Summary Of Steady And Driving By Raymond Carver

The narrator introduces Mrs. Freeman as “Steady and driving” (O’Connor). Mrs. Freeman is described as steady, normal, down to earth, one of the “good country people” (O’Connor). The narrator also suggests that she is “no longer there in spirit”, her face being compared to a “heavy truck” and described as having “black eyes” and a very stiff personality (O’Connor). Its as if Mrs. Freeman is a “good country” Robot instead from looking at her description. Her three facial expressions include neutral, forward and reverse. We see her use these facial expressions throughout the story. Mrs. Freeman uses neutral when she is by herself, she uses forward when she is dealing with human interaction, and reverse on the rare occasions that she has …show more content…
Hopewell uses these sayings for things she cannot control and this characteristic we see in her makes her weak and unable to change her own circumstances, which leaves her vulnerable to life. Mrs. Hopewell, along with her daughter Hulga, is living in a world based off of clichés and faith that all goes well. Because of this Mrs. Hopewell is slowly distancing herself more and more throughout the story from her daughter Hulga. Mrs. Hopewell’s failure to understand her daughter causes Hulga to give up on trying to form any meaningful relationship with her mother. Mrs. Hopewell does allow Mrs. Freeman to be herself and work along side Mrs. Hopewell because she is “good country people” even though she works under her, which shows Mrs. Hopewell is still a hard worker (O’Connor). On the other hand her attitude toward her other employees is condescending, patronizing, and because she views them as “trash” and this causes most of her employees to leave (O’Connor). Hulga nor her workers can form any kind of relationship with her because of the way she thinks and this ultimately comes back to hurt her reputation and we can see that she can only find solace in applauding the “good country people” (O’Connor). When comparing the language between Mrs. Hopewell and the Bible salesman, they both accept life the way it is. Mrs. Hopewell takes life as it comes at her and knows that not everyone is entitled to their own opinion while the Bible salesman is trying to cheat his way through life because he believes he knows his ultimate fate so he could also use the quote, “that is life” for his sinful actions (O’Connor). The quote “Nothing is perfect” could also be implying that things aren’t always as they seem just like when the Bible salesman says, “I hope you don’t think that I believe in that crap!” after he made them believe he was an innocent Godly man