I.O.

C
“The Bath”

In this I.O.C I will analyze an extract from “The Bath” (a short story from the collection of “What
we talk about when we talk about love” published in 1981, written by Raymond carver was a
writer of short stories and poet who is known to be one of the most important contributors to the
American literature.
“The Bath” is about a birthday party that never happened, on his eighth birthday a boy is hit by a
car as he walks to school. During the time scheduled for his birthday party, he is instead in a coma
in a hospital bed. They doctor tells the parents their son is sleeping. The father goes home to bath,
during his bath the phone rings repeatedly. The voice on the other end demands payment for a cake
which was not picked up and which the father knows nothing about. The voice on the other side
demands payment for a cake which was not picked up and which the father knows nothing about.
He returns to the hospital to wait by his wife, the real motivation of the mother, her presence is
preventing her son from waking up. Finally, the phone rings, and when the mother asks if the caller
has news about her son Scotty, the voice answers said in a way affirmative: Scotty, it is about
Scotty.
This extract is about what happened after the accident that the birthday party never happened, the
mother was in the hospital, the mother was waiting for the boy to wake up and the father precipitous
over his office. The both of them waited for the boy to wake up. The two waited for a long time and
then the father went home to bath, the man drove home from the hospital, drove them crazy faster
than he should have. The man’s fear made him want a bath, he stopped on his way in, sat in the car
trying to get his legs to react. The father continued with the illusion that his son would be okay, the
phone ring, where they tell him about the cake they never picked up the baker told him that it was
sixty dollars the father did not understand and did not know anything about it. The father returned to
the hospital at midnight, the mother was sitting next to the boy. 

I will first focus Themes and symbols

Communication
The acts of the father (as we can see in line 4 to 7) the lack of communication is more
explored when the baker makes his first phone call to the Weiss household and Scotty’s father
answers the phone. He doesn’t know anything about a cake and ends up hanging up on the baker
before he can find out what the call is about, for the reader is fully conscious that it is the baker
ringing to see why the cake has not been collected and also he wants to get his sixteen dollars.
Raymond exploring the theme of communication or the lack of it , another instance of the lack of
communication within the story is when Scotty’s father is sitting beside Ann in the hospital, he
wanted to say something but there was no saying what it should be. Also when Ann sees Nelson’s
parents, Nelson’s mother mistakes Ann for a doctor or nurse and says , it is evident to the reader,
the fact that Ann is not a doctor or nurse, that there is nothing she can say.
Also we can analyze that the short stories center on communication, for Carver the communication
of individual particular experience is a critical need. The characters of this short story find
themselves silent when they wish nothing more than to speak. In this extract the husband and wife
sit in uncertainty, fear, and silence next to their son, who lies in a coma in a hospital bed

Alert and understanding

“The Bath” Carver let as read a world where people not only fail to see, the accident has happened
because at an intersection, without looking, the birthday boy stepped off the curb. It is plain to see
the boy is in a coma, but the parents try to ignore what they see and attempt to believe the doctor
who tells them the boy is only sleeping. Mother and father sit with their son, but they do not look at
him. (as we can see in line 38 to 42) This is clear example because Carver describes what happens
when the father finally does look at his son: The father look at his son, he felt more fear and the
mother closes her eyes as she tries to push away her knowledge her son is in a coma.

The birthday cake Ann Weiss orders for her son is decorated with a spaceship bearing the boy's
name. The image on the cake, meant to speak to her son's childlike imagination, becomes a warning
of foreshadowing of Scotty's sudden departure from the dimension of ordinary life. The cake takes
on an additional symbolic meaning when the baker calls the Weiss home demanding payment for
his work. The ringing of the telephone repeatedly intrudes upon the bath Mr. Weiss is taking in a
unsuccessful effort to wash away his fear. He has no knowledge of the cake his wife ordered, just
as the baker has no knowledge of the birthday boy's coma. (As we can see in line 28 to 35)

Taking a bath, it´s a key element of the story, carver´s intentions perhaps the bath is important
because is a small thing and good things tend to help people during tough times. (As we can see in
line 5 to 6)

The story is not about the individual known as Scotty; he is a symbolic element within the narrative.
Scotty symbolizes the uncertainty unknown below every comprehensible, familiar surface.

then I will analyze characterization and conflicts

Scotty's parents are feel terror and uncertainty they explore certainty from the medical authorities
but are given only delicacy, evidently meant to comfort and maintain calm, are actually a call for
the parents to participate in self delusion. The fight of Ann and her husband to delude themselves
about their son's coma creates a sinister tone when connect against the indifferent self-interest of the
larger world. This indifference is revealed by the hospital staff's cursory and impersonal attendance
and by the baker who calls repeatedly insisting on payment for the useless birthday cake and by the
birthday boy's companion who wonders whether to finish his potato chips and continue walking to
school in the moments after his friend is hit by the car.

This insistence nothing out of the ordinary has happened is most clearly expressed in the doctor's
refusal to admit Scotty is in a coma. Scotty's mother and father continue to believe in the doctor's
authority, even though they know he is lying to them and asking them to lie to themselves. This
creates, for the mother , a state of cognitive disagreement that leads her to accept a superstition. Her
husband develop her belief Scotty will wake up. He may also have fallen into this type of magical
thinking.

The uncertainty and fear felt by Scotty's parents to the reader. Ann answers the phone, desperate for
news about her son, and the caller confirms his reason for calling does indeed concern her son. The
story ends without revealing the caller's identity or the specific reason for the call. It could be the
doctor calling to report anything about Scotty his death, or his condition remains consistent, or he
has taken a turn for the better. It could be the baker calling to demand, once again, his payment for
Scotty's cake. It could also be anyone else at all perhaps Scotty's school calling to inquire about his
unexplained absence, or the mother of Scotty's friend calling to inquire about Scotty's condition.
((as a reader we doesn’t know).

Carver explores the idea theme of conflict external and internal conflicts. External conflicts would
include the baker ringing the Weiss household. He wants his money. Though it may appear that he
is acting selfishly, looking for the money, the reader must realize that the baker is uninformed that
Scotty has had an accident. (as we can see in line 18 to 23)
Internal conflict would include when Scotty’s father is sitting in the car, after driving home from the
hospital. He is concerned about Scotty, so concerned that he is overcome with fear (As we can see
in line 7 to 10)

The ending of the story is also interesting let at see to the reader The baker rings again and though
Ann doesn’t realize it is the baker, the reader does know. This is important because Ann not
knowing who is calling as it suggests that there is no purpose for moreover the baker who is still
looking to be paid or Ann who is looking to be told Scotty is better. If anything there is a sense that
both the baker and Ann remain in conflict, though for the baker the conflict is external and for Ann
it is internal worried about his son. It is also ironic that a phone call a form of communication is
used at the end of the story, ironic because not at all person baker or Ann will hear what they need
to hear.