As Robert Gottlieb, a recognized writer and editor, once said concerning the death of Raymond Carver, “America has just lost the writer it could least afford to lose” (Max). Raymond Carver is highly known for his modernizing short stories in the 1980’s, along with his editor whom contributed aggressive editing, Gordon Lish. One of Raymond Carver’s most publicized short stories is “A Small, Good Thing,” which may also be recognized as “The Bath,” the version edited by Gordon Lish. Although both short stories have the same underlying idea, on the surface, they are completely contrasting. Specifically, both stories tell the tale of the Weiss family who shortly after the introduction suffered a tragic accident of their son, Scotty, on his birthday. After being struck by a car and entering a coma-like-state, the story unfolds giving us an inside of each individual parent on how they are handling the…show more content… It is up to the writer to decide whether to allow these experiences to play a meaningful attribution in their writing, or to keep their experiences buried within themselves. Majority of writers, such as Raymond Carver, understand the importance of applying emotions throughout a story. As a well-established, credible author, Carver skillfully takes his audience and uses them to his advantage. By recognizing that his readers are human beings and are prone to being flawed by their dependence on their emotions, he establishes an extremely powerful gateway to touch his audience. Carver holds the hand for his audience through his stories and Lish opposes this idea. He feels that everything needs to be placed upon the audience such as the feelings, the surrounding details, and the endings. Carver explains every idea thoroughly using emotion to depict an image of what he intends the audience to envision. A prime example of this is when Scotty and his friend were walking to
