Neighbors - What the Characters Don't Want You to Know

Neighbors: What the Characters Don't Want You to Know

Rough Draft

Characters are extremely important because they are the medium through which the reader interacts with a piece of literature. Characters are responsible for the thoughts and actions within a story. A creative author uses the personalities of individual characters to assist in forming the plot and creating the mood of the story (Russell 8). In Neighbors, the author Raymond Carver is very careful to not provide the reader with detailed information about the characters' pasts, their relationships, thoughts, and environments. Instead, he uses a minimalist approach by focusing on the basics of action and description. In Neighbors, Carver describes the actions and behaviors of characters Bill and Arlene Miller to expose interesting truths about them and their relationship.

It is interesting that Carver opens, the story with the statement, "Bill and Arlene Miller were a happy couple" (Roberts, 137). We learn through conversations between Bill and Arlene and their neighbors from across the hall, the Stones, that Bill and Arlene are envious of their neighbors' lifestyle and bored with their own routine life. The statement by Bill, "God knows, we could use a vacation," as the Stones leave on a trip with the Millers left behind to watch their apartment shows a hint of this envy (Roberts 137). Carver describes the Millers jobs as a bookkeeper and secretary, which do not compare with Jim stones glamorous job that involves entertaining, dining out, and entertaining at home with his wife Harriet. These comments reveal the Miller's belief that their neighbors lead a much more fulfilling life that has somehow passed them by. The reader begins to form an understanding of the motivations of the Millers.

As Bill visits the Stones' apartment for the first time to feed their cat, Kitty, he takes a deep breath as he enters the apartment as if he wants to breathe in this new and exciting lifestyle. He steals a bottle of Harriet's prescription medication, takes a pill, and drinks some Chivas Regal from their liquor cabinet. The reader can easily see from Bill's actions that he is enjoying his different behavior. It is further shown when he returns home to Arlene, touches her breast, and wants to go to bed with her. Bill's experience in the Stone's apartment was new and exciting and aroused something in Bill that had been absent for a while. As the story progresses, Bill's behavior becomes even more unusual as he dresses in Jim and Harriet's clothes and sleeps in their bed, which violates their most personal belongings. It becomes clear that Bill's time in the Stone's apartment is the "vacation" he told Arlene they needed. His time in the Stone's apartment is literally, a vacation