So Much Water So Close To Home By Raymond Carver

1917 Words8 Pages
Many people say what begins in chaos ends in chaos. This saying could end just as stated or the complete opposite. At certain stages within a relationship many different trials are presented and the way they are handled by each individual determines how those trials effect the relationship. Also, previous difficulties within a relationship effects the way new difficulties are handled, which may cause more problems. Such difficulties could cause tension to build between the two individuals causing them to struggle with communicating effectively, overall putting their relationship in jeopardy. In Raymond Carver’s short story “So Much Water So Close To Home”, Stuart and Claire are dealing with a strain that has been put on their marriage due…show more content…
Claire’s emotions and reactions can be justified with Kleppe’s statement. Claire is bothered and becomes more and more upset with Stuart and is further convinced that he’s involved with the young woman’s death when he says things like “It was just a body, and that’s all there is to it” to their son, Dean. Stuart feels that Claire is over reacting, but Claire is not taking the situation lightly because she feels that it could have been her in that same predicament and Stuart shows no emotion of remorse towards the situation. Eventually, Claire begins to completely identify with the young woman to the point that she imagines that she is the woman (McManus). In doing so, Claire allows herself to be symbolically raped and murdered during her recollection of the girl she knew when she was younger. This occurrence happens while Claire and Stuart were at the beach and Claire drifts away into her thoughts and begins with “I look at the creek. I float toward the pond, eyes open, face down, staring at the rocks and moss on the creek bottom until I am carried into the lake where I am pushed by the breeze” (Carver). In “So Much Wather So Close to Home – Raymond Carver” McManus states that Claire tells Millie in the hairdressers when discussing going to the funeral that ‘we weren’t all that close. But you know’, implying that although Claire did not know the young woman at all that she still feels empathy for
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