Symbolic Elements And Allusions In 'Popular Mechanics' By Raymond Carver

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Essay “Popular Mechanics” Raymond Carver, in “Popular Mechanics,” is talking more or less about the violence on society and how it effects and hurts the children involved. Carver never goes into details about the characters. He does not tell us their names, age, or even if the couple is married. Carver does not tell us what the argument is about or what started the fight. With very little detail, he lets us associate the story with someone we know by putting our own picture into our heads. In my essay I will be talking about the symbolic elements and allusions in the story. Carver is alluding to the story in the Old Testament about King Solomon. This story talks about two women who are fighting over a baby because one of the women accidentally killed her baby by rolling on top of him. And, because the women were living in the same house she switched her dead baby with the live one. When the other woman woke up she realizes that the dead baby was not hers and that the…show more content…
I believe the word “Popular” in the title is relating to the fact that there are so many of these types of relationships where the mother and father have a mean break up and fight over the child. The word “Mechanics” means “the branch of physics that deals with the action of forces on bodies with motion, comprised of kinetics, statics, and kinematics.” After reading the definition of mechanics it tells me that the meaning of the word is the description of what is happening to the baby in the story. Even though “Popular Mechanics” is a very short story, it has a lot of meaning. The conflict is something you hear and see so much in society today. The descriptive setting, and meaningful symbols is why the story does not have to be long. The hidden meaning of each descriptive point in the story says much more than making the story longer. I thought Raymond Carvers “Popular Mechanics” was an extremely great short

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