Analyse af Raymond Carvers novelle 'Why Honey'

Why Honey is written by Raymond Carver. Why Honey is a story taken from “Will You Please Be Quit, Please” collection and published in 1976.The story is written as a letter. It is a respond to a letter received from a person that we don’t know. Because this is a letter, it is from the mother’s point of view, therefore it makes her the narrator. Already at the beginning of the letter, the mother draws concern about her son, and that is actually what the whole letter is about, her struggling relationship between her and her son, and how they became estranged, and that she fears for her life because she is afraid of him.The mother is afraid of her son because of a lot of episodes throughout his youth. The first episode we come across is when a neighbor thinks that he has seen her son and a friend putting firecrackers in their cat Trudy’s ears and so. When the mother tells the son about their cat, her son seems surprised. Not at any point does the mother actually tell her son that their neighbor thinks that he saw him doing it. “But just as he was going to his room that night he said don’t take it too hard, mom, she was old, in cat years she was 65 or 70, she lived a long time” (P. 21 L. 26-28) The mother chooses to write this to whomever this person is, and it makes us believe that she also thinks that her son did it. If she didn’t think he could be able to do something like that, she wouldn’t have made any attention about it. This is the first time that we get the feeling that she really doesn’t feel that her son is reliable, but yet somehow she doesn’t accuse him of anything. Not at any time through her letter, does she write that she actually has drawn any concern about what he is telling her. Not when she finds out that he has lied about how many money he has made working, not when she asks him where he has been, not even when he’s lying about quitting his job. One morning her son had been out all night, and when he finally comes home, and tells her that he has been out hunting, she doesn’t questioning him any further, besides asking him where he went and who he had been out with. Then we come across something strange in what she writes. “On Sunday right after I tiptoed into his room for his car keys.” (P.22 L. 44) and on the next page “While he was in the shower I took the keys and went out to his car” (P. 23 L. 6) Why does she feel the need to take his keys without him knowing, she writes that it is because she is looking for some groceries, but why didn’t she just ask him. There really isn’t any trust at all in their mother/son relationship. It could be that the son is lying to his mother over and over, just for the fun of it. She doesn’t questioning him anyway, so in his mind, he can actually make her believe whatever he wants her to believe, and on top of that, he is a teenager, he’s challenging his mother’s trust, to see how much he can get away with. Because of their struggling relationship, his mother keeps all of her concern inside. She is afraid that he will get mad at her, if she insinuates that he has been lying to her. She doesn’t want to lose him, so she makes him superior to her. She wants to be treated better, she wants him to tell her the truth at any time, but on the other hand, she is so desperately afraid of being alone. When she finally does express how she feels to her son that is exactly what happens. “I want the truth, honey, that’s all I’ve ever asked from you, the truth. Honey.” (P.23 L. 45-46) Her son finally wants to tell her the truth and it might be in a somewhat twisted way, but still, he tries. “I’ll show you. Kneel is what I say, kneel down is what I say, he said, that’s the first reason why” (P.24 L. 9-10) This gets her so scared, that she runs of to her room, locks the door and her son packs his things and leave. She didn’t really give him any chance to explain himself. She makes it sound like he is this horrible kid, who did her so wrong. Not at any point does she take any responsibility herself, until at the end of her letter, but we will get to that. It always takes two persons to make a relationship work, and by the way the mother writes, she doesn’t do much herself, and when she finally does, she doesn’t give him any opportunity or any time to get to his point. The only time the mother has seen her son since that day, is when she goes to his graduation, where he receives a prize for an essay he wrote in civics class. So now she is alone, this is what she had been afraid of the entire time. Instead of just accepting that they couldn’t get along, she builds up this fear for him. She is so afraid of him, and for what reason? He hasn’t done anything to make her this afraid, although you could put some doubt in what he actually meant by telling her to kneel down, but because she never gave him the chance, she now has to live in fear. “I found out his address and wrote to him, I wrote a letter every few months, there never was an answer.” (P. 24 L. 22-24) why would you write a letter to someone you are so desperately afraid of? She has built this entire thing up, this fear inside her head. She doesn’t want to be alone, but at the same time, she is scared of the one person, she really wants to be in her life. She moves away, gets her number unlisted, and changes her name, all so that her son wouldn’t find her. He was elected for governor, and now she’s really scared, because now she thinks that he has a better chance at finding her.At the ending of her letter, it seems like she gets a revelation about herself, or maybe she had known all along. “I am old, I am his mother. I should be the proudest mother in all the land but I am only afraid. Thank you for writing. I wanted someone to know. I am very ashamed.” (P. 24 L. 34-37) it isn’t her son she is afraid of, she is afraid of herself. She is afraid of what has happened. It will probably make a little more sense, if we go back to the beginning of her letter. “I moved here years ago right after it started to happen.” (P.21 L.3) “It started one summer over the Fourth of July.” (P. 21 L. 9-10) when we start reading the letter, we assume that the problem is her son, but if we take a closer look, and read between the lines, when we know the rest of the story, it would make a lot of sense if we try to point a finger at the mother. She could have started to develop some kind of illness. It is hard to say what kind of illness, or if she has any at all, but it seems strange that she start her letter by writing the way she does, and then again at the ending when she writes that she is ashamed. She could be ashamed, that she wasn’t the mother she was supposed to, and that she knows that this is actually her fault. It seems like, she is afraid of her son, because of what he brings out in her, and not actually afraid of him as a person. By writing to him, she wants him in her life, but she doesn’t want him near her, in fear of what person she might become, by having him near.This also answers the question on why she chooses to write back to a person she doesn’t know, and isn’t supposed to know her. She ends the letter with “Yours truly” so she has the feeling, that this is someone close to her, or at least, that is what she hopes this person is, or could be. She uses the opportunity to tell her side of the story, and in her own way, say she is sorry for how it all turned out.