Literary Analysis Popular Mechanics
Katie Shamblin
Mr. Standridge
ENG 102-031
28 September 2010
Questions Unanswered
Life is often presented with unanswered questions. Unanswered questions in literature cause the reader to wonder. However, there are also questions the author purposefully wants the reader to ask at the beginning of a work in order to leave the reader hanging. In Raymond Carver’s “Popular Mechanics,” he causes the reader to wonder. Carver uses ambiguity throughout his work in several different ways causing the reader to speculate. {you need to be specific in your thesis statement… “carver uses ambiguity throughout his work—setting, characterization, conflict, conclusion—to cause the reader to speculate” actually state the areas you will discuss in the paper as part of your thesis}
Carver first uses ambiguity right at the beginning of the story. In the first few sentences he says, “Cars slushed by on the street outside, where it was getting dark. But it was getting dark on the inside too” (334). The atmosphere is dark and gloomy outside because of the weather, but it raises the question of why it is dark on the inside too and what is meant by that. Is it the inside of the house, or is it the inside of one of the characters? {continue this idea of ambiguity of setting…where else in the story is there ambiguity of place? I would mention that the weather was crying “streaks down the window” to foreshadow the tears to be shed. also the symbol of the snow’s “whiteness” becoming “dirty” which implies that a turn is about to happen that is not so good}
{new paragraph} Nevertheless, Carver presents another question as the story continues to build{ through the ambiguity of conflict}. He states that “[h]e was in the bedroom pushing clothes into a suitcase when she came to the door” (334). The implication that something is not right between this couple is given right from the beginning. As the story goes on, though, these two people fight and do not stop fighting. {the wife calls him a “son
Mr. Standridge
ENG 102-031
28 September 2010
Questions Unanswered
Life is often presented with unanswered questions. Unanswered questions in literature cause the reader to wonder. However, there are also questions the author purposefully wants the reader to ask at the beginning of a work in order to leave the reader hanging. In Raymond Carver’s “Popular Mechanics,” he causes the reader to wonder. Carver uses ambiguity throughout his work in several different ways causing the reader to speculate. {you need to be specific in your thesis statement… “carver uses ambiguity throughout his work—setting, characterization, conflict, conclusion—to cause the reader to speculate” actually state the areas you will discuss in the paper as part of your thesis}
Carver first uses ambiguity right at the beginning of the story. In the first few sentences he says, “Cars slushed by on the street outside, where it was getting dark. But it was getting dark on the inside too” (334). The atmosphere is dark and gloomy outside because of the weather, but it raises the question of why it is dark on the inside too and what is meant by that. Is it the inside of the house, or is it the inside of one of the characters? {continue this idea of ambiguity of setting…where else in the story is there ambiguity of place? I would mention that the weather was crying “streaks down the window” to foreshadow the tears to be shed. also the symbol of the snow’s “whiteness” becoming “dirty” which implies that a turn is about to happen that is not so good}
{new paragraph} Nevertheless, Carver presents another question as the story continues to build{ through the ambiguity of conflict}. He states that “[h]e was in the bedroom pushing clothes into a suitcase when she came to the door” (334). The implication that something is not right between this couple is given right from the beginning. As the story goes on, though, these two people fight and do not stop fighting. {the wife calls him a “son
Cited: Carver, Raymond. “Popular Mechanics.” The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. Ed. Michael Meyer. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 334-35. Print.