Popular Mechanics Raymond Carver Summary

“Early that day the weather turned and the snow was melting into dirty water.” This is the first sentence of Raymond Carver’s “Popular Mechanics.” This sentence gives the reader a hint about something happened in the relation of couple in the story and it is falling apart. Then Carver says, “cars slushed by the street outside, where it was getting dark. But it was getting dark on the inside too.” Now this sentence makes the picture little clear, that there is some darkness in the house due to something sad and depressing going on.
The beginning of this story is very dramatic, Carver uses the whether (setting) to describe the mood and atmosphere. The story is about a couple not clearly mentioned whether the couple is dating or married. The
The story begins with a man ‘pushing’ his clothes in a suitcase; this shows that he is leaving the house. By using word ‘pushing’ instead of putting Carver shows the frustration that this man has. Then there is a lady, she is standing at the door. She says, “I’m glad you’re leaving! I’m glad you’re leaving!” which shows that she is happy that he is leaving the house. However in the next sentence she begins to cry after saying the same once more, now this shows that she is not happy about him leaving. She does not want their relation to break, but she is angry. The issue of their fight is not mentioned and also whether it is him or her who did something wrong. The reason could even be them not being compatible for each other; not successful in fulfilling each other’s needs and wants. Another reason could be either of them cheating on the other. But then she says, “Just get your things and get out.” Now this could mean that the man is at fault. Her telling him to leave and crying as he is leaving shows that she does not want to lose him but due to what he has done she does not want to stop