A Small, Good Thing

The story A Small, Good Thing by Carver was a very good story overall. The story starts out with a boy, Scottie, who is hit by a car and is put in the hospital with a fractured skull. It seems that he is in a comatose like state, but the doctors assure the parents that it isn't. As the evening goes on the boy's condition does not get any better, and the doctors are puzzled by this. In the end the boy wakes up for a brief moment, and then dies. What made this story good was the fact that it was a story that gripped ones emotions and made you feel like you were part of the story. The bad part about this story was the open endedness. All of the Carver stories never have an absolute ending. For example, in the ending of this story the parents of Scottie go to the bakery to confront the baker who keeps calling them. The baker offers them bread and the story ends like this, "They talked on into the early morning, the high, pale cast of light in the windows, and they did not think of leaving." So what does this mean? Nevertheless when we break the story down we find a moment of grace in the end when the baker offers them bread. It is almost communion like. And when we compare this story to others, we can find similar messages and themes in the story Chixiclub. We need to live every day to the fullest and cherish what we have.