Difference in Writing Styles
“We can never know what to want,
because, living only one life, we can neither
compare it with our pervious lives
nor perfect it in our lives to come.”
Milan Kundera
Thesis: Where I’m Calling From by Raymond Carver, Their
Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and Fools Crow by James
Welch. When comparing these two stories to Where I’m Calling From, the
thing that separates them and makes them so different is their writing styles, the
language in the stories, and their themes. However, one thing that is the same
about them is that they were written so that things are never forgotten.
1. Writing style
a. Minimalist
b. Realist
c. Detailist
2. Language
a. Native American
b. African American
c. All-American
3. Theme
a. Hurston
b. Welch
c. Carver
Bang! Bang! Bang! Shots ring out, immediately followed by hundreds of
horrifying screams and desperate cries for help. Another school shooting has just
recently occurred this time in Santee, California, just outside of San Diego; two students
were killed, and thirteen were injured. Before this it was Columbine High in
Colorado that was devastated, and before this I can’t remember because they have been
happening so much. I do remember when the Columbine shootings happened, and the
shootings that occurred before then; when they took place, we talked about and had
discussions in every class the whole day. But now that they are occurring so
often, and we are hearing about them all the time like the one in Santee -- we hardly talk
about them at all. When the subject is brought up now, it is talked about slightly,
and all that is said is, “I know can you believe it has happened again?” and
that’s all; it isn’t talked about in depth and taken seriously anymore, like the
serious subject and problem that it is. I guess this is because of the fact
that these shootings are occurring so often that people are beginning to accept them as
the norm, and they don’t get shocked by them anymore. This seems to happen with
every problem, alcoholics, for example. The first person to admit he had a problem was
looked at as a social outcast, but it is occurring so often now that most people overlook
the seriousness of the problem; the same thing with divorces, single parent families have
become a norm.
In the book of short stories, Where I’m
Calling From, by Raymond Carver, Carver brings to attention the affects of these
problems we overlook today. Sure he may not have any stories to do with school
shootings, but these kinds of things had not happened yet while he was alive. But
things such as alcoholism, and many other problems that occur day-to-day did, and that is
exactly what Carver wrote about, so that the shocking truth will never be forgotten, and
so that we are consistently reminded of how serious many problems that get overlooked and
are not accepted as the norm.
In the past few months I have read more books than I had in my whole
life. And with every book I read, I enjoyed it more and got more out of it.
The three I enjoyed the most were from three very different American writers.
Where I’m Calling From by Raymond Carver, Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston, and Fools Crow By James Welch. When comparing these
two stories to Where I’m Calling From, the thing that separates them and
makes them so different is their writing styles, the language in the stories, and their
themes. However, there is one thing that is the same about them: they were written
so that something will never be forgotten.
Writing style is one of the biggest differences in Where
I’m Calling From, as opposed to Fools Crow, and Their Eyes Were
Watching God. Carver’s writing is often labeled as a minimalist style
because of his lack of detail, non-developing characters, and the shortness of his
stories. But I believe that the way he writes makes the reader have to draw
connections and relate it to their own life, and with many of his stories, this is easy to
do. “Bicycles, Muscles, Cigarettes,” for example, in this story there are
three different things that a reader is able to relate to: First, being a parent and
protecting and sticking up for your kid. Second, being a kid and participating in
mischievous acts. Third, being a person who is trying to quit a habit like
smoking. Almost everybody has experienced one of these in his or her life, so
it gives the reader a more personal experience when reading. Someone who was
a smoker would probably relate the fight between Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Berman, to the fact
that Mr. Hamilton was trying to quit smoking, and so he had a very short fuse at the
time. On the other hand, a parent would relate the fight to protecting his or her
kid.
I myself was able to relate to the part with the bicycle were
they were, “Rolling it…Sending it down the street with a push and letting it
fall over” (Carver 25). I remember one day when I was little in our
neighborhood, some kid thought it would be cool if we all ‘Ghost Rode’ our bikes
down a hill, or rolled them as Carver would say. So we all did, and that night we
all went home with our mangled bikes that we could no longer ride because they had bent
handlebars and rims from the impact of rolling them down the hill. Our parents were
all furious, and wanted to know whose idea it was, and what boy had talked us into this.
