A Small Good Thing Raymond Carver

He’s not dead, he’s sleeping forever: Characterization in “A Small, Good Thing” In “A Small, Good Thing”, Raymond Carver describes the events of a small boy, Scotty, getting injured and being hospitalized. His parents, Ann and Howard, then need to internalize the situation each in their own way until they finally accept Scotty’s death after meeting with a baker that has been giving the parents foreboding calls. Carver uses characterization in “A Small, Good Thing” to convey the idea of how Ann and Howard are able to internalize and comprehend Scotty’s injury and eventually death through the help of the baker. Carver establishes the baker as a Christ figure through the use of syntax to show how Howard subconsciously want to avoid responsibility. When Howard is speaking to the baker for the first time, he uses a common phrase of adding the word Jesus to the beginning of a statement: “Jesus, what are you talking about?” (16). Carver uses syntax to subtly convey the idea that Howard is talking to Jesus, the baker. Carver establishes the baker as a Christ figure to make the interaction between Scotty’s parents and the baker to be symbolic of the relationship between the parents and Jesus. This …show more content…
After being separate in the way they were internalizing Scotty’s incident to the point of being unable to truly comprehend each other, Ann and Howard were able to come together to face Scotty’s death together with the help of the baker, a Christ figure. Ultimately, Carver is commentating on how humans are oblivious to death and misfortune until they are faced with it, and when they do are unable to grasp reality and need outside force, in this case religion, to internalize the situation and understand that despite how perfect life may seem, they are not immune to