A Small Good Thing
...Good Thing" is a story of the struggles a family undergoes when their only son, Scotty, is fatally injured in a car accident. Carver's characters go through many emotional changes as a result of this terrible ordeal. Each stage of the story causes them to change emotionally in some way, and these changes eventually lead to entirely different people in the end of the story. Carver's style and symbolism throughout the story causes the reader to focus more on the actual changes of the characters' personality than the tragedy of Scotty's death.
Carver's unique style of writing causes the reader to focus on the characters' development throughout the story. Carver utilizes a very brief paragraph to convey the actions that lead up to the accident. Once the accident occurs, his writing focuses entirely on the Weiss family and their actions. When Scotty dies, Carver does not allow the reader to be upset about the young boy; instead, he allows the reader to feel more sorry for the Weiss parents. His lack of discussion on the events of the accident and death shift the attention from the tragedy to the characters that still remain alive.
The selection of Scotty's birthday cake begins the changing journey that each of the three main characters undergoes. In the beginning, Ann is a self-conscious woman who feels that she needs to find a common bond with everyone she meets (Stull 18). Immediately upon meeting the baker, she struggles on finding that bond. She finally decides that they both had kids, so he has been through the same thing she is going through. This insecurity causes other problems in the Weiss's marriage. The two have a difficult time talking and this problem becomes prevalent at the hospital. The baker, on the other hand, is described as a very prideful and cynical old man. He is overly proud of his bakery, and he is willing to do anything to receive...
View Full Essay
