Analysis of “why Honey”

Analysis of “Why Honey”

To whom send the mother the letter to and has the point of view in the story a special ef- fect? These questions are central for the story and in my essay I will primary focus on that.

The short story is written by Raymond Carver in 1977 and it’s been published by New York Vintage. Raymond Carver (1938- 1988) was an American author and poet. He studied creative- writing in Chicago and he was very famous because of his stories about people with work class background. Stylistic Raymond Carver is one the authors who belongs the minimalism. The minimalism arose in the 1960th and it is a special way to write in. Some of its main points are that the author uses such as few effects as possible and leaves a hole in the plot which results that the writer can use his fantasy and make his own interpretation.

“Why Honey” is a short story because the story satisfies all of the five criterions for the gen- re: A Short Plot, few persons in a particular situation, Short ended Prose story, defined place and the plot has a specific focus.

The story is about a mother and her son. The mother has several problems with her son; he lies to her and acts like he is the only one that matters in the family. One day he comes home unexpectedly with a shotgun and a knife. When his mother sees it she begins to panic and she can’t believe what she sees. Another day he chooses not to come home at night and when he suddenly arrives the next day, he only says that he has been together with a boy called Fred in a bar. Few days after, his mother opens his car and finds his shirt which is full of blood. This time he says he had a bloody nose and the mother is being more and more concerned about what her son really is doing when he isn’t home. After a long time with scuffles, the mother decides to have a conversation with her son about the weird things that’s been going on. The conversation ends up with the son leaving the house be- cause he can’t stand his mother anymore.

The story is a flashback where the mother writes the whole plot in a letter to an unknown person. “Why Honey” can be divided into three parts after the Point Plot Mod- el:

1. An introduction where the main characters are introduced.

2. A conflict starts in the beginning

3. A bad relationship between mother and son because of the son’s lies.

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