Narration
The story is told from the first-person restricted point-of-view. The narrator, Nick, describes the interactions between the two couples only from his own perspective. Nick portrays his relationship with his wife, Linda, in glowing terms, full of warmth, affection, and mutual respect. Given the atmosphere of the story, and the tone of the conversation, however, the reader is invited to speculate if perhaps Nick’s idealized perception of his marriage may eventually develop the tone of ”benign menace” characterized by the relationship between Mel and Terri. Because the story is related in the past tense, the narrator suggests a feeling of nostalgia on Nick’s part, for this early period of his marriage.
Setting: “Carver Country”
The story is set around the kitchen table of the McGinnis’, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, although the narrator explains that “we were all from somewhere else.” This is significant in that many critics agree Carver’s settings are not regionally specific, but that his characters and the lives they lead describe a specific segment of white, working-class American life many have dubbed “Carver Country.” Carver’s widow, the writer Tess Gallagher, has edited a book entitled Carver Country, which includes photographs that capture the flavor of “Carver Country,” accompanied by excerpts from Carver’s letters, stories, and poems. In her introduction, Gallagher explains that “Carver Country was, in fact, an amalgam of feelings and psychic realities which had existed in America, of course, even before Ray began to write about them.” She goes on to describe the atmosphere of the world of Carver’s fiction as pervaded by “a current of benign menace.” Others have described “Carver Country” as “Hopelessville, USA” because his characters occupy a class standing that leaves them without hope for financial or personal improvement. While the characters in this story seem to be more of the professional class (Mel is a cardiologist), the atmosphere in which they exist does carry “a current of benign menace” in terms of the relationship between Mel and Terri, which is characterized by a surface-level civility thinly covering a deep-seated anger and resentment. Over the course of their conversation, an atmosphere of “hopelessness” about the possibility of real love descends upon the two couples.
Closing Imagery
Critics have debated about the way in which Carver characteristically ends his stories. His endings have been described as “tableaus,” providing a visual image, frozen in time, and infused with ambiguity. This story has such an ending: “I could hear my heart beating. I could hear everyone’s heart. I could hear the human noise we sat there making, not one of us moving, not even when the room went dark.” There is no direct information indicating the future of each of the couples, leaving the reader to speculate on indirect elements of the story. Some critics have criticized Carver’s ambiguous endings as cliche and unsatisfying to the reader. Others, however, have praised the “photo-realist” detail of Carver’s tableau endings and asserted that the ambiguity invites the reader to actively engage in the story and characters, in order to draw his or her conclusions as to their fate.
Source:
Jennifer Smith – Short Stories for Students – Presenting Analysis, Context & Criticism on Commonly Studied Short Stories, vol. 12, Raymond Carver, Published by Gale Group, 2001.