Careful Paper

In his short story “Careful”, Raymond Carver criticizes the use of alcohol in America through his use of irony and symbols in his short story.

Immediately after Lloyd moves of his house that he had been living in with his wife, he turns straight to alcohol and goes back to drinking his three or four bottles of champagne a day. Once again we see in Carver’s writing alcoholism fueling the fire of family and relationship problems. The fact that Lloyd drinks champagne of all alcoholic drinks Carver could have chosen is completing contradiction Lloyd’s very serious situation. Champagne often has a celebratory connotation, but in this case it is almost the complete opposite. This example of irony is important because Carver displaying how even a typical celebratory drink can be used in abusive ways. Before even reading the story Carver presents an element of foreshadowing. The title of his story, “Careful”, refers