"What is it?" Exploring the roles of women throughout Raymond Carver’s short fiction

Abstract

A majority of critics examine Raymond Carver’s fiction in terms of minimalism, but in this thesis, I highlight the themes in Carver’s work rather than emphasize the format. Many women in Carver’s work contrast the futility of their male counterparts by showing a determination to move on with their lives. By looking at each of Carver’s major collections of short stories, one may find a progression in the way women react to the hopeless situations in their lives. Carver’s early stories, found in "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?", show women who are capable of handling situations, yet unproductive in finding true autonomy. Later stories in "Cathedral" and "Where I’m Calling From" find women working with men and eventually finding their own independence - a characteristic that begins to develop in Carver’s second collection, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love".