How Is Ethos Used In Neighbors By Raymond Carver

In his short story, Neighbors, author Raymond Carver uses pathos to evoke a creepy, uneasy, and uncomfortable feeling within the reader. Ambiguity is a rhetorical device that Carver uses by leaving out character thoughts and motivations to generate emotions within the audience. This is aided by the third-person narrative that describes an otherwise personal story, which also leaves the audience to interpret for themselves more.

Neighbors tells the story of a couple envious of their neighbors who slowly indulge in their vacationing neighbors’ belongings. Bill and Arlene Miller are a happy couple, but their lives are starting to feel less exciting, especially when compared to the lives of their neighbors Harriet, and Jim Stone. The Millers thought

I felt this way because of how casually Bill involves himself in the Stone family’s belongings. It wasn’t just the actions themselves, but how Raymond Carver places these actions in the story. There is usually no context or further explanation given to why Bill is acting so strange, and Carver is often quick to move on to the next scene or part. The best word to describe this use of rhetoric is ambiguity. Carver causes ambiguity by leaving the unusual actions of Bill without context or explanation. The reader is not told what to think but is forced into coming to their own conclusions based on their own emotions and personal understanding of the content. There are multiple different specific explanations for Bill’s actions, each with evidence to support it. For example, one reader might conclude that Bill rummages through the Stones’ belongings because he (and later Arlene) secretly despises them and feels pleasure in violating their privacy and trust. Another reader might come to the conclusion that Bill’s actions are driven solely by envy, and that he feels pleasure from the Stones’ belongings because it makes him feel like a different person. One more reader might interpret Bill as a thrill seeker that gets pleasure in doing something he knows is wrong. The reason that readers can come to so many different conclusions and interpretations is because Carver leaves it up for interpretation, and he doesn’t tell the audience what they should think and