Raymond Carver's Short Stories
Raymond Carver’s Short Stories
In reading both stories “Mine” and “Little Things” and another which is basically the same as the second story “Little Things” but with a different name “Popular Mechanics”. “Mind was written in 1977, “Popular Mechanics” which was rewritten in 1981, and finally Mr. Carver retitled the story as “Little Things”. The original story was rewritten with subtle small changes and it changed the direction in which the reader focuses his attention. All of these small changes to me make the newer “Little Things” a better version than the first one “Mine”.
These stories seems to bring out Mr. Carvers past experiences in his failed marriage, where romance is now in the past and the couple’s relationship is rapidly …show more content…
coming to a end. He brings about the setting of the time as the end winter or very early spring when he describes the snow melting and the water running off to make everything dirty. He describes that the time of day must be around dusk as it is getting dark outside and also inside.
Most parts of both stories are identical. “Mine” and “Little Things” both have the same persons, same settings, and basically the same timeframe. The persons are a man, a woman, and also their baby. The relationship is coming to an end as the man is packing his clothing into his suitcase and getting ready to leave. Then an argument takes place on who will get the baby.
There are major differences in both these stories, one thing that I had noticed is that Mr.
Carver made the relationship between the man and the woman seem more colder and their arguments more intense over the baby in “Mine”. One such example comes when the woman said you’re hurting him and he does not talk again which gives the expression that the man does not care if the baby is hurt, Mr. Carver emphasizes twice that he pulled back on the baby as the woman is trying to take him away from the man. An example of the argument being more intense is the wording to when the woman says “Sonofabitch!” with the words bunched together gives the impression that she is screaming at the man. In “Little Things” that wording had changed to words spelled out with proper spacing which to me implies that it is an expression but not yelled out as in “Mine”. Another which I believe had started this is when she notices the baby’s picture picked it up and took it with her to the living room and in his mind he wanted it …show more content…
back.
These small differences makes the story more clearer, I believe that in “Little Things” the version is a lot better because the writing is a lot better and the flow is a lot smoother.
For instances, in “Mine”, the story leaves the bedroom as he looked at the bedroom then moves into the kitchen all in one paragraph. In “Little Things” he looks around the bedroom as though he wants to see if he had forgotten anything else, which ends the paragraph then moves into the kitchen in another paragraph. In “Mine” it seems to focus more on the argument, whereas in “Little Things”, the people stand out as the major part of the
story.
The title “Mine” seems to focus more on treating the baby as a possession instead of a real person. In reality, it also seems that the first word that any child seems to learn early in life is the word “mine” when someone tries to take something that belongs to the child.
The biggest differences between these two stories is that Mr. Carver makes the relationship between the man and the woman seen colder and their argument over the baby more intense in “Mine”. The coldness comes to light when the woman cries out that the man is hurting the baby and he doesn’t talk again after that point, symbolizing that he doesn’t care that he could be hurting the baby. To me I believe that the woman finally let the baby go than rather risk the baby being severely injured, when Mr. Carver wrote “In this manner the issue was decided”
Works Cited
“Little things by Raymond Carver.” 1-2. Web 19 Jul 2009 .
“Little Things” aka “Popular Mechanics” aka “Mine” by Raymond Carver « the write alley http://whisperdownthewritealley.wordpress.com/2008/05/09/little-things-aka-popular-mechanics-aka-mine-by-raymond-carver “Little Things” from Where I’m Calling From: The Selected Stories Atlantic Monthly Press, 1988. Copyright © 1988 by Tess Gallagher.
The story appeared as “Mine” in Furious Seasons And Other Stories Capra Press, 1977 and as “Popular Mechanics” in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love Knopf, 1981.
In reading both stories “Mine” and “Little Things” and another which is basically the same as the second story “Little Things” but with a different name “Popular Mechanics”. “Mind was written in 1977, “Popular Mechanics” which was rewritten in 1981, and finally Mr. Carver retitled the story as “Little Things”. The original story was rewritten with subtle small changes and it changed the direction in which the reader focuses his attention. All of these small changes to me make the newer “Little Things” a better version than the first one “Mine”.
These stories seems to bring out Mr. Carvers past experiences in his failed marriage, where romance is now in the past and the couple’s relationship is rapidly …show more content…
coming to a end. He brings about the setting of the time as the end winter or very early spring when he describes the snow melting and the water running off to make everything dirty. He describes that the time of day must be around dusk as it is getting dark outside and also inside.
Most parts of both stories are identical. “Mine” and “Little Things” both have the same persons, same settings, and basically the same timeframe. The persons are a man, a woman, and also their baby. The relationship is coming to an end as the man is packing his clothing into his suitcase and getting ready to leave. Then an argument takes place on who will get the baby.
There are major differences in both these stories, one thing that I had noticed is that Mr.
Carver made the relationship between the man and the woman seem more colder and their arguments more intense over the baby in “Mine”. One such example comes when the woman said you’re hurting him and he does not talk again which gives the expression that the man does not care if the baby is hurt, Mr. Carver emphasizes twice that he pulled back on the baby as the woman is trying to take him away from the man. An example of the argument being more intense is the wording to when the woman says “Sonofabitch!” with the words bunched together gives the impression that she is screaming at the man. In “Little Things” that wording had changed to words spelled out with proper spacing which to me implies that it is an expression but not yelled out as in “Mine”. Another which I believe had started this is when she notices the baby’s picture picked it up and took it with her to the living room and in his mind he wanted it …show more content…
back.
These small differences makes the story more clearer, I believe that in “Little Things” the version is a lot better because the writing is a lot better and the flow is a lot smoother.
For instances, in “Mine”, the story leaves the bedroom as he looked at the bedroom then moves into the kitchen all in one paragraph. In “Little Things” he looks around the bedroom as though he wants to see if he had forgotten anything else, which ends the paragraph then moves into the kitchen in another paragraph. In “Mine” it seems to focus more on the argument, whereas in “Little Things”, the people stand out as the major part of the
story.
The title “Mine” seems to focus more on treating the baby as a possession instead of a real person. In reality, it also seems that the first word that any child seems to learn early in life is the word “mine” when someone tries to take something that belongs to the child.
The biggest differences between these two stories is that Mr. Carver makes the relationship between the man and the woman seen colder and their argument over the baby more intense in “Mine”. The coldness comes to light when the woman cries out that the man is hurting the baby and he doesn’t talk again after that point, symbolizing that he doesn’t care that he could be hurting the baby. To me I believe that the woman finally let the baby go than rather risk the baby being severely injured, when Mr. Carver wrote “In this manner the issue was decided”
Works Cited
“Little things by Raymond Carver.” 1-2. Web 19 Jul 2009 .
“Little Things” aka “Popular Mechanics” aka “Mine” by Raymond Carver « the write alley http://whisperdownthewritealley.wordpress.com/2008/05/09/little-things-aka-popular-mechanics-aka-mine-by-raymond-carver “Little Things” from Where I’m Calling From: The Selected Stories Atlantic Monthly Press, 1988. Copyright © 1988 by Tess Gallagher.
The story appeared as “Mine” in Furious Seasons And Other Stories Capra Press, 1977 and as “Popular Mechanics” in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love Knopf, 1981.