Neighbor
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In “Neighbors”, Raymond Carver contrasts the lifestyles of two couples. The Stones are a more privileged couple who mix business with pleasure and take vacations at will. Their neighbors, the Millers, are a less fortunate couple who watch over the Stone’s cat in their absence. While on one of their many excursions, the Stones ask the Millers to once again watch over their cat. With access to all of the Stones’ possessions, the Millers develop an abnormal obsession with the alternate lifestyle. They constantly find themselves eager to feed the cat and satisfy their curiosities as to the contents of the Stones’ apartment. The story closes as the Millers are locked out of the apartment that they adore so much. The Millers find themselves longing to be with the possessions that are so close yet so far from their grasp. The reader feels the emotions of this grief stricken couple. This unexpected corner is a perfect example of situational irony.
1.Raymond Carver’s “Neighbors” In Raymond Carver’s “Neighbors” the speaker’s attention seems to be more directed on the Bill and Arlene Miller. The Millers are a married couple who were once a happy couple but as the years went along they felt grew apart. It seems as though they are too busy comparing their lives to the Harriet and Jim Stone, which are their neighbors, that they don’t have time to fix their marriage. The Stones do what married people should do and that’s “go out for dinner, or entertaining at home, or traveling about the country somewhere…(70).” The Millers are given the responsibility of looking after the Stones apartment for ten days, while they are on a pleasure trip.
2.Raymond Carver’s “Neighbors”
In Raymond Carver’s “Neighbors” the speaker’s attention seems to be more directed on the Bill and Arlene Miller. The Millers are a married couple who were once a happy couple but as the years went along they felt grew apart. It seems as though they are too busy comparing their lives to the Harriet and Jim Stone, which are their neighbors, that they don’t have time to fix their marriage. The Stones do what married people should do and that’s “go out for dinner, or entertaining at home, or traveling about the country somewhere…(70).” The Millers are given the responsibility of looking after the
Stones apartment for ten days, while they are on a pleasure trip. During these ten days they have to feed their Kitty, and water the plants. Because of this particular event the Millers, who seemed normal at first, began to act odd.
Bill would go in the apartment, feed the cat, water the plant, and stay in the apartment for hours. The first occasion he found a container of pills in the medicine chest labeling “-Harriet Stone. One each day as directed (70).” He took it and put it in his pocket. When I read that I asked myself, ‘why would he need a woman’s prescription?’ Then he drank some liquor and went across the hall to his wife. He played with her breast and asked her to come to bed. For some reason Bill started to act differently ever since he went to the Stone’s apartment. The longer he staye… [to view the full essay now, purchase
3.In the story “Neighbors”, a man and a woman’s true nature is revealed when nobody is watching. Bill and Arlene Miller are introduced as a normal, “happy,” middle class married couple, but they feel less important than their friends Harriet and Jim Stone, who live in the apartment across the hall. The Miller’s perceive the Stone’s to have a better and more eventful life. The Stones get to travel often because o Jim’s job, leaving their ca and plants n the care of the Millers. When the Stones leave on their vacation, the two families seem like good friends, but the depth of the Miller’s jealousy is revealed as a kind of obsession with the Stones’ everyday life.
The first night the Millers house sit, Bill tends to the cat, and then to his obsessive curiosity. He wanders through the Stone’s medicine cabinets, and steal a bottle of Harriet’s pills. This comes as a surprise to the reader because there is not any indication that Bill might act this way. Only after his curiosity is fulfilled does he carry out the rest of his house sitting duties by watering the plants. This shows that he is more concerned with his own needs than those or his neighbors. When Bill returns to his own apartment, arouse after being in the Stones’ apartment, he fondles his wife’s breasts and asks her if she wants to sleep with him that night. Here the reader can start to get a hint that Bill gets a sexual turn-on from being in the Stones’ apartment.
4.Many people would love to be someone else, but if they actually trade places are they