One More Thing

“One More Thing”: it is your choice
The short story, One More Thing, is written by, American writer, Raymond Carver. Raymond Carver was born may 25, 1938, and he died august 2, 1988. He started his career back in 1958. His first break through was with the book, Carnations.
One More Thing, has three characters, Rae, Maxine and L.D.
The short story is about L.D., who gets kicked out of his home. L.D. is married to Maxine, and together they have a child, Rae, who is a 15 year old girl.
L.D.’s selfish behaviour illustrates how much it can cost you, if you do not think about the people that you really love.

L.D. is a aggressive and selfish person, which you can see through his actions. He throws the jar through the window: he picked up the jar and pitched it through the kitchen window. Also the way he talks is aggressive: “All right, I’m going right now,” he said. “It suits me to a tee. You’re nuts here, anyway. This is a nuthouse. There’s another life out there. Believe me, this is no picnic, this nuthouse”. It is not written in the text, but it seems to be a problem for L.D. and his family, that he drinks to much: L.D.’s wife, Maxine, told him to get the night she came home from work and found L.D. drunk again and being abusive to Rae. L.D. is also a bit confused. L.D. says many times, I’m going, or when Maxine tells him to leave, he just says, ok. He says it like he does not care, like he is not against, that it is fine. How ever, when he is done packing his stuff, and also a bit of Maxines (tooth paste, soap etc.), he comes back into the living room. Then he is hesitating, because he does not know what to say only, this is it. This is good-bye. I don’t know what to say, except I guess I’ll never see you again. You too.
Raymond Carver has a special writing style. He does not tell his reader what has happened before. He only tells the reader, the most important details. It is also called the minimalistic writer. He does not write much, but what he writes, is the most important. It is up to the reader to improvise, and think about what had happened. He gives his reader some responsibility, and some freedom, to use his or hers fantasy.
He begins this short story real straight. There is no intro to the story, it just starts, L.D.’s Wife, Maxine, told him to get out… instead of for example, L.D. is a man. He is 35 years old. L.D. is married to Maxine. Normally the author would have a little intro, both for the story, but also an intro for the different characters in the story.
The end of this short story, one more thing, is also different from a lot of other short stories. In this short story Raymond Carver stops the story as he has started it, real straight. Most of the times, the author gives the reader a closed ending of a story, by tell the reader where, in this case, L.D. would have gone. How ever, in this short story, Raymond Carver let his reader decide, or make his reader fantasies of what could happen next.
Raymond Carvers, one more thing, is also in a easy, understandable language. Raymond Carver does not make use of too long sentences. Most of the time he makes short directly sentences, which is easy for the reader to understand.
A theme to this short story could be, that you live your life through the people around you. L.D. is really confident at the beginning of the short story. In the beginning he is quick with answers to Rae, but later on, in the short story, Rae says to him: “just remember.” Rae said. “It’s in your head.”
“I’m going, that’s all I can say,” L.D. said. “Anyplace”. As L.D. sees that he is actually has been thrown out of the house, and it was not just a normal fight, and he is loosing them who means something to him, he looses his confident.

You need to show the important people in your life some love. You need to think of them too, and not just your self. If you stop care for them, you will lose them at some point. The text reminds you of, the fact that, people around makes you, and that, you live through them. How would you be if you did not have someone that you really loved?