Friday, June 15, 2012
Popular Mechanics
In Raymond Carver's "Popular Mechanics," he surreptitiously suggested the theme of parent's conflict about their own child. Both parents, the mother and the father, were struggling to get the baby on their own side. The lack of detail in Carver's short story made it very unique that we, as the readers, could put our own interpretations throughout the story. He also made a good use of symbols like the flowerpot and the structure and setting of the house. My initial reaction to the story is that both of the parents were too selfish to not think about how the baby feels. The setting of the story is very dark, which implied the theme of conflict. The darkness was emphasized on the little details that Carver used when both parents were arguing all around the house without turning the lights on. I also find it very daunting that they involved the baby in their "fight," to the point where they both have to hold their child in its arms. In my opinion, no parent that loves their child should do such thing. I also thought that the title fits the story best. At first, I did not get the significance of the title, but later on the story Carver absolutely implied that the theme of the story occurs in a normal household in this generation. Furthermore, I thought that it was very clever of him to make a "script" like story that lead to the use of a third person's point-of-view.
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Carver did a wonderful job making use of limited word count and writing a script like you said. The use of symbols in this story is extraordinary due to the fact that he could not be very detailed in his writing. Also, he tried to show the societal struggles that we face today in many households around the country.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the title did fit the direction of the story. The script was an excellent choice by carver because they were was no extra commentary to allow the reader to have their own feelings. You both have pretty much taking the words right out of my mouth, but I had not really thought about how the child's feelings. I don’t want to sound like a bad person but with someone so young I hadn’t taken into consideration of the child’s feeling. There is absolutely no excuse or reason for the man and woman to act in that way in front of anyone especially their child no matter what age.
ReplyDeleteCarver said so much with not many paragraphs and i didn't really realize how much until we had that discussion in class. I think you covered most of what he was trying to let us understand. Like it was said before his message in my words is that he wanted us to think about how we handle certain problems, because if we don't it could end up worse. In this case the parents ended up killing the baby and neither ended up keeping it.
ReplyDeleteCarver's setting and symbolism of the story really made it significant. The fact that it was gloomy outside and dark inside really made the conflict seem real. I thought the flowerpot breaking was foreshadowing for the baby dying at the end. Something so beautiful and fragile can be gone in an instant.
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