Friday, February 4, 2011

James Response #2

We’ve all been there. Long hours that stretch for days. Exhausting. Emotional. We’ve all been stuck in a hospital at some point in our lives. It is an excruciating experience, one that Raymond Carver captures in the first half of “A Small Good Thing.” I almost grew frustrated at the pace of the story, before realizing what I believed the author to be doing. Reading about Ann and Howard, the uncertainty, the stress, the sleeplessness—you feel what they feel, you feel hopeless and scared. You are in the room with them, wringing your hands, perhaps saying a prayer, waiting for the little boy to pull through.

Carver also explores other aspects of these traumatic experiences. Ann and Howard are constantly pulled by forces of guilt and paranoia. They struggle with the thought of leaving their son for basic necessities. I am also taken back to a trying time in my life when Ann is nitpicking exactly what the doctor has said, and how he said it. You look for anything—anything that might give away some answer, when in reality the doctor must only have good intentions. Carver adds to this paranoia in Ann and the reader him/herself by having the doctor constantly popping in and popping out, always saying the right thing but always waiting for the boy to wake up. He gives us hope. He gives us something, yet nothing at all. And because of this, as readers, we are imprisoned in that hospital along with Ann and Howard.

While this only encapsulates half of the story, I like to think it is the key. Through their awful hospital experience, the parents starve themselves of any real nourishment. We are brought into this world of theirs and we suffer with them. After the whole misunderstanding with the baker is worked out, and they begin to fill themselves up on warm bread, we are satiated as well. After a long and arduous few days, this is the start of the healing.


As for the music video, I went with "Grapevine Fires" by Death Cab For Cutie. It's a slow and depressing song that has beams of hope and light that shine through if you really listen. The song is dealing with a tragedy (specifically the wildfires in California I believe), yet the voice in it is looking for something to hold on to (a lover, family, possessions from our homes). I think the melancholy and touch of hopefulness capture Carver's story.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8ZUV9IBEXY

3 comments:

  1. That was a solid description of the way Carver draws emotion out of us through Ann and Howard. The repetition of their stay wears on as you read.
    As annoying as the doctor was, he was realistic. He was annoyingly realistic. He was often present or talked about, but he was not a deep character beyond his title and clothes. How much do we really ever know about the ER doctor who aids us?
    "It's only a matter of time before we all burn." Melancholy
    "Everything would be all right." Hopefulness

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  2. This is a really well written response, James. I agree with you, I think Carver's writing is so descriptive in this story. With the way he is telling us the story, it's difficult not to imagine ourselves in the hospital with Ann, Howard, and Scotty.

    "He gives us something, yet nothing at all." Great statement and entirely true not just about the doctor, but about Carver as well. This part of your post reminded me about Scotty's death... how he opened his eyes for a bit (he gives us something) and then just as quickly he dies (he becomes nothing). In that small burst of life we are given so much (we feel the brief excitement in Ann and Howard, only to witness their despair moments after).

    Great choice of music and video, also. "The wind picked up / the fire spread," such a great and applicable line. That's kind of how the story works... the details become more specific (the wind comes) and then the fire spreads (the gloominess of death and grieving).

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  3. I really like how you picked up on the the fact that the parents had starved themselves physically and emotionally. We really are starved of anything positive as we read, and like you say, we are satisfied along with them as they commiserate and eat warm bread. As they sit together in their loneliness, they are less alone.
    Death Cab. I swear I came up with mine independently. I need to get the rest of their albums, I really only know one. Thanks for sharing another I must have.

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