entirely hopeless. ” It is beyond my understanding ” (360). This self-
evaluation, although minuscule, illustrates that Bud has the ability to change.
It is this change that shall occur that defines the deeper meaning in
this story personifying communion. Carver uses the simplistic qualities in his
characters to motivate this theme of communion. Later in this story we find
that Bud feels extremely left out the conversations between Robert and his wife.
The reader is sparked to feel the distance these characters begin to show. By
achieving this distance, and rejoining them in a later time, pulls the readers
interest within the stories path. This communion between characters transcends
the stories meaning to every day lives, thus making the fiction more applicable.
Bud mistakenly believes that this visual form of entertainment will exclude
Robert. However, Robert foils the narrator’s attempt by saying that he has two
TV’s and can even determine that Bud’s is in color. This is where the communion
starts to unfold in the story. The characters begin to show a connection
between their relationship which contrast the earlier felt barrier.
Bud begins to realize how isolated his life has become. He says to
Robert that he is ” glad for the company ” and then recognizes that he is not
saying it just to be polite. ” And I guess I was. Every night I smoked dope
and stayed up as long as I could?My wife and I hardly ever went to bed at the
same time”(368) This sincere admission of loneliness is important because it
signifies the beginning of a genuine, sexual connection with another human being.
Bud is then motivated to make Robert feel more comfortable by narrating a
television program on cathedrals. After discussing cathedrals for some time,
Bud is compelled to clarify what a cathedral is, and he gropes for the words
words to convey it. ” How could I even begin to describe it? But say to my
life depended on it. Say my life was being threatened by an insane guy who said
I had to do it or else” (371)
The two come together in communion when Robert and Bud, at Robert’s
suggestion, begin to draw a cathedral on a paper bag. Touch instigates the
connection. Bud and Robert make a connection between the two which sparks Bud’s
describing of a cathedral to Robert. This is interesting because the position is
normally reversed. A compassion is felt for the character of Bud. The reader
associates with Bud’s character more genuinely.. The second reason communion
occurs is that the characters draw the cathedral together, ” We’re drawing a
cathedral. Me and him are working on it” ( 374 ) Carver chose them to create
new art together. We may not know enough about the characters situation to make
judgments about them, but through communion we can feel a honest interaction.
We know enough about ourselves and our own situations to perhaps bring a piece
of ourselves to the story. That’s what communion allows.
Conclusion
At the end of his life Raymond Carver wrote an essay entitled
” Meditation on a line from Saint Teresa.” The line reads: ” Words lead to
deeds?They prepare the soul, make it ready, and move it to tenderness” (No
Heroics, Please 223).
In the essay, Carver wonders about the words ” soul ” and ” tenderness ” and
their marked absence in the world today. He speculates that one re-evaluates
one’s life after reading about the tenderness of others, fictional characters as
well as factual ones. This tenderness is a direct result of what characters
experience from communion. They are compelled to interact amongst each other
in a spiritual way.
It is only logical, then, that Carver draws the conclusion that the
words themselves and the interaction between them to the story, has as powerful
an impact as the deeds performed. Thus, the words themselves are as important
as how one perceives the characters interaction. Communion directly uses
language and words to express its meaning of connection. Later in the essay
Carver qualifies the relationship between words and deeds by saying, ” the right
and true words, can have the power of deeds” ( 225 ) But which words are right
and true? To answer that question, one must examine Carver’s beliefs,
particularly those which signify a writers moral responsibility. According to
Carver’s mentor, John Gardner, ” right and true words” would be those which
inspire human beings toward life affirmation, creation, and the positive as
opposed to destruction and apathy(Gardner 18 ).
As a artist matures, the work he or she produces usually matures as well.
This maturing can take many forms, but among the most common are developed of
voice, refinement of style or even change of style, and shift in theme.
Carver’s work displays all of these characteristics, but it is the development
of his voice, and the subsequent shift in style which engenders, that figures
most prominently in his shift from disjunction to communion.
Carver’s short fiction can be chronologically divided into two types,
with each type corresponding to a surprisingly distinct period in his life. The
first period encompasses all of his work while he was an alcoholic, and it is
notable for the development of the basic themes which mark carver’s short
fiction. He also began in this time to find his voice, the lean diction which
eventually led him towards communion. The second type was the period after
which he met his long time love, Tess Gallagher. This is the period in which
Carver’s development of character connection between touch and voice became most
prominent. This stylistic switch in Carver’s stories give the reader a greater
interaction within his simplistic, yet strong language
If right and true words have the power of deeds, then the short stories
in which Carver’s characters achieve communion have such a power. As a result,
those stories can be said to have an immense influence over the reader. The
stories which achieve communion demonstrate how effectively this connection of
verbal and nonverbal affirmation plays within his writings.
Carver’s spiritual progression demonstrates how the transcendence from
disjunction to communion played upon the reader. Raymond Carver used his short
fiction, particularly those works I have classified as communal, to communicate
the importance of life-affirming experiences to his readers and move them to
action in their own lives.
Works Cited
Bonetti, Kay. ” Ray Carver: Keeping.” Conversations with Raymond Carver.
Marshall Bruce Gentry and William L. Stull, eds. Jackson, Mississippi
:University Press of Mississippi, 1990. 53-61.
Carver, Raymond. Cathedral. New York: Vintage Books, 1989.
—. No Heroics Please. New York: Vintage Books, 1992.
—. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. New York: Vintage Books, 1989.
Davis, Alan. ” The Holiness of Ordinary. ” Hudson Review. Vol.45 Winter 1993:
653-658
Gardner, John. On Moral Fiction. New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1978.
Halpert, Sam. ” Interviews” ?when we talk about Raymond Carver. Peregrine
Smith, Library of Congress Cataloging-in-publishing, 1991. 51-84
Sexton, David. ” David Sexton talks to Raymond Carver.” Conversations With
Raymond Carver. Marshall Bruce Gentry and William L.Stull, eds. Jackson,
Mississippi: University of Mississippi, 1990. 120-132.
Stull, William L. ” Matters of Life and Death. ” Conversations with Raymond
Carver. Marshall Bruce Gentry and William L. Stull eds. Jackson, Mississippi:
University Press of Mississippi, 1990. 177-191.