Raymond Carver Teenage Sexual Frustration and Repressed

Raymond Carver

Teenage sexual frustration and repressed anger pervade Raymond Carver's short story "Nobody Said Anything." Although the bulk of the tale covers the narrator's playing hooky from school, the fishing expedition serves mainly as a dramatic and symbolic backdrop for his parents' marital problems. The story begins and ends with tense moments at home, during which mother and father fight furiously while neglecting their two children. The parents do not take their anger out on the kids through overt violence, but they nevertheless emotionally neglect their children, saying nothing to address their feelings. The adolescent narrator struggles to impress his parents, especially his father, by catching a monstrous fish. However, his quest for attention is thwarted and only results in his getting scolded. The fish anecdote serves as a means to indirectly address the narrator's pain; it is a convenient metaphor for divorce, and the disgusting imagery of the dead fish drives home themes of anger and frustration that comprise "Nobody Said Anything."

The mother loves her kids, but is unfortunately too preoccupied with her own situation to properly discipline or nurture her two boys. For example, she allows the narrator to stay home from school when he feigns being ill and instructs him to not watch television. However, when she sees that the boy has turned on the TV, she says nothing to reprimand him; she is too busy getting ready for work all "stirred up," (5). The father, on the other hand, remains a cold and distant figure throughout the story. The narrator only refers to him briefly, mainly through the medium of fishing, as he used to take the boys to Birch Creek. When the narrator sees the steelhead, he immediately thinks of catching it as a trophy to win back his father's affection. When neither parent is pleased with the sight of the carcass, the narrator nevertheless remains glad that he held "that half of him," the half of the fish that he secured from the younger boy.

The narrator's victorious struggle for the head was accomplished through the same kind of intimidation he would use on his younger brother George. In fact, sibling antagonism is played out not only at home but also at Bridge Creek, as the younger boy is a "kid about George's size," (12). The narrator's relationship with his brother is typical of siblings their age. Still, the theme of repressed emotions and dysfunctional silence in the family is drawn out through the emotionally distant relationship between the two brothers. The dividing up of the steelhead symbolizes the inevitable dividing up of the parents should the marriage end in divorce. The narrator clearly hopes to retain the upper hand as the older brother and asserts his dominance over both George and the kid at Bridge Creek.

Unspoken, repressed anger and fear of divorce is symbolized by the splitting of the fish. Likewise, the story contains strong undercurrents of frustrated sexuality. The narrator frequently masturbates at strange and inopportune moments; his fascination with his parents' bedroom and their Vaseline is disturbing and hints at the Oedipus complex. Sexuality is devoid of love in "Nobody Said Anything," as the parents' marriage lacks kindness and affection. Likewise, the boy's sexual fantasies are uninspiring. Accompanying these frustrated sexual desires is the morbid imagery of dead fish.