Discomfort, Irritation, and Confusion of The Bath

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Discomfort, Irritation, and Confusion of The Bath

People are living robots. They follow the norm. They go with the latest trend. They walk the latest walk and talk the latest talk. Even the "brilliant ideas" that sprout from people's minds are a combination of other people's thoughts and ideas; friends, family and the media are the greatest influences. When a situation that is out of the norm confronts people, they are suddenly caught off guard, and instead of dealing with the situation, they shy away from it in attempt to return to their protective glass case; the norm. Raymond Carver forces his readers to face discomfort, irritation, and confusion through reading "The Bath". His language is dry, and the story is short. The characters do not have names, the language does not flow well, and the ending leaves the reader hanging. The message of the story is vague, and the plot lacks depth; however, the details that this story reveals through the concise language surpasses any detail that "A Small, Good Thing" reveals through its abundance of words.

To begin with, "The Bath" lacks much usage of adverbs. Adverbs typically help describe an action so that the reader better understands either the character or the situation. Clearly, the point of not including adverbs in this short story is to force the reader to focus on what happens instead of how something happens. A short story is "something glimpsed from the corner of the eye, in passing" (Carver 558). A reader should not feel connected with the characters in the story because that is not the author's main concern. An author simply attempts to convey a message through some words in a page that is arranged in ...

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... intentions for "A Small, Good Thing" differ from his intentions for "The Bath".

Throughout "The Bath" the reader struggles with many uncomfortable feelings, and although the reader may not immediately realize that he/she can relate to the story more than he/she knows, a relationship is present. "The Bath" does a good job of putting the reader in the characters' shoes. "A Small, Good Thing," on the other hand, provides a comforting feeling of knowing everything that happens, and knowing that everything works out at the end. Since there is a beginning and an ending to the story, the reader can conclude a meaningful message from the story and relate or apply it to his/her life. Overall, "The Bath" sets the mood of the story better than "A Small, Good Thing" because of its concise language and its focus on "the glimpse" instead of the "big picture".

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