Essay on A Small, Good Thing

Words: 2025
Pages: 9
Open Document
The short story A Small, Good Thing by Raymond Carver tells of two American parents dealing with their son's hospitalisation and death as the result of a hit-and-run car accident. The insensitive actions of their local baker add to their anger and confusion, yet by the end of the story, leave them with a sense of optimism and strength. With such content, Carver runs the risk of coming across as sentimental; however, this is not the case, and the anguish of the parents and their shock at the situation is expressed with dignity and understatement. It is a story with a broad appeal: the simple prose makes it accessible to a wide audience, while the complex themes and issues make it appealing to the educated reader. Written in Carver's …show more content…
Ann judges him harshly, even before his actions with the birthday cake, wondering whether he has ever been anything but a baker. She makes no effort to understand him - instead, she reasons that he, old enough to be her father, must have had children of his own. Rather than empathizing with his situation, Ann only views the baker through the distortion of her own perceptions and experiences. Carver encourages us to follow Ann's reasoning, keeping to the limited third person perspective throughout the baker's first scene. No explanation is given for his behaviour; we see it only as Ann does. Later, after the death of Scotty, Ann calls the baker "you evil bastard…you evil son-of-a-bitch." And yet when, in the final scene, the parents confront the baker, unleashing their pent-up anger and grief upon him, they find him to be human after all - "I‘m not an evil man, I don‘t think…you got to understand what it comes down to is I don‘t know how to act anymore, it would seem." We understand that the baker is just an ordinary person, albeit one driven to extreme measures as a result of his loneliness and isolation. Although he is never referred to as anything more than "the baker," the Weiss parents find comfort in his honest sympathy and understanding.

And yet A Small, Good Thing is more than a simple moral tale about the importance of communication, nor is it merely a caution not to take
Show More

Related Documents: Essay on A Small, Good Thing

A Small Good Thing Analysis

surrogates which is why surrogates are conventionally dismissed or neglected by doctors, in the narrative “A Small Good Thing” by Raymond Carver, this idea is further supported. When we look at the real-world research in done in “What Doctor Know About How Bad It Is and Won’t Say It” by Paula Span and “When Doctors Need to Lie” by Sandeep Jauhar. When looking at the stories “A Small Good Thing”, “What Doctor Know About How Bad It Is and Won’t Say It” and “When Doctors Need to Lie” by Sandeep Jauhar…

Words 921 - Pages 4

A Small Good Thing Analysis

Essay In the story “A Small Good Thing” by Raymond Carver uses imagery of the parents actions throughout the story causing isolation between them and towards the end connectedness. “A Small Good Thing” is about a boy who got hit by a truck on his birthday as was hospitalize, this causes the parents to be isolated, depressed, stress, and many other things a parent will feel for their hospitalized child. There many times where the parents could have connect with other people or connect with each other…

Words 739 - Pages 3

Doctor And Parent Relationship In A Small, Good Thing

Doctor and Parent Relationship in “A Small, good Thing” In the story “A Small, Good Thing”, author Raymond Carver creates an interesting doctor-parent dynamic. After the character Scotty is located in the hospital with critical conditions, his parents rely on the doctor to help their child awaken from a deep sleep. With the doctors professional education and analyzes of the conditions of the child, both parents try to not lose hope. As the child’s conditions do not show any signs of improvement…

Words 852 - Pages 4

Small Animal Veterinarian

Small Animal Veterinarian A Small Animal Veterinarian is a doctor the helps small animals The Educational Requirements of Small Animal Veterinarian (SAV) is that u have to go to college. You have to go to college for 4 years. One of the good colleges is the University Of California there are more colleges but i just but one of them. The Required Skills is to take care and help the small animals stay heather. Yes, you have to have these skills in order to be a SAV because if you don't have those…

Words 817 - Pages 4

How To Describe Elkton

and a few shops to offer. In town, there is one park that kids like to visit. Elkton is very small, so there is not a lot of activity. It’s just the right size, though, if a person likes peace and quiet. In Elkton, there is a park behind the old elementary. A lot of kids like to ride their bikes up there in the summer, or families like to grill out. The park has all sorts of swings, slides, and things to climb on. The lion watering fountain is a particularly popular item. It stands about five feet…

Words 535 - Pages 3

Marketing and Small Business Essay

Analyzing Small Businesses and Consumers In A Deep Prospective Bryce Durham Business 101 This article discusses and talks about the small business and how they are a part of the big business industry. They are very important part to get everything going in order. Also they make up the majority of all businesses. “Businesses with fewer than 100 employees account for 98 percent of all companies in the United States” (Davis, 2012) This article goes into detail about situations and real life things that…

Words 1208 - Pages 5

Monopolies In The 19th Century

buying companies, both men expanded their company greatly. Although they made really good profit, their companies affected many other companies who tried to compete against them. Despite their best effort, the small companies failed and fell into the hands of monopolies. Thesis: A monopoly in the late 19th century was thought of a splendid…

Words 835 - Pages 4

Need and Boom Town Usa Essay

Boom Town USA Boom Town USA by Jack Schultz is a really good guide for people who have a passion for business work or even people who want to start a busniess. This book focus's on ways to start a buiness and how to start one. They give you seven and a half ways to success in even small towns. This book was a really big help to me too. I want go into buiness and this book helped me pick what type of buiness I want to go into and even what to do to help start a busniess. I think that every corperator…

Words 570 - Pages 3

Marigolds By Eugenia W. Collier

opening experience that sends her to a breaking point but also has her coming of age moment and she starts to realize why others look for the beauty in things despite the times around them being bad. The takeaway from this story is that having one beautiful thing in a life of bad can make things better, even though things around you may not be good. And as you get older, the more you realize and soon become one who plants beauty in a world of hate. Ms.Lottie's flowers were the brightness to her run…

Words 334 - Pages 2

Panyee Football Team Research Paper

Panyee football team video, The boys are good problem solvers because they created a pitch, they learned how to play Football, and when they took off their boots in the rain. The panyee boys lived in a small lake village with small space. They never really played sports or games, the only sports or games they ever did was go boat racing or tell stories about how big of a fish they got. The boys loved football but they never played it because of such a small place they live in. They had an idea to…

Words 459 - Pages 2