The beautiful Pacific Northwest serves as the perfect backdrop for Raymond Carver's stories, full of recurring symbolism, underlying themes - underlying and meaningful motifs, especially the water theme repetitions. Just as water plays a very important role in the identity, culture, and nature of the Pacific Northwest, Carver's continued inclusion of the theme in his short stories gives it an equally important role, but one that does not does not necessarily have the same meaning throughout. history. Water is mentioned in many different forms: melting ice, snow, rivers, rain, and even running water from a bath or sink. Although the theme of water is important in Carver's literature, the role it plays in the respective stories differs greatly. On the one hand, in some cases it accompanies and represents violence, but at the same time, in other stories it also exists on the opposite end of the spectrum, representing health and healing. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay There is almost universal acceptance of the healing powers of water. Isak Dinesen once wrote: "The cure for everything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea." On the one hand, this speaks to the seemingly infinite forms of water that exist in nature and which we let's experience it every day, but it also cites water as a remedy. Swimming is therapeutic for countless people, sometimes drinking water is all someone needs to calm down, taking showers or baths can automatically relax and restore them. Carver explores these restorative qualities of water in many of his stories, but he specifically uses the theme of water in the form of bathing in "The Bath" (also known in later versions as "A Small and Good Thing") ). With this short story, the importance of water is emphasized even in the title, indicating the importance of the theme. In this story, a mother and father wait anxiously in the hospital for their young son to come out of a coma after being hit by a car on his birthday. Naturally, the story is filled with fear, anxiety, uncertainty and helplessness, but the idea of ​​water in the form of a bath exists as a safe place for the husband and wife respectively. While the couple waits in the hospital, the narrator focuses on the husband saying that "fear made him want to take a bath" (Carver 252), which makes the bath a place of safety. He goes home, washes his face, shaves and gets into the bath, hoping it will restore and rejuvenate him, but he is interrupted by one of many mysterious and aggressive phone calls from the birthday cake baker of his son. In turn, his wife, Ann, later returns from the hospital, hoping to also take a bath. On her way out, she speaks to a man in the waiting room and says, “My son was hit by a car… But he’s going to be okay.” He's in shock now, but it could also be some sort of coma. That's what we're worried about, the coma part. I'm going out for a little while. Maybe I’ll take a bath…There’s a chance everything will change when I’m gone” (Carver 257). Here, bathing not only becomes a symbol of health, safety and rejuvenation for parents, but also represents the possible health of their child. Ann hopes that by leaving the hospital, going home and taking a bath, her son will finally wake up too. In Beginners' later version of "The Bath", which was retitled "A Small, Good Thing", Ann, ofsame way as her husband did before entering her bath, utters the words “'I fear death'” (Carver 818). This story is a constant cycle of expectations, disappointments, and despair, and bathing provides a welcome break from this cycle, representing healing, safety, and comfort. The story "What's in Alaska?" also includes a scene involving a bath, and it is used again as a symbol of comfort and restoration when the character Carl welcomes a bath after a tense interaction with his wife, Mary, who is later suggested in the story to be an adulterer. There are also other stories that don't necessarily include baths, but incorporate the idea of ​​using running water from the sink or shower to regain health or feel a sense of security and comfort. In “What is it?” » Leo "splashes his face with water" (Carver 163) after a particularly intense and charged argument with his partner Toni, in an attempt to recover from the confrontation. Additionally, in “Fat,” the unnamed narrator takes a shower after returning from work, escaping to a place of comfort because her relationship with her partner Rudy is unsatisfying, distant, and misunderstood. We can all relate to using water to bring about a sense of comfort and health. Few things are more soothing or restorative than a warm bath or shower, and even just splashing water on your face from the sink can be a cure for fatigue or help dispel any sort of negative feelings . Carver's frequent use of water is no accident: he uses it as a deliberate theme representing healing and safety to balance the many negative thoughts and feelings that accompany his stories. Although water is sometimes used as a balance against the more undesirable qualities of water. In his stories, Raymond Carver also uses water to accentuate or represent some of these negative feelings that permeate his literature. Although I have just spent three pages singing the praises of water, emphasizing its healing qualities and the feeling of comfort it can provide, there is another side to water. I grew up in a family beach house in Tofino, British Columbia, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, and I've been surfing there since I was little. One of the first things my father told me when he taught me was that water wouldn't always be my friend. The ocean is unpredictable, unforgiving, and violent, and sometimes fighting it only drags you further into a riptide, crashes you against waiting rocks, or engulfs you so deeply that you eventually drown. Carver is on opposite sides of a spectrum in his short stories: not only does he explore water as a symbol of health, but he also uses it as a symbol that accompanies violence. The clearest depiction of Carver associating water with violence is found in his short film. story “So much water so close to home”. Three men on a fishing trip find a dead woman in the river, but decide to leave her there and not report it until the end of their trip, waiting several days to pack up camp and find a phone to call the police. This incident creates a significant rift between one of the men, Stuart, and his wife, Claire. As the title suggests, water obviously plays an extremely important role in the story, starting with the fact that the dead woman was found in a river. This almost contaminates the water in a way, associated with death and violence; given that we also know that the woman was raped before being killed. Also, while Claire and Stuart argue about the incident in the kitchen, Claire 870)..