Alcohol Ruins Lives: as Shown by Raymond Carver’s Short Stories
Alcohol Ruins Lives: As Shown By Raymond Carver’s Short Stories
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is a collection of short stories by Raymond Carver. Named “One of the true contemporary masters,” by Robert Towers of The New York Times Review of Books, Carver creates fiction that opens the reader’s eyes to a seldom spoken of, but all too real, part of American life. Alcoholism, and its ability to destroy families and escalate domestic disputes into violence, was a common theme throughout Carver’s short stories. Though there are many equally powerful themes in all of the stories, alcoholism is the driving force behind most of the misfortune in “Gazebo” and “A Serious Talk.” “Gazebo” opens with a married couple whose relationship is on the brink of collapse. Both alcoholics, Duane and Holly struggle to maintain a motel that they had decided to manage years earlier. Duane, probably as a result of his alcoholism, had gone outside the marriage with a maid named Juanita. As a result, Holly had lost all her will to be married to Duane, as well as her will to live. Carver describes the couple, locked in one of the motel rooms, drinking and arguing over each others’ faults and marital discrepancies. The story ends when Holly reminisces about a time when Duane and she had visited the house of an elderly couple that they didn’t know to ask for a drink of water. She remembers how Duane and she had imagined that someday they, too, would grow old and have a house of their own. Then perhaps some young couple would come to call on them for a glass of water just as they had done. “Gazebo” shows just how many hopes and dreams alcoholism can take away. Illustrating this point, Carver writes, "There was this funny thing of anything could happen now that we realized everything had" (27). By writing in the first person from Duane’s point of view, Carver shows how Duane feels that their lives have been expended, that any plans they might have had were now so far out of reach
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is a collection of short stories by Raymond Carver. Named “One of the true contemporary masters,” by Robert Towers of The New York Times Review of Books, Carver creates fiction that opens the reader’s eyes to a seldom spoken of, but all too real, part of American life. Alcoholism, and its ability to destroy families and escalate domestic disputes into violence, was a common theme throughout Carver’s short stories. Though there are many equally powerful themes in all of the stories, alcoholism is the driving force behind most of the misfortune in “Gazebo” and “A Serious Talk.” “Gazebo” opens with a married couple whose relationship is on the brink of collapse. Both alcoholics, Duane and Holly struggle to maintain a motel that they had decided to manage years earlier. Duane, probably as a result of his alcoholism, had gone outside the marriage with a maid named Juanita. As a result, Holly had lost all her will to be married to Duane, as well as her will to live. Carver describes the couple, locked in one of the motel rooms, drinking and arguing over each others’ faults and marital discrepancies. The story ends when Holly reminisces about a time when Duane and she had visited the house of an elderly couple that they didn’t know to ask for a drink of water. She remembers how Duane and she had imagined that someday they, too, would grow old and have a house of their own. Then perhaps some young couple would come to call on them for a glass of water just as they had done. “Gazebo” shows just how many hopes and dreams alcoholism can take away. Illustrating this point, Carver writes, "There was this funny thing of anything could happen now that we realized everything had" (27). By writing in the first person from Duane’s point of view, Carver shows how Duane feels that their lives have been expended, that any plans they might have had were now so far out of reach
Cited: Becker, Howard C. "Alcohol Dependence, Withdrawal, And Relapse." Alcohol Research & Health, (2008): 348-361. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 Apr. 2012. Hemmingson, Michael. "Carver 's A Serious Talk." Explicator 66.4 (2008): 217-219. Literary Reference Center. Web. 2 Apr. 2012. Bethea, Arthur F. "Reviews." Studies In Short Fiction 34.1 (1997): 134. Literary Reference Center. Web. 2 Apr. 2012. Champion, Laurie. "So Much Whisk(E)Y So Far From Home: Misogyny, Violence, And Alcoholism In Raymond Carver 's Where I 'm Calling From."Studies In Short Fiction 36.3 (1999): 235. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 Apr. 2012. Gallagher, Kathryn E., Adam D. Hudepohl, and Dominic J. Parrott. "Power Of Being Present: The Role Of Mindfulness On The Relation Between Men 's Alcohol Use And Sexual Aggression Toward Intimate Partners."Aggressive Behavior 36.6 (2010): 405-413. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 Apr. 2012. Jennie Reynolds, et al. "Measuring Young Men 's Expected Effects Of Alcohol In Provoking Situations In Bars." Contemporary Drug Problems 38.2 (2011): 281-309. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 Apr. 2012. Carver, Raymond. What We Talk about When We Talk about Love: Stories. New York: Vintage, 1989. Print.