The everyday realities of American life in the short stories of R. Carver (based on the collection “will you please be quiet, please?” 1976)

https://doi.org/10.26907/2658-3321.2022.5.1.25-35

Abstract

Raymond Carver is an outstanding short story writer, a master of short stories of the 20th century. The heyday of his work falls in the 70‑80s. He is called the "American Chekhov", Hemingway's successor, Burroughs' brother. The author alled himself the writer of the "poor workers". His works are short and at the same time rich stories about ordinary people. Carver wrote short stories in the breaks from hard, low-paid work.

Carver's realistic texts are excellent material for studying the peculiarities of American life in the 60s and 70s. He is widely regarded as a working-class singer, the man who captured the dominant codes of American culture. His prose showed how those who are oppressed by the system live. It was precisely for the unattractiveness and realism that Carver was repeatedly criticized, because the reproduction of such images in literature harmed the country, the country where everyone should smile.

The almost photographic accuracy Carver's realism allows us to use his texts as anthropological material to recreate the image of America in the 60s and 70s. The main topics are the Vietnam War, identity problems, alcohol and drug addiction, the state of the institution of the family, etc. Carver's description of social problems is not a goal, but a part of the world reproduced in Hemingway's journalistic style.