'Entrapment In Raymond Carver's Story Boxes'

Raymond Carver’s story “Boxes” has a deeper meaning than a mother and son’s relationship. Carver uses an example to explain how people experience issues in the own relationships. He uses this relationship to explain what people experience frequently in their own relationships and not just the one discussed in this story. He uses this example to tell the reader how sometimes relationships become tight and “entrapment” starts to occur. The two themes conveyed to tie the point together are despair and guilt and disconnectedness occurring because of the feeling of entrapment. Though “Boxes” discusses physical boxes, the story is also about the psychological boxes keeping us from partaking in different activities in life. When discussing both physical
The narrator is the son of the mother in the story and he feels awful for what he has thought about his mother. He says he has “unworthy feelings” as he loves his mother but also realizes she needs to leave in order for him to have his own life. The narrator stands for the other theme of remorse and guilt. He is guilty of much concerning his mother and he realizes she is “all the family I have left” (Carver, 588). Torn between the two women in his life, he cannot decide if he should move to where his mother is or if he should stay with his girlfriend. As depicted in the text, he feels torn about “the woman who brought me into this life and this other woman I picked up with less than a year ago” (Carver, 589). The narrator knows this for sure when he says they could “tear me apart” (Carver 589). The narrator’s ultimate decision is to either move back with his mother or to start his own life and live with his girlfriend, Jill. The narrator feels entrapped inside psychological boxes or in other words, his own
The narrator says “The people over there embrace for a minute and they go inside the house together” (Carver, 590). This shows the narrator as someone regretting his decision and yearning for the opportunity to have his family back even though he knows that is not possible. Throughout the story, the mother, narrator, and Jill are all different people with the same dilemma of choosing a path in life. Carver showing this dilemma shows us we always have decisions to make and sometimes the decisions come with consequences. Through using physical and psychological boxes, the reader can see relationships as beneficial or harmful depending on the situation. The narrator is portraying the darker side of ourselves coming out when we must make