Trading Places

3 Pages 626 Words

Trading Places: Raymond Carver’s “Neighbors”
Many people would love to be someone else, but if they actually trade places are they happy with the lifestyle they are living now? In his short story, “Neighbors,” Raymond Carver provides the answer to this question. In this story, Carver shows many examples of a married couple trying to play the role of their neighbors while they’re away on a trip. Indeed, three important actions shown are: the husband Bill looks at himself in the bathroom, he nibbles on food in the kitchen, and he rummages through the closet and drawers of his neighbor’s apartment. Analysis of these elements in this short story connects with someone greatly admiring someone’s lifestyle. Readers should take heed of this important text as a bearer of admiration because it is not always good to try to portray someone else.
Bill looking in the bathroom mirror of his next door neighbor is an important action of him actually thinking he’s living their lifestyle. For example, he grabs a bottle of pills that belong to the wife Harriet, reads the label directions and slips it into his pocket. But before doing so, “he looked at himself in the mirror and then closed eyes and then looked again” (Carver 64). Bill closing his eyes means that this imposing character is imagining that when he opens his eyes he will be one of the people living next door to him. As if he actually had to confirm that as long as he is in his neighbor’s home he is one of them. After looking at himself in the neighbor’s bathroom he couldn’t picture himself. He had to portray one of them or otherwise he would not be acting out his actual fantasy of doing things like his neighbor’s. The concentration drives him to actually put the pills in his pocket as if later on during the day he would have to swallow the pill as if that is what the wife would do on a daily basis.
Bill nibbles on food in the kitchen of the next ...