Short Story Everything Stuck To Him By Raymond Carver

“On their third meeting he buys her a lemonade and makes a young guy in the carriage stand up so that she can sit down.” (Father’s actions) pg.3

The ambiguous approach to developing the theme not only makes the story, it also adds to the reading experience. As the story progresses the reader begins to discover the values of the characters based on the dialogue between characters about the notion of a good man. The reader can

Another characteristic the author exhibits is forgiveness. The struggles her parents cause her display this trait. For instance, Ma constantly neglects Murray as a child. Drugs and alcohol consume the parent’s lives, so Murray and her older sister do not receive the proper care they need. Also, Ma frequently spent her daughter’s money or sold their items without their consent. The readers are astonished when the author says many times that she forgives Ma and just moves on. An important scene in the story occurs when Murray looks back on her childhood and forgives her mom for all of her wrongs, and concludes her mom did the best that she could do. Many people would resent their parents after all the hardships they caused, and so does the author at first. But she finds it in her heart to forgive which shows her kindness and really displays how mature of a person she is.

* The author gives the story from two different perspectives one from the mother’s perspective, Ruth, and the other from the son’s perspective, James.

All in all, as the mother is still speaking to the daughter the daughter states,

In the story the father didn’t understand his daughter which made their relationship rocky. In the text it says ‘‘...watching him get out of the truck and walk toward me, noticing that there was no smile on his face but still feeling my body move toward him, my arms opening for an embrace, something rising in my throat. My father stopped and held out his right hand.’’ This quote shows that the father had a hard time showing his emotions to his daughter. In the end of the story they bonded over a bird and the father began to understand his daughter.

The article, the book, and I, talk about how daughters feel their mothers don’t know them and that they don’t know their mothers. They talk about how a daughter listens to her mother, but there is a certain point in a young woman 's mind where they decide they want to see and explore new ideas. In conclusion, they all talk about the point in a daughter 's life where she and her mother don’t get along very well and the daughter tries to take charge of her life.

The ending of the story shows that the little girl had been dealing with her own sort of internal conflict. She had a

brilliantly brings out this theme through the use of setting and atmosphere, the title of the story and its

Does the film that the father is watching have any purpose in the story? Or is it perhaps just a detail to make it feel more real?

would like the reader to focus on and receive from what the author is trying to portray.

The story continuously changes between taking place in the company of the grandmother, and Laurence.

During the opening of the story, the narrator recounts significant times in his wife’s life from just before she met him leading up to the main event of the narrative. Despite

At first, the parents decide that they are lucky to have their little girl. It was just "a chain of lucky events" (Munro 469) that kept their child from drowning. The narrator begins the "could have been's" and the if only's" that life is full of. Dwelling on the other possibilities does not remove the reality that does exist. It is like "laying your finger on the wire to get a safe shock, feeling a bit of what it is like, then pulling back" (Munro 470). If the "what if's" did happen the narrator realizes that her life could had been changed drastically in a matter of

The tone of this story is one of fear, regret, and guilt. The story first leaves the reader with impression that it may be a recount of the life of a daughter who was lost due to neglect. Soon it is evident