Popular Mechanics
Carver
These short stories never have happy endings. The tone of this story is very bleak, forcing even more sadness to rain over the reader. The couple is splitting up and they each demand to take their child with them. Emotions are raging, so they couldn't be thinking logically and settle this matter in the court system. Their argument symbolizes their relationship, and how it had slowly fallen apart. "In the scuffle they knocked down a flowerpot that hung behind the stove" (Carver 335). Though it seems insignificant, the flowerpot along with assorted items in the house represent the couple's relationship. It breaking symbolizes their love falling apart, and in the end their love only centered around the child. They hated each other but loved the baby, and that only caused the argument to become more heated. They both wanted to cling onto the last thing that represented their love, which was the baby. And, in the end, the baby suffered the greatest. The ending is vague, yet it leads the reader to believe it was torn apart. The story itself serves as a metaphor to failing love, and warns of the deadly consequences.
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