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The literary works of the American short-story writer Raymond Carver (1938-88) have unique characteristics that can be found across his writings. To consider the nature of epiphany in Carver’s stories we will need to look closely at a number of individual stories, but first I want to sketch something of his background. A writer’s background is an important influence in his work, for a writer’s experience will often be reflected or reworked into his stories. Epiphanies in Carver’s stories are heightened or climactic moments within what is often a very drab or realistic context. A website gives us these basic facts:
Raymond Carver was born in Clatskanie, a mill town on the Columbia River in Oregon. ... After finishing high school Carver supported his family by working as a janitor, gas-station attendant, and deliveryman. ...
Subsequently, Carver became interested in creative writing and so gradually forged the writing career for which he became famous. ...
When Carver’s collections of the stories started to be published from the mid 1970s onwards, the views of critics on Carver and his works could be represented as ‘new fiction’ in terms of tone and texture of the works. Some critics have also described Carver as ‘a chronicler of blue-collar despair’ since his experience of early and mid twentieth century American working-class life and its predicaments seem to be reflected in his stories. In other words, Carver’s real life and experience as ‘a blue-collar’ seems to contribute to the creation of elements, which pushes the characters into the gloomy atmosphere of his stories. Moreover, his setting of characters’ job and their rootless identity creates unique ‘Carver style’ environment, which often dominates the entire mood of the stories. As Carver himself asserted in his essay ‘On Writing’ (Fires, 1983) that ‘every great or even every very good writer makes the world over according to his own specifications’, we can see peculiarity of his own theme, plot and style from his work. The themes of his stories are often psychological affairs between human relations, and almost of characters are American working class people in mid 20th century. Carver observes and concerns on subtle human nature with his penetrative eyes as a writer, and manifests in his own but enjoyable way of story telling. Keeping this fact in mind, we shall than, examine his literary works by looking at several short stories of his.
Fat
This five-page-long story is the first story in Carver’s collection Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? (1976) Carver is describing a person newly awakening to human tenderness through her intimacy with the fat man in the story. ... ’ Rita, another waitress who is set as a listener to the story of events, is not really keen on understanding in any deep way what the narrator is telling her: ‘That’s a funny story’. ... This is the crucial moment of epiphany in the story, a moment of sympathy that gives the waitress a wider confidence in the way she approaches life.
Approximate Word count = 2418
Approximate Pages = 9.7
(250 words per page double spaced)
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