Vitamins by Raymond Carver (Role of the Alcohol and Vitamins)

Vitamins

by Raymond Carver

(Role of the Alcohol and Vitamins)

Carver’s stories all seem to share a common element: alcohol. It is linked to the vacuity of modern life as for instance, the narrator’s drinking in Vitamins seems to be a response to his ‘nothing’ job and his hollow relationship with Patti. The chief characters all seem to take to the bottle at various times, for various reasons, with various consequences. Usually, it is to escape from painful memories and forget, if only for a while, the tiresomeness of their daily lives. It is not only men, but women too attempt to drown their cares in drink. This results either in someone blurting out the truth, or talking nonsense, feeling a sense of relief or just getting angry. It lowers the inhibitions and makes the characters act in ways they perhaps would not if they were sober. It obviously has a negative effect on the personality of all the characters. For instance, in Vitamins, Sheila passes out, injures herself and then engages in an abusive, undignified quarrel with the narrator. Nelson also makes an indecent advance towards Donna while he is drunk and the tone and atmosphere itself is set for the incident by their being in a bar. Although Patti does not seem to drink all the time as the narrator does, for her, vitamins seem to play the same negative role that alcohol does in the lives of the other characters. We can even say that it is a metaphor for alcohol. The manner in which Patti is always thinking about vitamins is akin to an alcoholic’s obsession with drink. She tells the narrator that vitamins are suffocating her, she dreams about them and she wants to be rid of them. These are familiar feelings to an alcoholic as well.

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