This is an example of the affect Carver has on the reader -- by
creating things that everyone can relate to, which makes the story more meaningful.
Because of techniques like this, I personally consider Ray’s writings to be more of a
realist approach because they are about everyday life experiences. Carver himself
doesn’t even like to consider himself a minimalist. When asked what he thought about
being a minimalist, he said,
Critics often use the term "minimalist" when discussing my prose. But it's a
label that bothers me: it suggests the idea of a narrow vision of life, low ambitions, and
limited cultural horizons. And, frankly, I don't believe that's my case. Sure, my writing
is lean and tends to avoid any excess. There's a saying of Hemingway's that I could take
for my motto: "Prose is architecture. And this isn't the Baroque age." (Stull 2)
What I think Carver is meant when he quoted Hemingway is that everything is there in
his stories, but the reader just has to read carefully to catch everything, “His
impulse to simplify is like an attempt to create a hush, not to hear less but to hear
better” (Robinson 1).
So how does this all contrast with the writing style of James Welch,
and Zora Neale Hurston? Welch and Hurston’s writing styles are almost the exact
opposite of Carver’s. They go into every last detail, and the reader is able to see
the character develop throughout the course of the story. In Fools Crow,
the reader sees the development of a young man named White Man’s Dog. He is a
young man who in the beginning of the novel seems to have no future; however, throughout
the story Welch lets the reader see how White Man’s Dog develops into a greatly
respected brave, named Fools Crow. And just like with Fools Crow, in Their Eyes
Were Watching God, the reader sees the development of the main character, Janie
Crawford. Hurston shows this by taking the reader through Janie’s three
marriages. And as she goes from her first to her third marriage, the reader sees
Janie change, from a teen struggling to find out what love is, to a love struck adult, who
finally finds out what true love is.
The second big difference in these stories is the language used in
them. Although they are all American writers, all three of these stories contrast
when it comes to language usage. James Welch is a Native American writer who grew up in
and was born in Browning, Montana in 1940. He is a member of the Blackfeet Indian
Tribe and this influence definitely shows in his writing. His novel takes place in
Montana and is full of Native American dialect. A few examples of the Native
American language are the names of the characters, such as White Man’s Dog, and
Kills-Close-to-the-lake. The name of the moon “Seven Persons”, the North
Star is called the Star-that-stands-still. My personal favorites are the names for
things that the Indians associate with the white man, like “yellow dust” which
is gold, and “white man’s water” which is whiskey.
Zora Neale Hurston, on the other hand, was born, and grew up in
Eatonville, Florida, on January 7, 1903. And in her novel which also takes place in
the state that she was born in, African American dialect is predominant. The best
example is when two of the characters are having a conversation that goes like this:
“At dat she ain’t so ole as some of y’all dat’s talking.”
“She’s way past forty to my knowledge, Phoeby.” “No more’n forty
at de outside” (3). In Hurston’s writing she uses this down south black folk
dialogue, as well as names like Phoeby, and Tea Cake that all contribute to the African
American tone of the novel.
As for Raymond Carver, he was born in Clatskanie, Oregon, on May
25,1938, and he grew up in the Northwest, which is where his stories take place, just like
with the other authors in the place where they grew up. Compared to the languages
used by Hurston and Welch, I consider Carver’s stories to be written in an
everyday-American language. What I mean by this is that his stories are written in
the way that most people talk today when they are having conversations in the standard
English language. His stories have everything, from conversations between spouses
talking about their day at work, “How was work today honey?”, right down to
their ugly arguments, “Go to hell” and “I just can’t take it
anymore” (30). This type of dialect that he uses, contributes to the realism
factor of his stories. If Carver’s stories were written in a Native American
language or an old southern black language, they wouldn’t have the same seriousness
and effects on the reader. I mean if Carver was talking about an alcoholic drinking
white man’s water we wouldn’t take him seriously. It is truly amazing to see the
differences in these three types of American dialect. The final thing that makes
Carver’s writing so different from Welch’s and Hurston’s are the
themes.
