?
Why the anger towards the baker and not the doctors?
Does
the bread the baker offers take on a symbolic meaning as you re-read the story?
The baker is stunned to learn about the child's death; he
begs forgiveness and offers them warm delicious cinnamon rolls. "Eating is
a small, good thing in a time like this"
SETTING: What is the weather like on the drive to the bakery? How does the
atmosphere of the inside of the bakery contrast to the cold night?
CONFLICT
COMES FROM… miscommunications
and how they play in the story.
a
lot of the misunderstandings that occurred in the story were due to a lack of
communication between the parents and the baker
When the baker calls he says, “There’s a cake that
wasn’t picked up”. He should have been clearer as to who placed the order, when
the order was placed, and for what occasion the cake was baked.
CARVER:
SUMMARY:
This story concerns the death of a child and failures of communication. Scotty, an eight year old, is hit by a car on his birthday. His mother had ordered a birthday cake but "there were no pleasantries between" her and the baker. Scotty is hospitalized, unconscious, and the cake is forgotten. Dr. Francis reassures the anxious parents that all will be well when the boy wakes up.
The baker phones the parents' home in the dead of night (when he does his baking) because the cake hasn't been picked up, but they can't figure out who he is or what he wants. At the same time the doctors and staff can't and won't answer their questions about why Scotty isn't waking up. Dr. Francis comes to the hospital to check the child, looking tanned, meticulously dressed, as if he has just been out for the evening- he has a life outside of the hospital, but the parents have none. When they do run home, separately, to take a break, the baker torments them with his mysterious late-night calls. Their confusion and isolation deepen. The child dies-"a one-in-a-million circumstance."
The mother finally realizes that it is the baker who has been calling and tracks him down, enraged. She unleashes all of the anger which she had been unable to express to the doctors. The baker is stunned to learn about the child's death; he begs forgiveness and offers them warm delicious cinnamon rolls. "Eating is a small, good thing in a time like this" and they are comforted.
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Scotty, an eight year old, is hit by a car on his birthday. His mother had ordered a birthday cake but "there were no pleasantries between" her and the baker. Scotty is hospitalized, unconscious, and the cake is forgotten. Dr. Francis reassures the anxious parents that all will be well when the boy wakes up.