Everything Stuck to Him by Raymond Carver is an interesting short story that delves into themes of love, parenthood, and choices. The story sheds light on how enduring change molds identities and influences relationships, both past and present.”
Everything Stuck to Him | Summary
During Christmas in Milan, a woman spends time with her father. Curious about her childhood, she expresses her desire to hear a story from when she was a child. Her father recalls a memory from when she was just a baby, even though her role in the story, he says, was minor. Nonetheless, she eagerly insists on hearing it. They decide to get another drink, and her father begins to recount the tale.
At the time, he was eighteen years old, and his wife was seventeen, and their love for each other was profound; and shortly after their marriage, they had a daughter together. They resided in a compact apartment located beneath a dentist’s office, which they cleaned during the nighttime to cover their rent and utilities. Additionally, they were responsible for maintaining the surrounding grounds.
The young couple harbored aspirations of exploring new places and pursuing their dreams. When their baby was approximately three months old, the young man reached out to an old hunting acquaintance of his father named Carl. Carl had been planning another goose-hunting expedition the following morning, and the young man decided to join him. His wife, understanding his attraction to her sisters Sally and Betsy, agreed to the plan. She assured him that it was acceptable, and they intended to take the baby to visit her sister Sally once he returned.
After dinner, they lovingly bathed and powdered the baby, preparing for the night ahead. The baby was placed to sleep in the living room while they retired to their room. Outside, the weather was chilly with overcast skies, and the ground was covered in snow. They settled into bed for the night.
Later in the night, the boy awakened to the sound of the baby crying. His wife tended to the baby, soothed her, and placed her back in her crib before returning to bed. However, he was roused from his sleep again by the baby’s cries. Despite his wife’s efforts, the baby continued to cry inconsolably. Frustrated, he took charge of the situation, and his wife lay down to rest. He settled on the sofa with the baby, patiently holding her until she eventually fell asleep, at which point he carefully placed her in the crib.
However, a few minutes later, the baby began crying once more, causing the boy to utter a frustrated oath. The mother picked up the baby once more, attempted to comfort her, and placed her back in the crib, but the baby’s distress persisted. Perplexed and worried, the boy started getting ready for his hunting expedition.
The girl expressed concern about him leaving while the baby was unwell, initiating an argument between them, which left her in tears. She presented him with a difficult choice between his commitment to his hunting expedition with Carl’s and his family’s well-being. Eventually, the man proceeded to prepare for his hunting trip. As he gathers his gear and heads to his car, his wife’s words weigh heavily on him. He started the car but then turned it off, spending a moment in contemplation before re-entering their home.
The girl and the baby peacefully slumbered on the bed. The boy shed his hunting attire and settled onto the couch with a newspaper. He then proceeded to the kitchen to fry himself some bacon. As he cooked, his wife emerged from the bedroom and lovingly embraced him. They expressed apologies to each other as she took charge of the cooking and prepared waffles for him. She served the meal, and as he cut into it, he accidentally flipped the plate onto his lap, with the food sticking onto his long hunting underwear. He felt a bit annoyed, while she found it amusing. In frustration, he tossed his underwear toward the bathroom door. Then, they shared an embrace and affirmed their commitment, promising not to quarrel any further.
Returning to the present, the father and the daughter enjoy another drink, and the story comes to a close. The father reflects on how things change without one’s realization or intent. His daughter concurs, beginning to add something but then stopping midway. She inquires if he plans to show her the city, to which he instructs her to get ready. His thoughts drift back to the past, recalling how he and his wife found solace in laughter and relied on each other, even as the world outside continued to evolve.
Everything Stuck to Him | Analysis
Raymond Carver’s “Everything Stuck to Him” is an example of a frame narrative. A frame narrative is a literary device wherein one story is enclosed within another. The inner story is the primary focus, while the outer story establishes the context, introduces key themes, creates parallels or contrasts, or simply serves as a narrative device to structure the inner story. Frame stories allow for the exploration of perspectives and time in greater depths, often conveying an interconnectedness between the narratives.
