A Small, Good Thing

This Extract was written by Raymond Clevie Carver, Jr. (May 25, 1938 – August 2, 1988). He was an American short story writer and poet. At the age of 20 he supported his family by working as a janitor, sawmill laborer, delivery man, and library assistant. During their marriage, Maryann worked as a waitress, salesperson, administrative assistant, and high school English teacher.

Carver's career was dedicated to short stories and poetry. He described himself as "inclined toward brevity and intensity" and "hooked on writing short stories" Another stated reason for his brevity was "that the story [or poem] can be written and read in one sitting”.

Carver's writing style and themes are often identified with Ernest Hemingway and Anton Chekhov.

Minimalism is generally seen as one of the hallmarks of Carver's work.

This Extract was taken from one of the most famous short story A Small Good Thing. It tells about a boy who was knocked down by a car. The boy was in deep sleep during three days and then died. Doctors who treated him did all their best but couldn’t save him.

In this passage firstly the author described visiting the nurse. He described her actions such way she took the left arm out from under the covers and put her fingers on the wrist, found the pulse, then consulted the watch … She did her duties, but she didn’t enquire the boy’s condition at his parents. She just entered the room and started her work. Nothing had guarded her. She made a conclusion the boy was stable.

The author used description to the nurse (the nurse was a big Scandinavian woman with blond hair. There was the trace of an accent in her speech). Before the name A Small Good Thing this story had a name The Bath. In that story the descriptions of nurses and doctors were omitted. The author underlined that she was a foreign nurse. What if she didn’t always understand her patients. She had an accent and didn’t always spoke properly (Doctor will be in again shortly. Doctors back in the hospital). She could make a fatal mistake in her work.

In this extract the parents had expressed their fears and dangers the first time (I don’t think he should keep sleeping like this. I don’t think that’s a good sign). But the nurse ignored it.

Then the author depicted short scene when Howard looked at his son and recollected some terrible facts. F.ex. when Ann called him at his office and informed the accident. Howard was in shock (he felt a genuine fear starting in his limbs), he hadn’t realized the incident yet. The author tells about that a person tends to ask a question to himself why it has happened with him not with anybody else. (Scotty was fine, but instead of sleeping at home in his own bed, he was in a hospital bed with bandages around his head and a tube in his arm).

Then the doctor was introduced to the story. First of all what Dr. Francis did he made a careful examination of Scotty (He took the boy’s pulse. He peeled back one eyelid and then the other… He listened to the boy’s heart and lungs with his stethoscope. He pressed his fingers here and there on the abdomen… He studied the chart.). The author used some terms (stethoscope, abdomen, chart) to underline the professionalism of the doctor. But he came to strange conclusion (He’s all right… He’s in shock… it was a bit of concussion… He’s out of any real danger) at the same time he admitted the fracture of the skull.

The desperate mother set a diagnose herself (It’s a coma). Because it was logically right to be a coma in case of fracture of the skull and deep sleep. The author used many repetitions in doctor’s speech (He’s all right… He’s out of any real danger… I wouldn’t want to call it a coma) as if the doctor tried to persuade himself more than the parents, he misled them.

At the end of this passage the author proved the worse expectations. Ann put her hands over the child’s forehead and exclaimed He feels so cold!

If the reader collects all the symptoms, he won’t have any doubts it is a coma. The boy was cold, without any reflexes and with silent breath. The nurse and doctor should have noticed the arrhythmic breath because they took the pulse and listened his heart and lungs; lack of reaction on light because the doctor peeled back eyelids; oppression of digestive system because he checked the boy’s abdomen. In spite of this the doctor advised not to worry. The parents could only ease each other and pray.

The author depicted absolute negligence of the staff. No one of the medical staff tried to help this boy. They just made endless tests, took blood, made extra X-rays but nothing had changed. The boy died. The doctors explained it as a hidden occlusion and it was a one-in-a-million circumstance.

The author touched many problems in this story. The main is human relations to each other. Doctors’ negligence is a result of human indifference in the community. People are getting more isolate. Remember the moment when the car knocked down the boy, the car driver looked back over his shoulder, waited until he boy got unsteadily to his feet, put the car into gear and drove away. On the other side, grief can make even unfamiliar people close one. When Ann and Howard came to the baker in order to stop his endless rings, they chattered till the early morning. I think that actions of that medical staff can be considered as criminal. The death of Scotty was not the only one case.

This extract can be divided into 3 parts. The first tells about the nurse. The second is about doctor’s visit. And the last tells that parents tried to comfort each other.

This passage was written in form of dialogues with some short descriptions. The prevailing mood of the text is tense (she stood working her lip with her teeth) and uneasy. The suspense is increasing till the boy’s death.

To sum up, the main idea is difficult human relations to each other. People are getting more isolate, aloof, uninterested to other people’ problems. One of the consequences of that changing became frequent doctors’ negligence, doctors’ errors. Although one of the doctor’s table says don’t do harm.

Analysis.

From: W.S.

The text was written by Leslie Poles Hartley. He is a famous English writer. L.P. Hartley was a highly skilled narrator and all his tales are admirably told.

“W.S.” comes from “The Complete Short Stories of L.P. Hartley” and was published posthumously in 1973. The story told about a writer Walter Streeter. He was snowed under the postcards which came from anonymous. Initially, these postcards didn’t disturb the writer. He tore them away. But some days later, Walter Streeter cast his eyes over the initials of the anonymous and was shocked by such odd coincidence. The initials were his own. Walter appealed to his friend, then to the police. They advised him not to worry considering that W.S. could be a woman or even someone who never show up in the flesh.

The structure of the text is not homogeneous: the narration is interrupted by the elements of description. Inner thoughts and feelings of the main character are interwoven with the narration.

The story about Walter Streeter is a psychological tale. The main character is constantly struggle with himself during the story. He tried to find the explanation of the origin of these postcards. And when he couldn’t do it, he became actually a borderline case.

The author told about the splitting personalities. He described in details the stages of this condition. It makes the tension of the atmosphere gradually increasing and getting its top at the end of it.

Maybe this text is about that creative people are a little mad inside. Hartley described the Walter’s madness through his works. They are not homogeneous (there is the cleavage in his writing), one paragraph languorous with semicolons and subordinate clauses, and another sharp and incisive with main verbs and full stops.

Analyzing this text deeper, it can be found other pretext. Any writer should be responsible for his works. If he writes bad work, he should realise that this work can impact on other people and bring up their emotions wrongly.

As far as postcards are concerned whether Walter sent these postcards to himself we can say. Perhaps they were sent from his enemies to destroy his morally so that he couldn’t work. I suppose they were a source of supply for him and created a new reality. They changed his mind. At the end he put them behind the clock on the chimney piece. He couldn’t live without them, they were a part of him.

The end of the story is written like a detective one. The tension of the story reaches the apogee when Walter noticed the each next postcard was sent from a place geographically closer to him.

There are many interrogative sentences that show hesitation and anxiety of the character. There are a lot of stylistic devices, such as antonomasia - “Walter Streeter”; zeugma – “took up the time and energy”; metonymy - “faint strings of curiosity”; personification – “growing pains”; periphrasis – “conscious mind“, “little mouse-like creature”, “poisonpens”, many examples of inversion. The language of the writer is very rich and full of various kinds of stylistic devices and that makes his story more vivid and picturesque.

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