A Small Good Thing Analysis

We assume that certain experiences only happen to other people and not ourselves only because we have yet to experience it. But why is it that we still have this preconception when experiences such as losing a loved one or harboring a feeling of jealousy are all too common, or even inevitable, in our society. Take Raymond Carver’s stories about the middle class, for example. He shows the typical human experience of jealousy and losing a loved one and presents it in a manner that deems it as being a normal act of human nature. His character’s in “Neighbors” and “A Small Good Thing” present actions that are only a predictable act of nature in order to convey the idea that middle class people are no different than the other members of society.
This baker is a lonely man, living with the memory of a once happy family now gone. Working in a family bakery only triggered his longing of wanting a family once again. To sum up the story, the story revolves around a child and his two parents. It was the child’s birthday and to celebrate, the mother decides to purchase a cake for her son. The baker accepts her order and the scene cuts to the boy walking down the street with a friend. Within seconds, a car slams into the child. EMT arrive and he is immediately hospitalized. The mother and the father, moments later at the hospital, grieve at the sight of their child in a gurney in a trauma induced coma. The child soon dies and the parents believed that they had lost everything with the death of their son. To pull the baker back into this story, the baker calls the mother to have the cake picked up, but our friend the baker words it in a very cynical manner. He says along the lines of, “it’s ready. Come pick it up” (Note: the baker does not address himself as “the baker”, so he is a complete stranger to the mother on the phone). “It” being the cake. But with the death of her son, the mother is not in a normal state of mind and goes ballistic at the insensitivity of this mystery caller. The baker calls again but this time, the sound of machinery in the background hint that it was the baker that was calling. She prompted that she and her husband go up to the bakery. Upon arrival to the bakery door, the mother goes ballistic and yells at the baker that he did not know that her son had just died and his insensitivity to all of it. But, how was the baker supposed to know, with no recent news report, or anything, about a child’s death due to a hit and run. Eventually, the tragedy of the child’s death is revealed and all of the people present decide to sit and talk it out. Remember that the baker, too,