Career - How Do His Late Stories

¶ … career - how do his late stories differ from his early stories? RAYMOND CARVER'S WORK Raymond Carver wrote from the time he was a young man until his death at 50 in 1988. He wrote of his own experiences as an alcoholic, young father, and blue-collar worker. His writing was always classified as postmodern, however, as with most authors, his writing changed from his early work to his later works.

"The surfaces of Carver's stories look calm and banal, but especially his portrayals of marriage problems are full of emotional tension, hidden memories, wounds, longing, hate, anxiety, and melancholy" (Liukkonen). One of the contrasts between Carver's earlier works and his later works is in the minute detail of eating. In "The Idea," Carver's characters use eating as a substitute for communication, especially with those who they should be the most intimate.

In "Cathedral" the baker tells the couple whose son a hit-and-run driver killed, "Eating is a small, good thing in a time like this" (Carver 88), and then he shares fresh bread with them. Here, eating is a solace, not a substitute for intimacy. In "Why Don't You Dance?" The young woman does not understand the man's actions and tries to find reason in his comments about the furniture on the lawn. "She kept talking. She told everyone.

There was more to it, and she was trying to get it talked out. After a time, she quit trying" (Carver 10). The character gives up because the relationship is so convoluted. This story is pessimistic and sad, while his later works, such as "Cathedral" and "A Small, Good Thing" are more positive and less pessimistic and depressing.

In fact, "A Small, Good Thing" is the continuation of a story, "The Bath," first published in "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love." It illustrates some of the differences in Carver's later and earlier works perfectly, for "A Small, Good Thing" finishes what "The Bath" left hanging. "Thus, 'The Bath,' which, according to Stull, had been 'an existential tale of crass casualty,' has become 'a story of spiritual rebirth, a minor masterpiece of humanist realism'" (Brown 126).

The earlier depressing and pessimistic stories follow Carver's own life closely. When he first began to write, he also began to drink heavily, and his alcoholism certainly affected his work. He was sober for the last 10 years of his life, and his writing took subtle and not so subtle turns after he stopped drinking.

When Raymond Carver wrote Cathedral, he recognized that it was "totally different in conception and execution from any stories that [had] come before." He goes on to say, "There was an opening up when I wrote the story. I knew I'd gone as far the other way as I could or wanted to go, cutting everything down to the marrow, not just to the bone. Any farther in that direction and I'd be at a dead end" (Brown 125).

It is interesting to note in Carver's earlier stories, the titles are often questions that never are answered in the story. His later works do not carry questioning titles, and do not leave questions unanswered at the end of the story. Carver's.