Small Good Thing

In the face of tragedy, whether sudden or ongoing, support found in amity can sometimes be difficult to come by. In Raymond Carver's “A Small, Good Thing,” a set of parents suffer the loss of their son. Over the course of the short story, they go from expecting him to be just fine to having to cope with his death. Simultaneously, a baker attempts to get get them to pick up the birthday cake that they had ordered for the day their son was in the accident that go him into the hospital. The story seems to cumulate to the final scene where the grieving parents have an honest and open interaction with the baker. “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” another story by Raymond Carver, depicts two couples drinking and talking around a dining
Unlike the couple in the previous story, Terri has moved on from this event, though it still sticks with her enough to retell as she shares drinks with her husband and another couple. The story ends similarly, but with a different tone. It is suggested that they continue to sit together for a while after the story ends, sitting in each other's company, “...not one of [them] moving, not even when the room went dark.” (Carver p 154) The primary difference here is that the two couples had plans to leave for dinner after finishing the gin, whereas the baker and the parents “...did not think of leaving.” (Carver p 29) It seems that Carver’s characters do not indulge in this type of connection as much when not faced with difficulty. Though their conversation was, on the surface, a discussion of the nature of love in drunken logic, it seemed that they all had the opportunity to share in one another’s life experiences without outside influence, and did not truly desire to leave when it seemed to be