Short Story Summary In Why, Honey By Raymond Carver

“Why, Honey” is a short story from 1976 written by Raymond Carver. The story is about a relationship between a single mother and her son. The mother is the narrator of the story, which we get presented. The letter tells us the developments in their relationship, as her son gets older. In the first place she tells about how well her son is doing. Once a day came by all circumstances changed, because an incident happens. All the troubles started when their cat died on 4th of July; their neighbor told that she had seen two boys putting firecrackers in Trudy’s ears. She suspected that it was her son, who had been killing Trudy, but he denied. Through out the story her son lies about everything, which makes his mother curious and suspicious about him.

The narrator of the story is the mother who writes a letter to an unknown person “Sir”. She seems to be a traditional caring mother, who is very patient about her son. She cooks breakfast to him, and is very talkative. Even though she knows her son is lying directly in her face, she waits for him to be truthful, before she confronts him by herself, it seems like she is giving him a chance to be open minded. As likely as any other mothers she is curious about her son, and gets suspicious when she sees him hiding things from her. She tries to communicate with him as much as

As the story develops the relationship gets worse. She can’t control her son anymore; she can’t feel the connection between them anymore, as her son keeps lying into her face. It’s like he’s hiding something, and she wants to find out, but he doesn’t let her in. Which says a lot about their relationship. Raymond Carver captures readers’ interest by making assumptions because he doesn’t include every detail. He creates the suspense when he makes a tone and depth in the story. For instance at the beginning, the reader must already guess who the mother is writing