American middle-class families in Raymond Carver's short stories

This thesis is about the America of the 1970s through the eyes of one of the most famous American writer of the 20th century, Raymond Carver. The writer conveyed his vision through short stories which are powerful attestations of the middle- class habits. This research is divided into two main chapters. The first one is focused on the peculiarities of Carver's style and in order to investigate them, it is important to refer to the notion of Minimalism and realism. Furthermore, his particular narrative traits will be analyzed with the purpose of providing the reader keys to the reading. The second chapter is about the middle class and the profound crisis that it is going through during the last decades of the 20th century. The middle class is depicted in its most fragile aspects and therefore, the focus of this section is shifted from the technical and stylistic approach to the narrative contents. As previously said, Raymond Carver is known as one of the main exponents of the Minimalism. Through the deepened reading and analysis of the short stories, the fundamental themes on which the author grounds his thought will be identified. The first part of this thesis is focused on two main notions: realism and Minimalism. Each of them is essential to contextualize Raymond Carver's work. Moreover, his style is examined through a short summary of his life and the many literary expedients he used in his narrative process as the exclusion of popular culture, the conveyance of a sense of menace, the use of epiphanies, the centrality of gaze etc. The author's evolution is analyzed through the re-writing of one of his short story ¿A Small, Good Thing¿. Furthermore, it is outlined the controversy with his editor, Gordon Lish and finally, the focus will be directed to the setting of Carver's short stories. In the second chapter, I investigate who are the people portrayed in Raymond Carver's stories. In order to do that, it is important to provide a brief historical excursus about the American middle-class family, which has gone through an evolution in the second half of 20th century. Once the middle class, depicted by the author, is defined in its historical features, the research proceeds and shifts its focus on the so-called ¿losers who don't give up¿. Those are the protagonists of the Carver's narrative and, through the aid of various examples, they are described in their most private aspects. Therefore, the attention is led to the dialogues, the correlation of words and silence and the way they frame relationships between the characters. The ¿loss of masculinity¿ is the fourth paragraph and it examines in depth the study on the male protagonists of Carver's stories and the way masculinity interferes with social interactions. The paragraph that precedes the conclusion, investigates the last two major aspects of Raymond Carver's: voyeurism and dissociation, two phenomena which recur very often in Carver's narrative.