Introduction
Raymond Carver is considered one of the very few contemporary writers who concentrated mainly on short stories and poems. According to many, Raymond revived a dying profession of literature. His literary works are mainly characterized by middle-class characters. Because he mainly wrote on love and loneliness, Raymond was believed to have lived in a world where worries about worldly things were a common thing. People worried about cars, unemployment, bankruptcy and other such things. On the other hand, Bobbie Ann Mason was an American college teacher who was unknown until she wrote her critical novels and short stories. She wrote about a teenager faced with worries, loneliness and love and an unknown future. Her writings took her to the finals of various awards and this became the beginning of her wonderful career in writing. In this paper, I am going to look at some of the works of these two great authors, their content and also try to analyze why they mainly based their literature works on love and loneliness. For sure love and loneliness is a social issue which cannot just go unnoticed.
Raymond Carver
In almost every work of Raymond Carver, an element of love and loneliness is evident. Love and loneliness are two things that are somehow intertwined. It is not as easy to separate love from loneliness. This is because out of loneliness, we find love. When a person is lonely, he can attract the sympathy from other people, and in the process love develops. In the story, ‘The Neighbors’, Carver brings to us an element of love and loneliness. In this story, we are introduced to a once happily married couple, who later lived a life of loneliness and desperation because they failed to fix their marriage. The couple Bill and Arlene Miller, find their life far less fare and lovely than the life lived by their neighbor who had gone for a trip. The story gives the reader a deep insight into how we compare our lives with fantasies of others, thereby leading us to state of loneliness and desperation. Raymond can show the reader how love can be lost in a relationship out of petty things that can be prevented. This story by Raymond Carver clearly shows us why it’s important to ensure love that initially binds people together should be maintained or else we find ourselves in social issues just like the neighbor’s couple.
Bobbie Ann Mason
Mason gives a story of a character, Samantha Hughes, whose father had gone to the Vietnam War just before her birth; she is seventeen and tries to find out what happened in Vietnam War. The story also includes Samantha’s Uncle, Emmett, who also fought in the Vietnam War; he came back sick and suffers from stomach disorders and headaches (Smith par. 1- 4). Samantha also referred to as Sam thinks her uncle must have been poisoned during his time in Vietnam (E-notes, Inc. 1). The author also describes Sam’s Grandmother, who drives to Washington D.C from her hometown in Kentucky to see the Memorial of Vietnam Veterans. This is mainly covered in the first part of the story, it continues in the second part by giving the background of the deceased, Sam’s father and goes on to Sam’s mother, her reactions to the loss and how she remarried. Sam, has a sibling from her mother‘s new marriage and the new family lives in Lexington (Smith par. 1- 4).
Love turns in when we see Sam with a boyfriend called Lonnie, she is disturbed and is not settled on what she wants with her future. They watch M.A.S.H which is about the war in Korea but this only reminds her of the Vietnam War and her father. It is quite clear that she longs for her father and imagines what he looked like, how compassionate (Smith par. 1- 4). She is isolated and lonely, deficient in love. Her mother has left her for another man and she has no father, the uncle is sick and her life is meaningless as she is not even decided on her future. She gets more interested in the war and moves on to spend time with his uncle’s friends. She only has one girlfriend, Dawn who is pregnant, People think she’ll marry Lonnie but she’s undecided. The story progresses on how she persuades Emmett to a party to join his former girlfriend, Anita. She loves Tom, one of Her Uncle’s friends, tries to lure him to sex but he refuses, blaming it on impotency caused by the Vietnam War (Smith par. 1- 4). Sam breaks with Lonnie, goes to her paternal grandparents after she meets her mother, she reads her father’s diaries and is displeased with it, she packs her things isolates herself to a dangerous pond, where she is found by her uncle and they together move to the wall in Washington D.C. She is pleased to find her name on the wall beside her father’s and it brings joy to her (E-notes, Inc. 1)
Sam experiences both loneliness and love in this novel; she comes to love Tom, and misses her father. She is also affected by the war in Vietnam where she feels sorry for the victims and the children killed. Emmett conveys his love for her as a father and this greatly helps her emotionally. In the end Mason brings to light as Emmett finds joy with his smile and Sam seems happy too (Smith par. 1- 4).
It is evident from life experiences and from the above examples the loneliness exists. People of different walks of life feel lonely and neglected either in places of work, school or even at home (Wojno, p. 52). For many years literature has been sent as a mirror to the society. It provides a channel for addressing pertinent issues that face the society as a whole. It is no wonder that Carver and Mason paid so much attention to the issues of love and loneliness. According to Wonjo, the best way to deal with issues of loneliness is to appreciate and recognize it lives among us (Wojno, p. 77). This is exactly the method that was employed by carver and Mason. They wrote their literature work based on love and loneliness and by so doing they showed their appreciation that the issues are among the human race. Through their fiction in literal work they provided ways of dealing with the consequences of loneliness as well as showing the advantages of showing love to those who are lonely. According to Dunn et al (2009, p.261) people need time alone to be able to understand themselves deeper, make decisions and meditate on life’s important issues. As such the issue of loneliness is paramount in an individual’s life. One must find a time to be lonely and to reflect on life. Through this, one can develop feelings of love towards people, objects and life in general. This is the reason why I still maintain that, love and loneliness are intertwined.
Bonetti acknowledges the fact that through fiction literature on relationships, Raymond Carver helped the reader to perceive the stories not only as entertainment, but the reader also got a chance to apply the characterization in real-life situations in their lives or that of others (Bonetti, p. 83). The reader can conceptualize the characters’ situation and try to use the same in their lives or those of others. According to Dunn et al, loneliness usually occurs when a person’s faced with inadequate interpersonal relations (Dunn, p. 220). The social needs of human beings vary from person o person. Carver can show this phenomenon in his literal work. He clearly shows us that human beings vary in their needs for social attention, through his choice of characters (Lehman, p. 57). This helps people appreciate one another in some issues that affect human beings.
The story of the popular mechanic provides yet another avenue for the reader to appreciate and build relations with one another (Lehman, p. 121). The story starts with a dialogue between a man and a woman, bringing the element of relations from the word go. The question we need to ask ourselves is; why does Carver try to bring theme of relationships, with emphasis on love and loneliness in his literal works. According to the journal of the short story in English, Carver uses the theme to try and bring contemporary life to the reader. Carver realizes how love is important to human beings and how many human beings suffer in loneliness. He, therefore, employs the themes rarely employed by writers to bring into reality the reader to the ever-demanding contemporary world. Wojno writes in his book ‘my life, my choice: key issues of young adults, that human beings get so painful when lonely. This message is very clear in Carver’s literacy work.
Works cited
- Bonetti, Kennedy. Conversations with American novelists: the best interviews from the Missouri review. Colombia: University of Missouri Press, 1997.
- Dunn, Smith, Weiten, Walter, Lloyd, Michael and Hammer, Ezra. Psychology Applied to Modern Life: Adjustment in the 21st Century. California: Cengage Learning, 2009.
- E-notes, Inc. In Country Summary & Study Guide. Bobbie Ann Mason. 2010.
- Lehman, Deny. Symbolic significance in short stories of Raymond Carver. The journal of the short story in English. 46 (2), 75-88, 2006.
- Smith, Nicole. Analysis and Summary of “Neighbors” by Raymond Carver. Article Myriad. 2010.
- Wonjo, McDon. My life, my choice: key issues for young adults. Newyork: Paulist Press, 1997.