Zzz Zzz Zzz...

Feathers
This short story is pretty much the most boring piece of literature I have ever encountered. I would say that the lack of plot is the main reason behind my interpretation. The text just explains any random day in the lives of a married couple. Regarding the few things I found interesting, I would say that the text contains some kind of hidden messages I don’t quite understand.

“Goddamn it,” I said. I sat there with my hands on the wheel and stared at the thing.” (Pg. 7) This quotation refers to the scene where the main character and his wife see a peacock at their friend’s house. I found this to be a very peculiar behavior since a peacock is a bird. It’s not like it were to attack them. Yet again the main character might suffer from ornithophobia, the fear of birds. Another behavior I found very weird as well was his disgust towards the baby. “Bar none, it was the ugliest baby I’d ever seen.” (Pg. 20) The main character rambles on about the ugliness of the baby in a very rude manner. Still, it was just his thoughts and he didn’t express his feelings in any way.

A very interesting aspect of the story was product placement. Certain products are mentioned by their brands. For example, instead of writing “a big chair,” Carver mentions a “La-Z-Boy” on page thirteen.

Finally I noticed a great deal of sensory language. “Corn rose on both sides of the drive. Corn stood higher than the car. I could hear gravel crunching under the tires. As we got close to the house, we could see a garden with green things the size of baseballs hanging from the vines.” (Pg. 7) This quality makes the text a little bit fun to read since we get a good mental image of the surroundings. Still, I maintain that this was e very boring short story.