Symbolism In The Story 'Popular Mechanics' By Raymond Carter

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The story “Popular Mechanics” by Raymond Carter centers around a story of a male and female who are fighting for custody of their child in their house. The story explains how the man is leaving his lover, and they both agree to the decision. The story clearly focuses on the theme of how romantic relationships can sometimes turn inadequate. The way the author tries to express the theme is by using a literary element called symbolism. Symbolism defies the idea of using events, objects, and anything in the story to represent a meaning rather then what it will appear to be. This style of writing creates a interesting piece of literature. In the story “Popular Mechanics”, Raymond Carter uses symbolism to convey the overall theme of how romantic …show more content…

Carter uses symbols such as the weather during the incident, and how the characters are not given a specific name or alias. According to paragraph one of “Popular Mechanics”,”The weather turned and the snow was melting into dirty water”. This explains ha snow represents a good relationship and bond since snow symbolizes purity, and when the snow is transforming into dirty water, the purity of the couple is disappearing. Also according to “Popular Mechanics”,” He was in the bedroom, pushing clothes into a suitcase when she came into the door”. The situation also represents a form of symbolism because the characters are not given a form of identification,therefore, this represents how in society, the relationship between the two couple breaking apart can inevitably happen to anyone. The symbol of not using names also doesn’t limit this situation to only one ethnicity, culture, or age. These points show how in “Popular Mechanics”, symbolism does appear and is being used to convey the overall theme of how romantic relationships between lovers can easily fall