Macie Ruble
Period: 2nd
3/13/2015
WHERE I’M CALLING FROM
“Chef’s house” and “Where I’m calling from”
Reading through Carver’s collection of Short Stories, I can see plenty of common aspects between several stories at a time. Inspired by his own life experiences, the writer shares fictional stories that enables the reader to follow the event of his life. Throughout his life, Carver experienced alcoholism, recovery, and marriage trouble. He takes his readers through events in his life, some tragic and some joyous. Two stories that Carver wrote, Chef’s House and Where I’m Calling From, are written in a way that show an abundance of carver’s common techniques. Multiple areas of his life are displayed through both works but his struggle with alcoholism is the most prominent of all common aspects between the two stories. In both the stories, he shares the common idea of alcoholism and gives the reader a true picture of the ups and downs that come with the life of an alcoholic.
In Where I’m Calling From, Carver writes “He began stopping off after work for drinks before he went home to have more drinks. Then he began missing some dinners. He just wouldn’t show up.”(…). In this quote, JP is telling the narrator how he became an alcoholic. Despite the fact that this quote seems very literal without deeper meaning, Carver includes it for a reason. Carver starts this phrase out kind of slow with telling the reader that JP would sometimes stop off at a bar after work. Then he moves delicately onto the fact that JP started missing dinners and eventually just stopped showing up. In slower progression, Carver writes a sort of metaphor for alcoholism. Alcoholism starts out slowly then it begins to consume one part of your life, then another, until it affects every aspect of one’s life. This quote relates also to the story Chef’s House because the character Wes was experiencing the same kind of slow addiction with alcoholism. Both characters JP and Wes know what it is like to hit rock bottom and lose control of their life.
In the short story of the Chef’s House, alcoholism is shown through the point of view of Wes’s wife, Edna. Carver Writes, “I want you to try and be the Wes I used to know. The old Wes. The Wes I married. Wes began to cry.”(…) This statement from Edna shows that the people around Wes were noticing a change in his character. Carver uses this to create an empathetic connection between both Edna and the reader and Edna and Wes. He wants the reader to feel sorry for Edna and also for Wes. The empathy the reader experiences for Edna comes from Edna losing the man she fell in love with and her desperation in asking him to be that man once again. Loss is not an easy thing to experience and yet, its a common life experience. The empathy for Wes comes from him realizing that his alcoholism has gotten the best of him. Between both Edna and Wes, they connect with each other because they both are in the midst of losing one another. All of this relates to the fact that Wes became an alcoholic. The quote describes how alcoholism can alter one’s character and personality ultimately resulting in the feeling of loss from family and friends. This correlates to the idea of Where I’m Calling From because JP was experiencing a similar disconnect and loss of respect between his wife and him. In their relationship, the arguments are much more aggressive. JP and Roxy started to become involved in physical fights as JP’s alcoholism progressed. Eventually, the relationship was damaged enough, their marriage was on the brink of falling apart. Alcoholism affects the character of oneself, the risk of not having clear judgment when interacting with the ones we love could cost us everything.
Another stage of life when a person experiences alcoholism is when one seeks out help for the opportunity to recovery or change. Carver writes in his story of the Chef’s House, “Other nights, Wes would go to what he called his Don’t Drink meetings. Chef
Blinded In the story "Cathedral", by Raymond Carver, the narrator is conflicted with issues of inner-demons that are manifested in a blind man whom he perceives as a danger to his marriage. The narrator in this story is a good example of an anti-hero showing negative characteristics while never actually being a bad guy. This gives the idea that he is very humanistic character. That being said, he is a flawed character who is just trying to please his wife while not giving up what he wants. In…
In the short story “Cathedral” Raymond Carver introduces the main character, who has no name. In this story the narrator can be perceived as the main character. The narrator is not an insightful man. He can be described as sarcastic, self-centered, egotistical, and arrogant. From the start of the story the narrator is not too thrilled about the blind man—Robert visiting the Carver’s home. He seems to be jealous and insecure of the history that his wife and Robert shared together. However, through…
Anything You Can Truth, I Can Truth Better "Taking one's chances is like taking a bath, because sometimes you end up feeling comfortable and warm, and sometimes there is something terrible lurking around that you cannot see until it is too late and you can do nothing else but scream and cling to a plastic duck." ― Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid Looking at this quote, you may be a little bit confused at what I’m trying to get at, but I’m reality it’s quite topical. Lemony…
general environment and industry environment, supplemented with an IFE and EFE matrix. | History In 1852, Henry Wells and William Fargo founded Wells, Fargo & Co. to serve the West. The new company offered banking (buying gold, and selling paper bank drafts as good as gold) - and express (rapid delivery of the gold and anything else valuable). Wells Fargo opened for business in the gold rush port of San Francisco, and soon Wells Fargo’s agents opened offices in the other new cities and mining…
Journal of Social Development in Africa (1990), 5,1, 5-22 Equity in Health: Zimbabwe Nine Years On. DAVID SANDERS+ ABSTRACT This paper summarises Zimbabwe's legacy in both health (or disease) and health services. It then examines the changes in the economic environment which have taken place in Zimbabwe since independence in April 1980, concentrating on those which are relevant toilealth. It also describes the post independence restructuring of the health sector itself. Access to health care and…
High-Speed Dynamic Start-Stop Pipelines Abstract— The most recent approaches proposed for high-speed dynamic pipelines are applicable only to linear datapaths. However, real systems are dynamical in their datapaths, i.e. stages may have multiple inputs (“joins”) or multiple outputs (“forks”). This paper presents several new pipeline templates that extend existing high-speed approaches for linear dynamic logic pipelines, by providing efficient control structures that can accommodate forks…
CLÁUDIA MARIA LIMA WERNER GUILHERME HORTA TRAVASSOS COPPE / UFRJ – Computer Science Department Caixa Postal: 68511 - CEP 21945-970 - Rio de Janeiro – RJ Voice: 5521 2562-8675 / Fax: 5521 2562-8676 {marcio, werner, ght}@cos.ufrj.br Abstract This paper presents an empirical study aiming to evaluate the application of system dynamics models in software project management. In this study, a project concerning the specification and implementation of part of an academic control system for a graduate…
Identity Explain the conventional account of the development of the modern state system as founded by the Peace of Westphalia. 1) Peace of Westphalia in 1648 – to end 30 year war between conflict of power between churches & kings over sovereign rule 2) Religious sovereignty OUT, state sovereignty IN 3) 3 key principles: i) State sovereignty (i.e state>church) ii) Self determination (i.e state is highest authority, can make…
Topic 9 — Producing and Measuring Electricity In a world without electricity, cars, computers and essential equipment used in hospitals could not exist; we would forgo the pleasures of televisions and personal stereos; we would lose the convenience of appliances such as mobile phones, microwaves and washing machines. Hence electricity is at the heart of the modern world. It provides a very convenient form of energy to power a wide variety of both portable and fixed equipment. Technological developments…