Raymond Carver's The Bath & A Small, Good Things
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In Raymond CarverÆs ôThe Bathö and a later rewritten version of the short story entitled ôA Small, Good Thingö, the author provides roughly the same story. A young boy of eight named Scotty is hit by an automobile and taken to the hospital. His ultimate condition is not revealed by Carver in ôThe Bathö but he dies in ôA Small, Good Thing.ö Crucial to both stories is the baker, who baked ScottyÆs birthday cake ordered by his mother. Because of the accident, the mother fails to pickup the cake. Despite the similarities of the story, the differences are most significant. The differences between ôThe Bathö and ôA Small, Good Thingö are significant because they represent CarverÆs development from isolation and existential angst to the need for human forgiveness and compassion. In ôThe Bathö and ôA Small, Good Thing,ö ScottyÆs mother orders his birthday cake from a baker who is unpleasant and communicates only enough to know what kind of cake to make. As we are told in ôThe Bath,ö he exchanged ôNo pleasantries, just this small exchange, the barest information, nothing that was not necessaryö (Carver 48). The exchange between the mother and the baker is longer in ôA Small, Good Thing,ö with the mother explaining more about the bakerÆs abrupt demeanor. She is confused that he seems unable to relate to being a parent and experiencing moments like ordering a birthday cake. As she tells us, ôThere must be that between them, she thought. But he was abrupt
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Approximate Word count = 1054
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page)
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