A Small Good Thing

"A Small Good Thing's" Character Development: Tragedy or Anger Driven?

Raymond Carver's story "A Small Good Thing" is a story of the struggles a family undergoes when their only son, Scotty, is fatally injured in a car accident. Carver's characters go through many emotional changes as a result of this terrible ordeal. Each stage of the story causes them to change emotionally in some way, and these changes eventually lead to entirely different people in the end of the story. Carver's style and symbolism throughout the story causes the reader to focus more on the actual changes of the characters' personality than the tragedy of Scotty's death.

Carver's unique style of writing causes the reader to focus on the characters' development throughout the story. Carver utilizes a very brief paragraph to convey the actions that lead up to the accident. Once the accident occurs, his writing focuses entirely on the Weiss family and their actions. When Scotty dies, Carver does not allow the reader to be upset about the young boy; instead, he allows the reader to feel more sorry for the Weiss parents. His lack of discussion on the events of the accident and death shift the attention from the tragedy to the characters that still remain alive.

The selection of Scotty's birthday cake begins the changing journey that each of the three main characters undergoes. In the beginning, Ann is a self-conscious woman who feels that she needs to find a common bond with everyone she meets (Stull 18). Immediately upon meeting the baker, she struggles on finding that bond. She finally decides that they both had kids, so he has been through the same thing she is going through. This insecurity causes other problems in the Weiss's marriage. The two have a difficult time talking and this problem becomes prevalent at the hospital. The baker, on the other hand, is described as a very prideful and cynical old man. He is overly proud of his bakery, and he is willing to do anything to receive payment for his good works. These two characters' interactions describe how their lives are before the tragedy occurs.

Scotty's accident causes many changes to the Weiss family's life. They are immediately thrown into a situation in which their marital bond is strongly tested. Because Scotty is unconscious, Ann refuses to leave his side. She allows Howard to step in only when she needs sleep (Taub 114). Howard goes home to take a bath and receives a nasty call from the baker. He doesn't know who the man is, and he quickly brushes it off. He even forgets to tell Ann about it; this is the beginning of the "definite deterioration of language and a reliance on implicit communication" (Gearhart 441). The couple quickly begins to rely on implicit, rather than verbal, communication. This causes their relationship to suffer (Gearhart 442).

When Howard is finally able to convince Ann to return home and take a bath, Ann realizes that she has not allowed Howard to help her. She sees that the problem is not just between her and Scotty, as she has been looking at it, but rather between all three members of the family (Stull 18). She decides that she will try to include Howard more in the situation. When she reaches home, she receives a menacing call from the baker. Like Howard, she does not know that it is the baker. It shocks Ann, and she plans to discuss it with Howard when she reaches the hospital.

When Ann returns to the hospital, the couple's verbal communication has completely broken down. Ann becomes totally open to watching for body language, and Howard's posture immediately signals a problem. He is unable to express verbally that Scotty must have surgery. Their communication problems also affect their relationship with the doctors. Where the radiologist tells the family straightforwardly, Ann and Howard do not want to trust him; with Dr. Francis, who is unable to simply state the problem, Ann and Howard feel as though he is one to be trusted (Gearhart 442).

Not only do Ann's communication problems affect her view of her doctors, but they also affect her social manners. As she leaves the hospital, Ann runs into the black family. When they politely make conversation with her, she uses her body language to coax the family into telling her their story (Gearhart 441). They tell her about their son Franklin. He is undergoing surgery to try to fix the wound in his stomach. Franklin, just like Scotty, was not responsible for the horrific accident he was involved in. He was just an innocent bystander in a gang altercation and was stabbed by a member of one of the gangs (Cathedral 85). This family just further teaches her how to use her newfound nonverbal skills to manipulate others around her. The family also lets her know that she is not alone in her sorrow. By telling their story, Ann realizes that she is not the only one who is going through the same type of ordeal that she and her family are. Because of the black family's powerful bonds within their own family, Ann realizes that her family should work together, much like the black family, in order to survive this tragedy.

After this meeting, Ann talks to Howard. They decide to pray for both Franklin and Scotty. By praying together, the family feels that they are united, if only for a brief moment. "For the first time, she felt that they were together in it, this trouble" (Cathedral 80). By making this step, the family begins to grow stronger together. From this point on, Howard and Ann begin to work together to try to overcome Scotty's condition.

After the discovery of Scotty's death, the couple returns home to an empty house. Just as they get inside, they hear the phone ringing. When Ann answers it, she finally realizes who the menacing caller has been. Her discovery infuriates her; her animal instincts give Ann the vigor, in spite of her physical exhaustion, to rush over to the bakery and scream at him (Campbell 55). When they reach the bakery, Ann is angrier than she has ever been. Ann's anger is very physical and overpowering, but it soon gives way to nausea. By allowing herself to become so angry, she is able to finally realize that her son's death is "not fair at all" (Facknitz 292).

When Ann is able to compose herself, she confronts the baker. She tells him Scotty's entire story. Here, Ann feels totally humiliated. Saltzman says that from this point, she can grow into a new life in which Scotty is absent and her husband is finally present. After Ann explains the situation, the baker quickly loses his bullying demeanor. He is immediately stricken with remorse and tries to explain himself. He realizes that he will never be able to apologize for the harm he has caused, so he attempts to