Communication, Anxiety And Fear In Raymond Carver's The Bath

3…2…1…blast off to the unknown with Raymond Carver’s “The Bath”. Carver uses a couple of techniques in “The Bath” such as an unusual flow of information and works with the themes of uncertainty through lack of effective communication, anxiety, and fear. The story shows the struggles of a family dealing with the fear and uncertainty of Scotty sustaining a serious injury as a result from getting hit by a car. The mother and the father also have problems getting any sort of clear information from the hospital staff that relates to Scotty’s condition
The story starts out on Saturday with the character known as “the mother”, who later gets identified as Ann Weiss, ordering a rocket ship birthday cake with “Scotty” written on it in icing at the …show more content…
Carver chooses to describe a doctor that has just came from a function which he was given an award as way of telling readers that the doctors are reliable and good at what they do. The doctor tells the family that Scotty’s problem is “nothing to worry about. He should wake up pretty soon” (52). The father asks if Scotty is in a coma. The doctor replies with “No, I don’t want to call it that….the body is doing what it has to do”(52).Do to the fact this doctor has been very vague with his answers has Ann and the father knowing exactly nothing about what is going on with Scotty, therefore causing them to assume the …show more content…
Ann is looking for the elevator to leave the hospital and go home to get away and hopefully cause some change in Scotty’s current state. She makes the wise choice to stop in the waiting room to ask for directions to the elevator. Trying to vent a little, she tells a family about Scotty and his incident. Her choosing to go to the waiting room to ask for directions as opposed to using an exit sign or asking an employee, shows her lack of trust in the hospital staffs ability in being able to effectively communicate where the elevator is so she can leave the