Power over Peace Essay

Submitted By jmram3
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Pages: 4
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In Raymond Carver's, "Popular Mechanics," the reader is thrown into a power struggle between a couple who sacrifices their baby's well-being. Because Carver serves as an objective narrator, the story can be generalized to reveal relational components between all people. One major component is that of power between two individuals. "Popular Mechanics" exemplifies the idea that ego and desire for power and control of a relationship can offset all good, causing major relational conflict. Love, mutual respect, and various other binding elements of a relationship are the glue to a couple's connection. The most functional couples are those who understand that it is a partnership and are committed to one another through conflict. They do not demean one another or speak in condescending tones. Without any back story, it is difficult to judge why the characters are in the situation that they are and why the woman manically talks to her significant other the way she does. A sign of their broken relationship is the way that she speaks to him, "Son of a b****! I'm so glad you're leaving! She began to cry. You can't even look me in the face, can you?" She is attempting to challenge him in order to get a reaction or at least some sort of response. His actions in return are passive aggressive, ignoring her and not reacting to her overly expressive behavior. A quote by William James says, "Whenever you're in conflict with someone, there is one factor than can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude." This is relevant because the reader only judges the characters based upon their actions and attitude; the male and female's approach to the disagreement in "Popular Mechanics" is defined clearly by each of their attitudes. Immediately the tone is set when Carver describes, "..the snow was melting into dirty water" (Meyer 227). This imagery causes the reader to anticipate something bad to come. Snow is typically symbolic of purity and innocence which connects with the fragility of relationships. Once the couple encounters conflict for the first time, it sheds some of the innocent nature of their relationship and each time after that chips off more and more of the innocence of their love. After it has taken some damage, couples may lose the "we" and return as they once were - as two separate individuals. One of the two will emerge and begin to steer the relationship in the direction of their choosing. This "we" to "I" behavior is exemplified in the fight over their baby as it is a human life that they created together and the male character says, "...I want the baby. I'll get someone to come by for his things" (Meyer 227). The male character is asserting his dominance verbally and later physically in the tug-of-war. Now that the love is gone and the once open lines of communication severed, power is all that is attainable from the relationship. It becomes about integrity and preservation of self, detachment from a communion with someone. Both the male and the female character attempted to take the reign of the
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