The Lives and Works of Raymond Carver - 1692 Words

With a unique and brilliant style of writing, Raymond Carver has left a lasting and outstanding impact on the history of short stories. Even though Raymond Carver left a long impact, his life was of the opposite. Like Raymond Carver’s famous award winning stories, his life was short. Raymond Carver was born on May 25th, 1938 in Clatskanie, Oregon, a mill town on the Columbia River. Carver grew up in Yakima, Washington. Carver had three members to his small family, his mother, his father, and brother. Carver’s only had one sibling, his younger brother, James Franklin Carver. Carver’s mother worked as a waitress and a retail clerk while Carver’s father worked as a fisherman and a saw mill worker. Many say that a skilled sawmill worker and†¦show more content†¦I really wanted to hang in there for the long haul. I thought I could outlast the drinking. Id do anything it took. I loved Ray, first, last and always. Even though she loved him, Maryann cou ld not take it anymore, and eventually ended her marriage with Carver. This time period was known as the time of Carver’s â€Å"first life.† Carver found himself in a very dark place. Carver now suffered from alcoholism, many different drug addictions, and even depression as a result of his divorce. Although Carver’s life was looking down, he did not give up. Three years later, Carver decided to pull his life together. He attended many Alcoholics Anonymous meetings a decided to take up writing. Carver even got re-married. After finally getting his life back together, Carver decided to start writing again. This time in his life is the time that he created some of his most famous short-stories. The following are some of those stories: â€Å"What We Talk about When We Talk about Love†, â€Å"The Cathedral†, and â€Å"Elephant.† Carver’s second marriage, turn around with his alcoholism and drug addictions, and new writings are all included in what is known as Raymond Carver’s â€Å"second life.†(King) During Carver’s â€Å"second life.† Carver wrote many different types of short stories. The style and themes of the stories vary greatly. Many of Carver’s first short stories were influenced by his early life when he grew up with an alcoholic as a father. HisShow MoreRelatedMy Fathers Life By Raymond Carver858 Words   |  4 Pages† by Raymond Carver illustrates the difficult task of a son trying to find his own sense of identity and individualism while watching his father’s life unravel. Carver explores the relationships of his parents and his own struggle with sharing the same name with his father and the similarities and differences between them. THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND WESTWARD MIGRATION Clevie Raymond Carver Senior moved to Washington state at the height of the depression in 1934. The author Raymond Carver Jr. speculatesRead MoreThe Most Important American Fiction Writer1661 Words   |  7 PagesRaymond Carver has been called â€Å"the most important American fiction writer in the second half of the twentieth century† and â€Å"the most influential American short story writer since Ernest Hemingway† (Kleepe vii). He was very successful despite his many difficult life experiences. Carver grew up during a very difficult time in America. However, early on, Carver and his wife believed their hard work would eventually pay off despite the challenges in the world around them. They thought it would fix almostRead MoreRaymond Carver1583 Words   |  7 PagesRaymond Carver (1938-1988) was a poet and a simple realist writer of short stories. His prose addresses the average working-class citizen. Bill Mullen describes the book that contains the short story â €Å"What We Talk About We Talk About Love† to the â€Å"distinctly post-modern fate of contemporary working-class Americans† (Bloom). The writings are depressing and riddled with failures in life. The textbook calls his school of writing â€Å"Alcoholic Blue-Collar Minimalist Hyperrealism† (Bayam). This is evidentRead More Carvers Realism From Fires Essay1174 Words   |  5 Pages How does Carver create precision of reality with his characters, focusing on Fires? When looking at the works of Raymond Carver, one can feel a sense of autobiography, that the characters in his stories are struggling against the same circumstances that Carver himself once struggled through. How true this is, is marginal to say the least, for Carver tells us in Fires that anything from a phone call to living in a seedy apartment in Jerusalem for four months is cause to influence his writing. Read More`` Cathedral `` By Raymond Carver992 Words   |  4 Pageswritten by Raymond Carver in 1981. Raymond Carver is most well known for his short stories and is even an writer credited with reviving the then dying form of literature. A part of a collection of short stories, â€Å"Cathedral† was the last to be published and was included in 1982’s Best American Short Stories. â€Å"Cathedral is different from the other works of Carver due to the humanistic realism that is given to his characters, which had not been seen before in his works. This shift earned Ca rver the criticalRead MoreCathedral (by Raymond Carver)1131 Words   |  5 PagesCathedral: A Lesson for the Ages Raymond Carver s short story, Cathedral, portrays a story in which many in today s society can relate. We are introduced from the first sentence of the story to a man that seems to be perturbed and agitated. As readers, we are initially unsure to the reasoning s behind the man s discomfort. The man, who seems to be a direct portrayal of Raymond Carver himself, shows his ignorance by stereotyping a blind man by the name of Robert, who has come to stay withRead More The Power of Carvers Little Things Essay808 Words   |  4 PagesCarvers Little Things      Ã‚   To a reader unfamiliar with his work, Raymond Carvers short story, Little Things may seem devoid of all literary devices owning to good writing. Fortunately, these people are mistaken. With his minimalistic style, it is what Carver doesnt write that makes his work so effective. Most of Carvers short stories describe situations that many people could find themselves in and that is why his work is so appealing to readers. They are not restricted to harsh explicativeRead MoreAn Analysis Of Cathedral By Raymond Carver1441 Words   |  6 Pages Cathedral Research Paper The short story â€Å"Cathedral†, by Raymond Carver, is a thought provoking piece that focuses on the transition a man goes through to see the world with his soul. The story gives hope that people can change if given the chance to be better people. Over the course of the story, Carver uses both diction and description to explore themes in religion and morality. â€Å"Cathedral† depicts a husband and a wife as they prepare and entertain a friend of the wife. The husband, the narratorRead MoreRaymond Carver and his Works1402 Words   |  6 Pages No matter what we do in life we all as human beings find a way to show what we have been through in our lives. Raymond Carver was no different just he had a really tough road that he traveled and it showed in his stories. According to an interview with William, Stull in â€Å"Matters of Life Death: An Interview with Raymond Carver† Carver also understood that his life showed through in his work, â€Å"Wolff said in a review of my first book of stories that he felt he could pick out a story of mine withoutRead MoreMy Fathers Life1094 Words   |  5 Pagesedge of destruction. This is exactly what Raymond Carver describes in his novel â€Å"My Father’s Life† from 1984. In his novel, Raymond Carver describes his father’s life, starting with his death and continuing with how he met his wife. The story goes on, telling about their poor life, his alcoholism, gambling and his unfaithfulness. The father is named Clevie Raymond Carver and he is roughly described as a drunkard, who has a hard time finding work and staying faithful to his wife. He has had