The opening frame story begins with an adult daughter visiting her father in Milan. The fact that she visits him “in Milan for Christmas” gives the idea that the two have not been in touch in a while. This sense is furthered by the daughter’s request to her father for a story about her childhood, a story perhaps from a perspective that she does not often get to hear of. This implies that the past was markedly distinct from the present, marking a distinctive distance between the two introduced characters. Despite our initial lack of knowledge about the characters, it is evident that a significant shift has occurred over time.
The inner narrative commences as the father launches into a narrative twenty years before the present day, when he was eighteen years old and his wife a year younger, madly in love with each other. The tale introduces the two married young, with a significant development in their lives – the arrival of their newborn baby. The central conflict in the story arises because the parents are still in the process of adjusting to their new roles, which could also be examined within the broader themes of identity and adaptation to changing responsibilities. The parents, still teenagers themselves, seem to be unable to reconcile with the unforeseen responsibility of marriage and having a child together.
The pair are financially unstable, as evident in the description of their lodgings. Unable to pay the required sum, they clean for the dentist whose apartment they rent and perform other odd jobs to sustain themselves. This instability and conflict can also be traced to the apprehension of the young man as he asks his wife, “Are you still with me? Are you getting the picture?” The couple is aware of the timorous state of balanced space that they inhabit together.
“The two kids were very much in love. On top of this they had great ambitions.” – Reflecting these lines onto the outer narrative of the story, one might assume that the husband, now living in Milan, has somewhat been able to fulfill his ambitions. However, the absence of the girl, his wife back in time, suggests that the “two kids in love” had a fallout of sorts along the way, and even though their child has grown, they are no longer together, due to unknown reasons.
In the inner narrative, the young boy demonstrates questionable judgment when he insists on going hunting even though his daughter appears unwell. He has not yet fully embraced his roles as a father and a husband. On the other hand, the young woman appears to have comfortably settled into her role as a mother, but she is experiencing a more challenging transition into her role as a wife. The boy, a little in love with the girl’s sisters, further accentuates the immaturity of the couple, hinting at their doomed romance.
The conflict is spurred when the husband, who loves hunting, plans to go on a hunting trip with his friend. The baby daughter, who has just started sleeping through the night, suddenly starts crying inconsolably. The wife is overwhelmed by the baby’s crying, and the husband has to choose between his plans to go hunting and staying to help with the baby with the girl. The argument that ensues when she asks him to stay to help (which culminates in her tears and his walking out), is portrayed by the writer in a cold and detached manner, reflecting vividly the characters’ inability to truly understand or depend on each other, highlighting the space and distance between the two lovers themselves. The two remain unable to come to terms with their own emotions, much less communicate among themselves, furthering their distance. Analyzing how the husband walks out despite the wife’s ultimatum to potentially end their relationship due to their disagreement, the narrative seems to hint that this might not be the couple’s first argument.
The boy, however, once in the car, decides to return to his family. When the girl wakes, she cooks for him, and they apologize to each other. The two make up in a fit of chance laughter, but the narrative, even in the laughter when they move into each others’ arms, does not break the tension. The reader is kept constantly aware that the laughter and the reconciliation had been momentary. The promise that they make to never argue again, in its very utterance becomes proof that they did, and are no longer together in the present.
The narrative cuts to the frame story, and the daughter, now grown, asks to be shown around the city by her father. As she prepares to go out, the father remembers how “they had leaned on each other and laughed until the tears had come,” and the reader is once more shown the haunting of the boy’s memories, which seem to resurface in the glass of the windows, incited perhaps by the image of their daughter.
Everything Stuck to Him | Themes
The theme of change is initially introduced in the opening story when the adult daughter requests a narrative about how things were when she was a child. Even before we learn anything about the characters, we can surmise that there were significant differences between that period and the present.
During the inner story, the boy is happily married and deeply in love, which contrasts starkly with his current solitary existence in Milan. The couple is no longer together, indicating a significant change in their lives.
