Literary Devices In Everything Stuck To Him By Raymond Carver

“Everything Stuck to Him” by Raymond Carver, is a short story about a father telling his daughter a story from when she was a baby. Carver uses literary devices to impact the meaning and development of the piece. Specifically, Carver uses careful word choice, symbols, and a frame story in his writing. Careful word choice is a major literary device in “Everything Stuck to Him”. Carver carefully chose certain words and phrases to add meaning to the story. For example he chose to call the teenage couple the boy and the girl instead of the man and the women. Carver did this to emphasize the detail that the couple was married very young and had not reached full maturity. He also did not state the names or give descriptions of the boy, girl,

The boy experiences difficulty in completely committing to his new life as a husband and father. He plans a hunting trip with his friend but his wife wants him to stay home when the baby gets sick. The hunting trip is a symbol of the husband’s lack of commitment. “You’re going to have to choose, the girl said. Carl or us. I mean it…. If you want a family, you’re going to have to choose”(Carver). On the surface the boy and girl’s argument seems to be about a hunting trip, however, using this quote the reader can determine that the girl is actually telling the boy to choose between his old life and his new one. Another symbol of the boy’s lack of commitment is when it is stated that, “The boy was a little in love with Sally, just as he was a little in love with Betsy, who was another sister the girl had”(Carver). From this quote the reader can conclude that the boy is not completely dedicated to the girl and their life together. The last symbol is the ice on the boys car. He races out of the house after he is told to choose and clears the ice off the car. He then decides to go back inside and spend time with his family. Using this information the reader can determine that the act of clearing the ice off the windows is a symbol for a moment of clarity for the boy and his decision to become committed to his family. Symbols such as these aid in the development of the plot and the