The theme is usually the moral, or lesson learned in the story, and
is usually what the reader gains from reading a story. The theme for Their Eyes
Were Watching God, is summed up in a few sentences at the end by the main character
when she says, “You got tuh go there tuh know there. Yo’ papa and yo’
mama and nobody else can’t tell yuh and show yuh. Two things everybody’s
got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about
livin’ fuh theyselves” (Hurston 192). Basically what she is saying there
is that people need to find out what true love is on their own and not go by what anyone
else tells them. Fools Crow, on the other hand, has a little bit different
theme, but it is also mentioned towards the end of the novel, and its theme is that no
matter what happens to change people’s lives and culture, life will go on as long as
they continue to find a way to adapt to the changing conditions.
On the contrary, Where I’m Calling From has many
themes throughout, and it is because of the fact that there are several different stories
in this book, 34 to be exact, and each with a little bit different theme. In every
story I read, I got something different out of it, whether it was that everything happens
for a reason; everybody is different and we all have are differences; or that everybody
faces problems in life; the list goes on and on. It all depends on the person who is
reading the story, as to what they think the theme is. There is one central theme however,
and when asked about the continuing themes of the characters throughout his stories,
Carver said, “I never felt the people I was writing about were so bad…The
waitress, the bus driver, the mechanic, the hotel keeper…They’re good
people. People doing the best they could” (Sussman 1). The central theme
here is that even though we all have are differences and problems on the outside, on the
inside underneath all that other stuff we are all good people.
Even though these three stories have their differences, they all
have one thing in common; they were written so that something will never be
forgotten. In Hurston’s case, I believe that Their Eyes Were Watching God,
was written so that African Americans will remember their roots, and how tough it was for
their ancestors. I also believe it was written to show how because of the love and
strong relationships in the Black community, they were able to make it through rough
times. And because Hurston did this, I feel that everyone who reads this novel, not
only the Black community, will realize how big of a role love plays in their lives,
and as a result, their communities will remain strong.
With Fools Crow, it is evident what James Welch
doesn’t want to be forgotten, and that is Native American culture and how they were
mistreated and forced from their land. He wrote about this, so that so that the
reader is reminded of why the Indians deserve special rights concerning things like,
hunting and fishing, and the other things they get, like money from the government.
From reading his book one would see that Native Americans get these things because
of the oppression their ancestors suffered years ago.
As for Raymond Carver, as I mentioned before, wrote the stories he
wrote, so that America will not overlook, and forget the seriousness of many problems that
are still occurring today. These problems include things such as, drug and alcohol
addiction, family problems, problems at work, and numerous others. From reading
stories that address these problems, hopefully people will remember how big these problems
really are and recognize them within their own communities and as a community help those
in need, because problems like these do need the help and support of the community in
order to have a fighting chance of overcoming them.
Raymond Carver is a writer like none other that I have read before, and I believe that
it is because of his different writing style, use of language, and themes, that makes his
writing stand out so much. But the thing that makes him the most different is that
he is an average person, who just writes the truth about life experiences, and the reader
hears the truth from an all-American guy who is just like many of us which gives his
stories more of an impact because a reader reads them, and while reading, he or she is
saying, “Oh no, that’s me.” Carver is your average Joe who enjoyed hunting,
fishing, camping, and backyard barbecues, and unfortunately as many people do, he also
enjoyed drinking. But he was able to overcome his drinking problem before he died at the
age of 50 due to lung cancer, and I believe that this is why he wrote stories about the
things he did, so that people will read them and realize how serious their problems are,
or problems their siblings have, and urge them to go and get help. And for the people who
don’t have these problems, he makes them realize how lucky they are, and that the
problems they have are minimal compared to some of the things others have to go through in
life.
Works Cited
Carver, Raymond. Where I’m Calling From. New York, N.Y: Vintage
Contemporaries, 1989.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York, N.Y:
HarperPerennial, 1990.
Robinson, Marilynne. “Marriage and other Astonishing Bonds”. New York
Times, May 15, 1988.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/01/21/specials/carver-calling.html 2, Mar. 2001.
Stull, L. William. Silvia Sel Pozzo. Two interviews with Raymond Carver. 23, Mar. 1986.
http://titan.iwu.edu/~jplath/carver.html 2, Mar. 2001.
Sussman, Deborah. “Meet the Author: Raymond Carver”. Literary
Cavalcade. New York, N.Y.: Feb. 1999, Volume 51. Issue 5.
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