Raymond Carver: A Critical Consideration of Diction
             Raymond Carver utilizes many different literary devices to manipulate his short stories. Out of all the possible literary tools, I feel that his word choice is the most important in creating a "hook" that captures a reader. He tends to take a seemingly unimportant, commonplace event and turn it into an enthrallingly interesting moment. There is a direct correlation between this diction and how these ordinary events become so intricate. He has been known to revise his stories many different times, and thus, has different versions of them. One of the main purposes of revising is to ascertain exactly the best language and words to emphasize a theme or point within a story. He uses these exact measures to ensure that he can maximize the impact of his stories. This heightened text often leaves ambiguous meanings and interpretations in his work. In the following paragraphs, I will attempt to show how the diction employed in the stories "What's in Alaska?", "Fat", and "Collectors" contribute to their respective meanings and impact the reader.
             In "What's In Alaska?", there are four main characters: Jack, Mary, Helen, and Carl. The story is set up around a totally normal seeming premise, four friends hanging out and smoking marijuana in their apartment. The intricacies arise in the conversation and banter exchanged throughout the evening. There is one instance in which Jack is bathing and he is conversing with Mary and he asks her to hand him a towel because he is getting out. A reader would normally expect there to be a couple of lines following that dialogue which might relate somehow to her handing him a towel. Instead of doing this, Carver jumps straight to Mary, who says, "I'll go and set the table." There is no mention of whether or not she actually did hand him a towel. This leads a reader t...