Raymond_Carver__A_Clearer_View

Raymond Carver: A Clearer View Raymond Carver: A Clearer View The year 1977 was an extraordinary year for Raymond Carver. Within twelve months Carver completely changed his life. During this time he decided to quit his life long habit of drinking, and he met the love his life. This change in his life also caused a major change in his writing. In his earlier stories Carver’s characters were constantly dealing with bad relationships and alcoholism, and the stories always left the reader feeling that the characters had no hope in ever being happy. During this period of his life Carver was quoted as saying that each of his characters has a “fleeting moment where they don’t want to compromise anymore. And afterwards they realize that nothing really changes (Gentry 80).” This idea of hopelessness continues prominent throughout his stories until the later writings which began in 1977, the year of his own personal life changes. Carver stated in 1977 that his new found sobriety “reflects a change in my life as much as it does my writing (44).” It is obvious that many of Carver’s characters are in many ways an image of Carver himself. In life, carver, story, stories, characters, carver’s, time, alcohol, found, ending, after, wife, love, left, because, writing, reader, new, during, change, 1977, without, obvious, hope, himself, year, writings, successful, really, ralph, problems, gentry, finally, excuse, ever