Arezou Esmaeeli

Bryan Dunn

21 January 2016

 

        For my first blog I decided to do an option of my own choice which is going to be a mix of pictures and my opinions on the main characters in the short story. The short story I chose to write about is “Chef’s House” by Raymond Carver. The story is about a woman, named Edna, who receives a call from her ex husband who claims wants to start all over with her and has battled his alcohol addiction. Edna decides to leave her boyfriend,  in order to spend the summertime with Wes, her ex husband. Wes was renting a home from his friend Chef for an inexpensive price. Wes and Edna spent a lot of time together. They would go to the movies, fish and just relax. Until one day Chef, the owner of the house they were staying in, came to tell Wes that he has to kick him out because of his daughter needing a place to live after her husband left. Personally, I enjoyed the story. It gave me a calm feeling due to its light and slightly romantic atmosphere.

 

      The story was a very fun read but does it have a real purpose? I feel as though it is showing what it is like to be young. Reading the story, it seems as though Edna is telling someone this story due to her lack of quotation marks. Edna seems to give off a bit of a naive personality, seeing as how she is so accepting of everything. Being young tends to be associated with the word naive as to how young people are more prone to making mistakes.She easily went back to her ex husband while she was already in a committed relationship with someone else. Her soon ex boyfriend told her that if she were to leave, “Don’t come back” (298). Then she left without any resistance. She may just not have felt very emotionally attached to her boyfriend but I mean, it is still rude to crush someone’s feelings like she did. She didn’t even seem to care or have any internal conflict over leaving her boyfriend to go to Wes.  

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This first drawing reminds me of Edna because of the butterflies. Butterflies, for me, symbolize freedom. Edna, in my perspective, is a go with the flow person. She doesn’t show any real resistance to anything. The butterflies are in front of her and one is attached to her face. The one on the face shows how she sees the world. Edna doesn’t have a mindset of anything ever being too late to change. She is free spirit. She believes people can change, which can also be hinted when the only two people she had a romantic relationship with are recovering alcoholics.

How would you view Edna as? Would you think her actions are reasonable or do you perhaps think she is slightly cruel as well?  Maybe you don’t believe she is as naive as I claim she is. What photos do you believe could better describe Edna’s personality?

 

    I consider Wes a main character as well due to how the story revolves around him and Edna being together. Wes, Edna’s ex husband, is a recovering alcoholic who has a friend, Chef, allowing him to rent the house for a cheap price. Wes is a complicated character to figure out. He appears to be a changed man at the beginning of the story. Sure, he had his struggles, but he claimed to have fixed them. He seems like a pretty genuine guy who still has feelings for his ex wife. He even cries when Edna tells him over the phone that she wants the old him back. He seems to have his regrets seeing that he cried. Edna finally agrees to come back and when she does, they are having a great time together. Wes isn’t drinking, he’s even going to recovery sessions. However; once Chef comes in saying that he can’t have Wes stay in his house anymore because his daughter needs the house, Wes becomes a different man. He shows he is stressed out and anxious by messing with his shirt buttons. He indicates that he will start drinking again when he says Fat Linda. Fat Linda is the nickname Wes gave Chef’s daughter, Linda, in his drunk days. Whenever he mentioned Chef’s daughter in front of Edna, he would always say Linda. Indicating his drinking days have stopped. Edna and him are reminiscing about the time they spent together. Edna wants to continue those days with Wes but Wes simply says, “I’m sorry, but I can’t talk like somebody I’m not” (301).

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  I feel like this is an accurate representation of Wes. This drawing shows a man who seems tired and doesn’t want to move on, so what does he do? He smokes. He smokes all his troubles away. He smokes to waste time. Wes is like that man. The man isn’t getting up and doing anything productive. Wes doesn’t want to take steps toward a change. Wes doesn’t believe he can change. Wes just lies down with all his troubles surrounding him like the smoke forming from the cigarette the man is holding. Smoke will continue to form until the man decides to stop smoking and opens a window to let the smoke through. Wes won’t be opening windows. He will keep closing them, not willing to change.

        What are your thoughts on the characters, Edna and Wes? How do you feel about Edna’s personality? Does it match Wes’s? Does Wes really care for Edna?