The Short Story 'The Bath' By Raymond Carver

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The Bath by Raymond Carver I have selected for this week discussion, it is the short story of a birthday party that never actually takes place. Scotty has an accident, gets hit by a car on the exact day of his birthday, falls into a coma. According to Carver (1989 ) “At an intersection, without looking, the birthday boy stepped off the curb, and was promptly knocked down by a car.” The boy is later taken to the hospital, where he lies in a deep sleep, while his parents fear the worst and wish for the good. Scotty 's father and mother wait at his bedside while doctors attempt to figure out the problem. The mother is very worried and refuses to leave until she thinks he might get better if she leaves for a while. She goes home with the intention of feeding the dog and taking a bath and with the hope of the good news.
Taking a bath. It's a key element of the story. The bath is a fairly mundane, every-day aspect of life. It is a ritualistic, religious cleansing and it is also important because it is a small good thing and small good things tend to help people during tough times. Once the woman arrives home, she receives a phone call about her son Scotty and this …show more content…
In some situation it was very difficult to understand what was going on. Communication is integral part of our life and without proper communication we cannot get or do anything. There are enough communication in the story “The Bath” but there are also lacking certain kind of communications. The characters and their actions are interesting but communication never succeeds in stirring the same interest. For example when the technician starts to take Scotty’s blood, Ann (mother of Scotty) tells the technician ‘I don’t understand this,’ Ann (as anyone would) expects some explanation from the technician but it is not forthcoming. He continues without discussion or explanation, to take Scotty’s
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