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Midterm Analysis: Popular Mechanics By Raymond Carver

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Midterm Essays Luke Kaiser “Popular Mechanics” by Raymond Carver is a story about a struggling relationships end. The story is short yet meaningful. A couple seems to be breaking up and fighting over who has possession of the child. This is what drives the plot of the story. “Popular Mechanics” uses a very real problem with stock characters to allow the reader to fill in the blank of what is happening based off of their own views/experiences. This means that when the reader tries to understand what is happening it will be different for each person. The story uses such a real problem filled with characters we can not relate to and know nothing about, and uses figurative language and other literary devices to hide the truth of the story. It is up to the reader to interpret the story how they understand it. The plot of this story is very important to this story, and what is missing from the plot. Raymond Carver decides to skip the exposition and go right into the middle of the rising action. We are left clueless of who this woman and man character are. We are left to assume why they …show more content…

Sylvia almost falls for the money but realizes that preserving the beauty in nature is more important to her and decides to follow what she thinks is right by not telling the hunter where the white heron is. Essay #3.) Flowers In “Flowers” by Alice Walker, Myop is a young girl who has seen the world as a no harm place for all her life. She has lived with the innocent mindset of any young girl who has not seen much of the world yet. She lives in a happy place in her own head and no one has taken her out of her fantasy yet. This changes when she stumbles upon a dead body in the woods. “Flowers” is used to show the “breaking of the glass” for a child who now sees the world a whole new way. This story uses very figurative language to share Myop’s transition of a nice world into the real

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Adventure and desire are common qualities in humans and Sarah Orne Jewett’s excerpt from “A White Heron” is no different. The heroine, Sylvia, a “small and silly” girl, is determined to do whatever it takes to know what can be seen from the highest point near her home. Jewett uses literary elements such as diction, imagery, and narrative pace to dramatize this “gray-eyed child” on her remarkable adventure. Word choice and imagery are necessary elements to put the reader in the mind of Sylvia as she embarks on her treacherous climb to the top of the world. Jewett is picturesque when describing Sylvia’s journey to the tip of one unconquered pine tree.

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