“Fat” by Raymond Carver is the first short story in a collection called Will You Please Be Quiet, Please. Carver intrigued me because of his unique style of writing and captivated me from the first short story I read. This short story is a conversation between the narrator and her friend Rita, as she serves a fat man in the diner where they both work. The story, whilst seemingly is a ‘slice of life’ everyday mundane observation, slowly becomes more uncomfortable and unsettles dark secrets that lay below the surface.
Carver gives us a snapshot of what the real world is like in his short story “Fat”. He uses the writing style of ‘dirty realism’ to reveal a lot of information in a mundane setting. ‘Dirty realism’ depicts the unpleasant and banal aspects of everyday life. The use of dirty realism makes the short story raw and stripped down, showing a …show more content…
This can be seen when the narrator gets “into bed and move clear to the edge and lie there on my stomach.” although this quote doesn’t explicitly say anything that seems out of the ordinary, it gives off a disturbing vibe as it is the obvious that the narrator is in an abusive relationship. This makes me feel uncomfortable because in life we do not like to see the ugly side, here, however, Carver exposes what is not simple and beautiful which is what I thought the world was like for a nice little waitress. This is a hard message for myself and perhaps the rest of the world to accept, which is what makes this short story so disconcerting.
The main theme of the short story “Fat” is choice. The fat man chooses to continue eating food that is bad for him despite his weight, as can been seen by the following lines: “I put the Special in front of the fat man and a big bowl of vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce on the side.”. I saw the fat man’s
Carver gives us a snapshot of what the real world is like in his short story “Fat”. He uses the writing style of ‘dirty realism’ to reveal a lot of information in a mundane setting. ‘Dirty realism’ depicts the unpleasant and banal aspects of everyday life. The use of dirty realism makes the short story raw and stripped down, showing a …show more content…
This can be seen when the narrator gets “into bed and move clear to the edge and lie there on my stomach.” although this quote doesn’t explicitly say anything that seems out of the ordinary, it gives off a disturbing vibe as it is the obvious that the narrator is in an abusive relationship. This makes me feel uncomfortable because in life we do not like to see the ugly side, here, however, Carver exposes what is not simple and beautiful which is what I thought the world was like for a nice little waitress. This is a hard message for myself and perhaps the rest of the world to accept, which is what makes this short story so disconcerting.
The main theme of the short story “Fat” is choice. The fat man chooses to continue eating food that is bad for him despite his weight, as can been seen by the following lines: “I put the Special in front of the fat man and a big bowl of vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce on the side.”. I saw the fat man’s