Why Honey Raymond Carver Analysis

Why, Honey?

”Why, Honey?” is a short story written by Raymond Carver in 1976. The story is structured as a letter addressed to an unknown man and is about an intricate relationship between a mother and her son. In the beginning of the story, the mother describes her son as ‘a good boy’. She is very permissive and she seems to care a lot for him. As almost every other mother, she gets inquisitive and suspicious when her son starts to hide things from her and keep secrets to himself. She tries to have a calm conversation with him about his behavior, but it turns out to be a rather bizarre occurrence.

“He didn’t say anything, he kept staring, then he moved over alongside me and said I’ll show you. Kneel is what I say, kneel down is what I say, he said, that’s the first reason why.” (P.4 L. 8-10)

In the end of the story, she talks about mysterious phone calls and a man stalking her from the street. This could be the case, or she could have developed paranoid tendencies.

We are told that her son is a good boy who does not always tell the truth. He is accused for abusing their cat and he lies about his salary at Hartley’s. Considering his age (15) it is considered natural to behave strangely, as he is going through his adolescence. However, the lies he is telling is getting more serious throughout the story and ultimately he decides to

By asking these questions, the reader is forced to read further, if he wants to know the answer to these questions. Furthermore, we are being told that the protagonist is afraid of him, which also drags our attention. The fact that the author decided to leave us with unanswered questions and not telling us whom this letter is addressed for, is forcing us to draw conclusions ourselves and use our own