Analysis Of Everything Stuck To Him By Raymond Carver

In the story Everything Stuck to Him by Raymond Carver, the author makes many choices when it comes to the framework of the story. Within the single story, Carver expertly creates an inner plot and an outer plot which can be defined as a frame story. Despite having two plots, they both combine to show past actions that relate to present outcomes. This combination is a representation of how his relationship with his wife ended badly and how it played out when looking back on it. The choices that the writer makes impacts the meaning and development of the piece in many ways. Carver’s main choices that impact the meaning and development of the story are his use of language, establishment of setting, and methods of characterization. First, …show more content…
In the previous quote regarding the time period in which it all went wrong, he indirectly blames the baby for causing the downfall of his relationship. He does this more throughout the inner story by going into depth about how the baby cried, but he still wanted to go hunting. The main characterization that makes the story unique is the characterization of the boy and the girl. This characterization comes directly from what Carver names them in the story, which is the boy and the girl. By not giving them names, Carver makes it seem as though it just a bad memory that the boy had. His lack of name usage seems to symbolize the distance that there was between the wife and himself and even between himself and his child. These names could also symbolize the immaturity that the boy had when entering the relationship which is why they aren’t named the man and the woman. “He heard the baby cry. This time the girl stayed where she was. The baby cried fitfully and stopped. The boy listened, then dozed. But the baby’s cries woke him again”(2). By not getting up to comfort his child shows that the boy might not have been ready for the responsibility of having a kid. His relationship with his wife is also symbolized throughout the story. One of these symbols is when he drops his breakfast all over himself. Him losing his breakfast is a representation of him losing his relationship. And another could be him taking off his hunting gear when coming back into the house after fighting with his wife. This represents him losing his true identity for his relationship. All in all, the boy’s relationship was just not strong enough to last and can be seen through the analysis of Carver’s symbolism in the