In this frame story written by Raymond Carver, a father and daughter are spending time together around Christmas time, at a Café in Milan, Italy. She pestered her father to tell her a story of when she was younger. He proceeds to tell her the story. It began with a pair of teenage parents with a three month old baby. It was a cold November and the boy had made plans with his friend to go hunting. His wife agreed and he had made plans. That night the baby was up all night long crying, and falling back asleep. The mother was up all night with the fussy baby. The time rolls around and it’s time for the boy to go hunting. The mother, however, doesn’t want him to go anymore. She says she needs help with the sick baby. She gave him an ultimatum and told him to choose his …show more content…
For example, when the baby was up all night crying, and would stop after the boy would hold her, but she’d start crying as soon as he went back to sleep. That shows that there was definitely something wrong with the baby. Maybe it was sick or something, but it wouldn’t sleep. It made the young mother very nervous and resulted in the boy staying home from him camping trip. There was also a major lack of characterization in this story as well. The author never really told us the names of the main characters, but instead referred to them as, Him, Her, Baby, Boy, Girl. He however did tell us a few names of sideline characters. Perhaps the author was symbolizing that the family wasn’t very close. When the young couple woke up the next morning and cooked breakfast, the boy spilled waffles and syrup on his lap. He proclaims, “Everything sticks to me!” That is showing readers that maybe he feels trapped or stuck in his relationship or life. It’s hard to adjust to having a baby at a young age. He also makes the remark that he feels “starved”. Telling readers maybe he wasn’t hungry but starved of his happiness or