Although the story does not provide specific details about what transpired, the man acknowledges the inevitability of change when he states:
“Things change. I don’t know how they do. But they do without your realizing it or wanting them to.”
His story concludes with him and his wife vowing not to quarrel anymore, suggesting they may have intended to maintain that resolve for some time. However, the passage of time likely brought about changes that strained their relationship, possibly contributing to their separation.
The inner story commences with a significant recent change in the young couple’s life—the birth of their baby. The central conflict of the narrative arises because the parents are still in the process of adapting to their new roles, which could also be examined through the lenses of identity or adjusting to new responsibilities.
Another instance of change becomes apparent after the events of the inner story. It is mentioned that the young couple was once “crazy in love,” a state of being that is inherently transient and cannot endure indefinitely. As they encounter future disagreements and challenges, reconciling may not be as effortless as it once was during the initial stages of their relationship, as the initial elation inevitably wanes into a doomed romance.
This is a demonstration of the kind of change that occurs “without your realizing it or wanting them to,” as the narrator elucidates in his reflection after the story. It is the passage of time and life’s complexities and difficulties that render such a state unsustainable and eventually subject to change.
Everything Stuck to Him | Title of the Story
In the incident from which the story derives its title, the father, as a young boy, unintentionally flips over his breakfast plate onto his lap, resulting in a sticky mess of syrup, waffles, and bacon spilling onto his clothes. To rid himself of this predicament, he must remove his hunting garments.
An interpretation suggests that the young man’s early life experiences with his wife and daughter have similarly “stuck” to him over the years. These accumulated experiences have become an integral part of his identity, shaping who he has become, even after probably fulfilling the dreams from his youth.
Alternately, the food spilling onto and sticking to him represents an unpleasant occurrence, much like how his interactions and memories with his wife, and the responsibilities of fatherhood have clung to him. He might not have deliberately sought to detach himself from these aspects of his life or might have been faced with another choice, much like the ultimatum his wife had once offered him, and taken the other road.
Everything Stuck to Him | Character Sketch
The father/the boy of eighteen/the husband
The boy’s name is not mentioned in the story, emphasizing his role as a representative character rather than an individual with a distinct identity.
Married, and with a child at the young age of eighteen, he is also depicted as someone with ambitions and dreams for the future. He is in love with his wife and cares for his family but he is also portrayed as undecided. He fancies his wife’s sisters and is enthusiastic about hunting: his character is in constant inner conflict, torn between his personal desires and ambitions and his responsibility as a father and husband to his family.
The mother/the girl of seventeen/the wife
The girl, unnamed is seventeen years of age. She is portrayed as a loving and caring mother to her baby daughter. She seems to deeply care for her family and becomes emotional and upset when the baby starts crying. In these moments she might also seem emotionally exhausted as she breaks down into tears soon after arguing with her husband.
Everything Stuck to Him | Literary Devices
At the breakfast table, the husband accidentally spills syrup on his pants. This incident symbolizes that, in this situation, everything is connected to him, signifying his responsibility for his family and the consequences of his choices. These consequences seem to still “stick” to him twenty years after the events of the narrated story: even though his daughter has now grown into a young woman, he seems still haunted by the memories of his past.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR : Raymond Carver was an American short-story writer and poet, known for his minimalist writing style and his exploration of the lives of working-class people. Born on May 25, 1938, in Clatskanie, Oregon, USA, he attended various colleges where he studied creative writing. However, he did not earn a degree.
Carver’s writing career began in the early 1960s, and he gained recognition as a master of the short story. His writing style was often characterized by its brevity and simplicity, which became known as “minimalism.” Some of his most famous works include “Cathedral,” “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” and “Where I’m Calling From.” Despite his difficulties, Carver achieved significant literary success. His short stories were published in prestigious literary magazines, and he received numerous awards and recognition for his work, including an O. Henry Award and the Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1988, he was diagnosed with lung cancer, which eventually led to his death on August 2, 1988, in Port Angeles, Washington, at the age of 50.
