Raymond Carver, the godfather of literary minimalism, captured the lives of the working- class people with his distinct vision and minimalist style. Because he placed himself in the realist tradition, he was praised and garnered such titles as “the American Chekhov” and “the most imitated American writer since Hemingway.” Indeed, he acknowledged his influence by the short stories of Ernest Hemingway, among others. So, like Hemingway, Carver’s narrative techniques in the third person are also detached, which gives his readers an opportunity to fill in the gaps and interpret the meaning of the story. In truth, his style and content work in a perfect harmony. His style, in the words of Gordon Burn, “derives its power as much from what is left …show more content…
It provides an outstanding example of how less is more in Carver’s fiction. This fact is, explicitly, referred to by the narrator when he informs readers that the girl feels that there is “more to it.” At the surface, the story seems to be about a yard sale. However, close examination of the text reveals that, though the third objective narrator omits key details of the story, he gives clues which allow readers to infer and appreciate the submerged meaning. To begin with, the setting is symbolic and reveals much about its theme. The narrator does not provide any physical or psychological descriptions of the old man so readers can only assume through the analysis of his actions and speeches. In his essay, Carver claims that tension or “menace” can be created also by “the things that are left out, that are implied, the landscape just under the smooth […] surface of thing.” The narrator opens the story with this scene: “In the kitchen, he poured another drink and looked at the bedroom suite in his front yard. Things looked much the way they had in the bedroom--nightstand and reading lamp on his side of the bed, nightstand and reading lamp on her side.” Readers become aware that there is some unspoken tension because the narrator leaves the emotional state of the man as a submerged