Short Stories

‘Fat’ by Raymond Carver

Posted on Updated on

(1114 words)

It’s Christmas again and a time when too much is eaten; an apt moment maybe to read Fat’ by Raymond Carver. This is a story about an individual who enters a restaurant to have some food. The protagonist of this story works as a waitress, she recounts to her colleague what happened the previous night. From this unnamed women’s point of view, she tells how an oversized man enters and eats at ‘her station’. This individual indulges. It is obvious that the customer is self-conscious about his size, and how people see him. The waitress is kind and very polite to him, but there is an underlying fascination. Carver’s story highlights how some people have a readiness to look at people with perceived flaws as a way of making themselves feel better but also how others can see the real person and empathise. Sadly, this is not seen in the waitress’s partner.

“He is the fattest man she had ever seen”, initially the waitress seems to be mocking the customer already. People’s first impressions are often rude. However, she contrasts this immediately with positive factors of his neat appearance and how well he is dressed. The customer is already labelled like many in society because of their weight even if they are respectable people. The customer in the story comes through the restaurant door and sits at a table. He is being watched all the way to his seat while as he sits at the table minute details are noticed with his fingers: “three times the size of a normal person’s”. The reader envisages the waitress has never seen a large person before. Would she do this to any other person or does his fatness embrace her curiosity? ‘Good evening’, she says, he replies courteously enough with a “little puffing sound every so often“. The reader recognises that she is still figuring this man out despite the fact it may be indicative of his weight. Despite the now obvious acknowledgment of the man’s weight, the waitress still recounts her story to her colleague with “Rita, he was big, I mean real big’.

The staff in the restaurant also notice the customer. The reader would think one person crudely judging this person on their weight is enough but other people do not mind pitching in. Margo, the other waitress comments ‘who is your fat friend? He really is fatty’ to the unnamed waitress. It must be intimidating for this man; he walks through the restaurant door and all these prying eyes are on him with offensive comments to follow.

Serving the man, the waitress knocks over a glass of water on top of the proclaimed ‘fat’ man. Does this mean the waitress is thinking too much of his weight rather than get getting on with her job? The man shows refined politeness, ‘it’s alright’ and ‘don’t worry’. It is strange how she changes when she realises he is a polite man. She becomes mesmerized by his gracious manner toward her. ‘Your’e very kind’, he says as the waitress returns a ‘thank you’. Throughout serving, the waitress is the only one who shows patience and kindness to the customer even though she knows that he is eating too much food. She allies with him when a colleague exclaims ‘God, he’s fat!’, the waitress retorts ‘he can’t help it’. She is kind to him, talking to him and also explaining the size of the servings. Unfortunately, the customer seems to have no real control over the amount of food he eats. ‘Enjoy your dinner’, she says even though the restaurant is emptying out. ‘We’re not making you late’, he says.  The reader wonders why he keeps using the word ‘we’ even though he is on his own. Is it he is thinking he is eating for two? Is he lonely? However, the waitress realises he is a nice man and is as courteous to him as he is to her. There is an obvious contrast with the party of four ‘demanding’ businessmen and the ‘odd’ couple the waitress has to deal with.

In further contrast in manners, Rudy, the narrator’s partner, finishes work and wants to go home. He has got his hat and apron off. The reader would think he should respect the customer as much as his partner. The waitress has to express ‘Rudy, he is fat, I say, but that is not the whole story’. “You sweet on fat stuff “he says. Rudy seems to lack his own self-control and has a laugh at the thought of her liking him. This rudeness from her partner, the waitress ignores and proceeds to serve the man desert with a smile. Is she finding her customer more appealing than her demanding and insensitive boyfriend? Why should she not seek good manners and be treated appropriately? The customer finishes and leaves the waitress and Rudy go home.

At home making Rudy some tea, the waitress holds her stomach and thinks about what it would be like to have children as obese as the man in the restaurant. Rudy treats her as another waitress. She puts everything onto a tray to bring to him. He sits down and watches TV as she works in the kitchen. Is this a controlling relationship? Rudy insensitively divulges a story of two overweight boys he knew naming one as ‘Fat’ and the other ‘Wobbly’. Rudy seems to be a very ill-mannerned man and his story must leave her questioning him. This lack of restraint has no bounds as they go to bed. The waitress expresses ‘I turn on my back and relax some, though it is against my will”. Her action in this scene prove how she may not have total control of the situation that she is in. “When he gets on me, I suddenly feel I am fat. I feel I am terrifically fat, so fat that Rudy is a tiny thing and hardly there at all”, the boyfriend rapes her. How did she ever tolerate him? She feels fat, demeaned, while the partner hardly even seems present.

Carver tackles a major issue in our modern society which should be remembered and applied in our daily lives. Carver teaches us not to judge upon our first thoughts. Carver uses the story as a way of objectifying what happens. The story shows temptation, judgment, and control. The customer intrigues the waitress and her final words ‘my life is going to change, I feel it’ shows an epiphany.  The waitress is a kind soul who did not seem disgusted by the customer. This compassion afflicts her once she arrives home. Her partner does not share this. The reader hopes her epiphany comes true.

Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? (Vintage Classics)

.

This entry was posted in Literature, Short Stories and tagged , , , , , , , , .

A&P Themes by John Updike

Posted on Updated on

Screen Shot 2014-07-22 at 13.57.48

Once you read John Updike’s short supermarket story you are hit by many different themes. A reader could say it is the decadence of the girls who go against society’s norms by wearing their bikinis in the supermarket; there is also Sammy, a shop worker, who could well have made a rash and stupid decision to leave his job.  Both of these themes are justified, although I believe that the main theme in this passage involves how mundane life can be. This is shown in the supermarket which is turned upside down with the entrance of the three scantly clad girls.

Within the first paragraph, the reader gets an idea of the two worlds Sammy is faced with. On the one hand Sammy has a welcome female distraction that he can not keep his eyes off, as he rings up the same product twice on the cash register. This is contrasted by the lady he is serving, as we find out she is a ‘witch’ of about fifty who sees his mistake and gives him ‘hell’. Sammy rudely comments that she would notice the mistake, as she had been doing week in week out for forty years.

Sammy alludes further to the dullness of the supermarket when he refers to the shoppers as ‘sheep pushing carts down the aisles’ and how they walk around the shop following each other, even though there are no one-way signs. Of course, the girls clash with this almost robotic movement of the shoppers by going against the flow of traffic.

Furthermore, we find the manager with some decisions to make. Sammy comments that he is a ‘pretty dreary’ figure.  The manager does not help alleviate the mundane feel of this place, as his attitude to the girls does not raise a smile on his face. He comes straight out and tells them ‘this isn’t a beach’ He gives them a ‘sad superintendent stare’ as he reprimands them for not being decently dressed. We again see Sammy’s contrast to the situation, as he raises a smile which his manager notices and does not like. The manager compounds his dull attitude by commenting to the girls that it is the ‘company policy’.

Finally, the boredom and monotony of the supermarket is ultimately shown as Sammy quits his job. The experience of the day has told Sammy to seek a more interesting profession.

(Words 397)

This entry was posted in Literature, Short Stories and tagged , , , , .