The separation of a couple may lead to people behaving in uncharacteristic ways. This occurs in “Popular Mechanics” when the man and woman escalate their actions to an inappropriate extreme. “Popular Mechanics,” written by Raymond Carver, is a concise story in which a man and woman are going through a separation. Their resentment toward each other is incessantly blatant, but without known cause. This resentment and anger result in selfish and destructive behavior. Raymond Carver portrays the relationship between the man and woman as a competition between rivals, as well as displaying them as unsympathetic in order to develop the theme of selfishness. Carver explicates the couple’s relationship as analogous to an intense competition between two rivals. With intense competition, there is
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The victor party traditionally receives a trophy of some sort, and in this situation the baby is symbolic for the trophy. Whoever gets the trophy is considered the victor of the separation. The baby symbolizes the winning trophy when Carver wrote, “She would have it, this baby. She grabbed for the baby’s other arm. She caught the baby around the waist and leaned back. But he would not let go. He felt the baby slipping out of his hands and he pulled back very hard” (Carver 229). This presents that both the man and the woman want the baby a lot. This can also imply that the couple believes that whoever obtains control of the child defeats the other. To show that the couple saw the baby as strictly a symbol of victory, Carver explained the woman’s behavior, “I want the baby…She turned and tried to hold the baby over in a corner behind the stove. But he came up. He reached across the stove and tightened his hand on the baby”
The victor party traditionally receives a trophy of some sort, and in this situation the baby is symbolic for the trophy. Whoever gets the trophy is considered the victor of the separation. The baby symbolizes the winning trophy when Carver wrote, “She would have it, this baby. She grabbed for the baby’s other arm. She caught the baby around the waist and leaned back. But he would not let go. He felt the baby slipping out of his hands and he pulled back very hard” (Carver 229). This presents that both the man and the woman want the baby a lot. This can also imply that the couple believes that whoever obtains control of the child defeats the other. To show that the couple saw the baby as strictly a symbol of victory, Carver explained the woman’s behavior, “I want the baby…She turned and tried to hold the baby over in a corner behind the stove. But he came up. He reached across the stove and tightened his hand on the baby”