A Small Good Thing Raymond Carver

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In “A small, good thing” by Raymond Carver tragedies occur which lead to connections between people who otherwise wouldn’t have spoken with one another. There is a certain subject that Carver pushes throughout this story and it is postmodern alienation. Showing how different races and cultures are brought together when they all have something in common that has happened to them. As shown in “A small, good thing,” tragedies do connect people who typically wouldn’t interact with one another. Carver’s main objective was to show the effects of postmodern alienation, and how it can effect a community. With certain races not interacting, and people having certain jobs to isolate themselves is going to happen. Carver portrays it in a deeper manner where being away from the community will cause destroy you as a human being. The tone he uses for this story is melancholy. This melancholy nature helps show the negative aspects of…show more content…
The baker is an alienated man working nonstop with no family to go home to. When Carver states that the baker is making phone calls to customers at 5 in the morning, He is suggesting that the baker doesn’t know how to act towards other humans because of his isolation. The most relevant way he shows his estranged world is when the baker says: “Your Scotty, I got him ready for you, did you forget him?” (Carver 11). The baker clearly doesn’t know how to communicate with people either since he doesn’t mention what the call is for he just supposes Ann and Howard to know it’s him on the other line. Carver makes the baker act like this because he was emphasizing the point that when people are alienated from the world they can be senseless. In the end though, the baker is able to connect with Ann and Howard because they both have something in common. They are both childless and are not happy with their lives. A tragedy had happened and brought the two

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