The story “Popular Mechanics” made me feel both angry at the main characters and sad for the child caught in the middle of the fight. Both characters within the story were very selfish individuals who obviously cared only of themselves. This story made me think of King Solomon in I Kings, except in this story you are provided with two selfish characters and a sad ending.
Through the story we see how selfishness and spite cause the two characters to end-up hurting the one thing that they both love the most. Through the argument described in paragraph 6 through 9, we see that both the man and woman care for the baby. Unfortunately, they let their anger and spitefulness get in the way as they physically fight over the child, both in denial that either could be hurting the baby. This shows a good form of dramatic irony as both characters are in denial as to what is actually occurring.
Near the end, the author describes the woman holding onto the baby’s wrist and leaned back as the man, feeling the baby slipping from him, tugs back the opposite direction very hard. Although the author never specifies how the issue was resolved, when I read this I automatically assumed that the child was killed through the fighting, leaving neither with their much wanted reward. Considering the actions of both the man and the woman, how do you feel the issue was resolved? Do you think that this fight could have been avoided had the woman let he man take the photograph within paragraph 6?
The obvious answer to the question of "how do you think the issue was resolved?" is that these two parents, who seem to care about this baby, but who have some selfish motives, resolve their custody battle by equally dividing the baby, physically; or by tugging him in half. That’s how I read the story, but the author did not include an actual description of what happened, so I guess one could speculate.
ReplyDeleteI found myself wondering the same thing about the photograph of the baby. Perhaps if the woman had not sparked some anger in the man he may have been more submissive when they decided who would keep the baby. Maybe the photograph is what sparked the idea in his mind to want to take the child from her.
I really don’t think the “issue” would be any different had the woman allowed the man take the photograph of the baby. I believe the entire struggle over the baby was just a symbol for what had gone on in their relationship. The author never reveals to us exactly what went wrong in their relationship but we can see by the intense struggle over the baby they had some sort of intense struggle within their relationship. Carver leaves it up to the audience to decide what the “issue” may have been and exactly how it was decided or resolved.
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