Raymond Carver and his Works

Scott Russell Sanders’ “Under the Influence” is about a family growing up with alcoholism, mental and physical abuse. When Sanders was very young, he didn’t recognize that his father was an alcoholic, but as he grew older, he saw the bloodshot eyes, hiding alcohol, the deceptions, and the dual personalities of an alcoholic. “My father drank. He drank as a gut-punched boxer gasps for breath, as a starving dog gobbles food—compulsively, secretly, in pain and trembling.” (215). Sanders story starts at the end, where his father dies from alcoholism. The turmoil and fear this family suffered because of their father’s alcoholism, is a story a lot of families are familiar with.

The book begins with the tale of how Dr. Hilfiker came to help alcoholics when he meets John Turnell. Hilfiker first met Turnell on the streets where he was suffering from the effects of his alcoholism. The problem is that Turnell was afraid of what would happen if he drops his one source of comfort and respite (alcohol) and Hilfiker, his physician, was afraid of what would happen if he does not. Hilfiker and his wife chose to uproot themselves and their family and move to Washington, DC, to begin work in the Community of Hope Health Services clinic for the poor and homeless. In the memoir, Hilfiker relates his experience as a physician and with DC's urban homeless and poor, many of whom were alcoholics (Hilfiker, 1994, 1-23).

F. Scott Fitzgerald once said “First you take a DRINK then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.” Later Fitzgerald capitulated and died of a heart attack due to being an alcoholic the last 2 years of his life. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie talks about a 14 year old Indian boy changing his life. He goes to a white school, and changes into a different person throughout the story. The story talks about other real life dilemmas, like death and alcohol. There are multiple themes that are present throughout the story, but one theme that protrudes is that alcoholism kills.

Carver’s “A Serious Talk” is another short story that perfectly demonstrates the damaging affects of alcohol addiction on both the addict and those who surround them. In the story, a woman named Vera is visited by her ex-husband Burt, who arrives to give

In “Cathedral”, a short story by Raymond Carver, an unnamed narrator awaits the arrival of a friend of his wife’s, a blind man named Robert. Robert is stopping by for a visit on the way to his recently dead wife’s relatives. The narrator is not happy about the relationship his wife has with Robert, so he drinks constantly throughout the story. He even smokes marijuana near to keep his mind off of the situation. This trait that the narrator has can be linked back to the author Raymond Carver, who was a suffering alcoholic for many years. By the time Carver wrote this story, he had been alcohol free for three years, so his unconscious desire to return to drinking is shown through the narrator.

“Alcohol addiction stunts the spiritual, emotional and mental growth of a person”~Anonymous. Sherman Alexie’s novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, is a book based off the author’s teenage life. The novel is about a poor 14 year old named Junior who faced numerous challenges in his life. Junior has experienced bullying, he was called a traitor for following his dreams, got in a huge fight with his best friend and lost three very important people in his life because of alcohol. Fortunately in the end, Junior got through the pain and lived on but he learned many lessons. One of the lessons Junior learned was that the fall into addiction, in this situation alcohol, leads to a great deal of misery for the individual and those

Obviously, family problems could affect all aspects of the society. In “Popular Mechanics,” a story written by Raymond Carver's in 1988. Shows the husband was ready to leave his wife. Then, it turned into an argument between them, which rapidly escalated into a physical scuffle over who will keep the baby. In this complexity; parent’s separation can lead to a massive destruction of their child’s life. Because separation can shake the faith in dependency on parents who now behave in an extremely unreliable way.

Carver lived most of his life in a world which could not provide the luxury of

.Wes Moore is a famous African-American writer, entruponuer, social advocates, and community leader. However, Wes was not always like this, he grew up in Baltimore, fatherless, troubuled, and ruinous. Wes needed to be steered clear of the erroneous path his life he was living. The man shaped Wes into the respectable man he is

Alcoholism is a disease that not only affects the user’s behavior, but strains financial standing and social interaction (“Alcohol Problems vs. Alcohol Dependency”). Jeanette’s father in The Glass Castle, an undiagnosed alcoholic, would be the poster child for alcoholism in America with his many blatantly obvious symptoms. His relationships with the people around him, his finances, and his control over his actions and emotions deteriorate as the memoir develops. With this, Walls paints a very accurate account of alcoholism and its effect in America.

The book, Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp, depicts a hardworking, strong, but interestingly weak Caroline. Caroline through her memoir shares her life story and her life relevance with alcohol. She writes her life as a functional alcoholic. She compares her addiction to alcohol to love. Throughout her memoir Caroline also described her journey through her excessive and misuse of alcohol. She describes the hardships that this has caused and how it has affected her, and her relationships. Her life revolved around it, and she was consumed by it. Alcohol ruled her life in many aspects for many years.

Carver found himself in a very dark place. Carver now suffered from alcoholism, many different drug addictions, and even depression as a result of his divorce. Although Carver’s life was looking down, he did not give up. Three years later, Carver decided to pull his life together. He attended many Alcoholics Anonymous meetings a decided to take up writing. Carver even got re-married. After finally getting his life back together, Carver decided to start writing again. This time in his life is the time that he created some of his most famous short-stories. The following are some of those stories: “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love”, “The Cathedral”, and “Elephant.” Carver’s second marriage, turn around with his alcoholism and drug addictions, and new writings are all included in what is known as Raymond Carver’s “second life.”(King)

In literature, authors may get inspiration from real life events. For Raymond Carver, rather than writing about his own life, he wrote fictional stories, poems and books, but each can relate to his personal experiences. Alcohol plays a dominant part in Carver’s life, from child to adult. Due to this, his texts revolve around alcohol in some form, most often an alcoholic main character. Through Carver’s writing, he displays family tensions often as a result of alcoholism. Sara Kornfeld Simpson, instructor at Boston University, states that in Carver’s short stories “alcohol serves as a social lubricant that diminishes inhibitions, which allows hidden tensions and emotions to emerge.” (Simpson). Raymond Carver’s personal experience with alcoholism led him to create fictional texts that revolve around alcohol and have characters that may reflect his personal life, leading into his career as a writer.

Raymond Carver’s characters were considered to be very much like him: “’on the edge: of poverty, alcoholic self-destruction, loneliness” (Mays 32). His short story “Cathedral” is about a young couple, who have a visitor coming to stay with them. This visitor, Robert, is the wife’s friend, and he is blind. The narrator, the husband, has never met someone who is blind, was bothered by that. To him, being blind meant constantly needing help from others. His depiction of blindness was what he has seen in the movies. “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit… A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to,” he tells the reader (Carver 32). His wife on the other hand, was very happy to see her old friend. She had worked for Robert

   To a reader unfamiliar with his work, Raymond Carver's short story, "Little Things" may seem devoid of all literary devices owning to good writing. Fortunately, these people are mistaken. With his minimalistic style, it is what Carver doesn't write that makes his work so effective. Most of Carver's short stories describe situations that many people could find themselves in and that is why his work is so appealing to readers. They are not restricted to harsh explicative details or over-dramatized language, but are allowed to create their own rationale for the actions of the characters and the consequent results.