essay

Considered to be a major American short story writer of the 20th century, Raymond Carver’s stories often depict struggles of blue-collar America and have been acclaimed for their clear, hard language and accurate representation of human behavior during a point of nadir or recovery. Carver’s voice and accurate depictions can be accredited to his own life experiences as a working class male, which he often employs into his characters, such as in the narrator in “Where I’m Calling From.” Here, Carver writes in first person, through the point of view of a man recovering from alcoholism at a “drying-out facility”. Along with his life experiences, Carver also utilizes various literary approaches such as, vernacular, grammatical person, and verb tense, in order to further authenticate and legitimatize his story. Through the use of these devices and his personal experiences in “Where I’m Calling From”, Carver demonstrates strong invented ethos as a writer, which thus produces an accurate and authentic testimony of alcoholism recovery among working class Americans.
Probably the most captivating aspect of “Where I’m Calling From” is the amount of personal experience Carver draws from in order to construct his characters and their behaviors. As a working class father who struggled with alcoholism throughout most of his adult life, Carver is able to include minor details about alcohol recovery such as paranoia and short attention span into the story. While conversing with another recovering man, the narrator interrupts the conversation with his inner thoughts about how he’s worried about a twitch in his shoulder and how he “knows something’s about to happen and (I) want to head it off” (Carver 278). Although this is just a minor detail in the story, it demonstrates an aspect about alcohol recovery that may be alien to people who had not experienced alcohol recovery. Therefore, the inclusion of these details not only provides a more accurate character portrayal, but also indicates that Carver may have experienced these symptoms himself. Here, Carver’s personal experiences help strengthen his invented ethos by suggesting to readers that the symptoms, or on a larger scale, character behaviors, are not fictional, but actual substantive aspects of alcohol recovery, allowing them to trust Carver as an author.
Carver further demonstrates his intelligence on the attitudes and psychology of working-class males recovering from alcoholism through his consistent use of their vernacular. Had for instance Carver used a more scientific, or a more sophisticated tone, his audience would have rejected him as a voice for working-class males and alcohol recovery, however, Carver’s cultured, gruff language, indicates that he may be an insider to this particular culture or lifestyle. Not only does this style of voice demonstrate Carver’s intelligence on this subject, but it also establishes his goodwill as an author. Here instead a using a sophisticated, extravagant voice, which could be misleading or seem equivocating to people who are unaware of this subject, Carver’s use of the vernacular attempts to portray the attitudes of those who are recovering from alcoholism as accurately and honestly as possible. This attempt at honesty and authenticity, in effect gives the audience the impression that the character portrayals and issues in the story are most likely authentic and honest, establishing Carver’s goodwill as an honest writer to his readers.
Another prominent literary feature of “Where I’m Calling From” is Carver’s choice of grammatical person and verb tense. Throughout the story Carver writes in first person through the point of view of the narrator, who often oscillates between his present stay at the “drying-out facility” and telling past stories about himself as well as other men’s stories (third person) as he’s heard them. With his choice of grammatical person and verb tense coupled with his use of informal vernacular, Carver’s voice in “Where I’m Calling From” has a substantial presence to it, as if he’s in the room casually reciting his story. This voice, in effect lessens the distance between Carver and his readers, allowing them to be more engaged in his story and to hold more sympathy for his characters. Moreover, Carver’s strong presence in his stories also enables him to establish good character by portraying himself as a raconteur. This raconteuristic status then allows Carver to build up reverence as a storyteller from his audience, causing the audience to hold his stories at a higher regard than if he had used third person and past tense—or a less formal tone throughout. In other words, Carver was able to establish good character by approaching the story as if he is telling it one on one in order to gain respect as a writer from his audience.
In conclusion, although Carver intended to focus on the characters in “Where I’m Calling From” in order to examine human behavior at the point of nadir or recovery, his ethos still come out through his story. His indications at personal experience and use various literary devices such as cultural vernacular, multiple grammatical persons, and verb tenses all help demonstrate his intelligence, establish goodwill, and set up good character as a storyteller. With these aspects of ethos secure, Carver successfully appeals to his audience as an insightful, adept author. However, although these aspects work to Carver’s advantage in his literary genre dirty realism, it would be interesting to see how a writer like Carver constructs ethos in a genre such as science fiction, where personal experiences and vernacular are not so prominent. This thought can then be applied to a broader scale: rhetors and authors need to understand what rhetorical approaches are appropriate and successful for different rhetorical situations.