‘ is one of Raymond Carver’s most concise narratives, leaning more towards a vignette or a piece of ‘flash fiction’ than a traditional short story. This prompts readers to question the very conventions that define the genre. The tale revolves around a newborn baby, whose female relatives engage in a contemplation of his features, ultimately revealing the father’s ambiguous identity.
Summary
The scene unfolds with a newborn baby nestled in a basket positioned next to a bed, accompanied by his mother, grandmother, and three sisters. Meanwhile, the baby’s father is situated in the kitchen. The sisters engage in playful speculation about whom the baby favors, with Phyllis, one of the sisters, asserting that the baby loves their father since both are ‘boys.’
The grandmother comments on the baby’s ‘fat’ arms and draws a comparison to the mother’s fingers, while the mother proudly notes the baby’s robust health. A sister named Alice asks who the baby resembles, and Carol, the third sister, merely observes the beauty of the baby’s eyes. The grandmother sees a semblance between the baby’s lips and those of the deceased grandfather, yet the mother is unsure about this resemblance. Alice thinks the baby’s nose might remind her of someone, but she cannot specify whom.
Phyllis then suggests that the baby does not truly resemble any of them. However, Carol has a revelation, concluding that the baby looks like their father. This leads Phyllis to ponder the question: who does ‘Daddy’ resemble? When Alice repeats her inquiry, Phyllis is overcome with emotion, realizing that their father does not seem to resemble anyone at all.
This emotional breakthrough proves too much for her. She insists that their father must resemble someone. The family members turn to look at the father sitting at the kitchen table, where he gazes back at them, his face pale and devoid of expression.
Analysis
What can we glean from this poignant exploration of family resemblance—or lack thereof? Rather than seeking a definitive key to the story’s meaning, it may be more fruitful to outline the key themes and concerns that emerge from this familial tableau. ‘Identity’ serves as a pivotal theme. The newborn baby, at the heart of the narrative, is akin to a tabula rasa, a blank slate awaiting definition. His identity is ascertained only through comparisons to his family members: the absent grandfather, the mother, and, crucially, the father.
However, even the father’s comparison fails to anchor the baby’s identity, which prompts the sisters to question who their father resembles. In their quest to define his identity, they find that he, too, must be connected to someone else to establish a sense of self. This paradox encapsulates Carver’s narrative: one’s individual identity is often delineated by what one shares with others.
Identity
It is significant to note that while the baby is the focal point of the narrative, the story itself centers on the father. The title, after all, is ‘The Father’ and not ‘The Baby.’ In a manner reminiscent of Carver’s other works, such as ‘Popular Mechanics,’ the characters (mother, father, and baby) remain unnamed. This anonymity implies they serve as archetypes, representing the everyman, everywoman, and everybaby.
The narrative plays with the common notion that newborns bear a resemblance to their parents, with well-meaning admirers often exclaiming that a child ‘has his father’s eyes’ or ‘her mother’s mouth.’ Yet, once these perceived genetic traits are identified, we are left to question where those features originated. The children find themselves at a loss. The grandmother’s relationship to the father remains ambiguous: is she the mother’s mother or the father’s? If she belongs to the mother, then the father’s parents—the baby’s paternal grandparents—are entirely absent from the narrative. The father, in lineage terms, becomes a dead end. His daughters cannot trace where he derived his features.
Space
The spatial dynamics in ‘The Father’ carry significant weight. Carver’s fiction often emphasizes the importance of spaces, as seen in ‘Popular Mechanics,’ where the estranged wife remains on the threshold of the room while her husband occupies a separate space. In this story, the physical separation between the father and his female relatives, including the newborn son, is accentuated by the division between the bedroom and the kitchen. Interestingly, it is the father who occupies the conventional domestic space, albeit seated at the kitchen table rather than engaged in domestic chores.
The story concludes with the father turning towards his family, his face described as ‘white’ and expressionless, which leaves the narrative hanging in ambiguity. Is this ‘white’ simply a descriptor of his Caucasian features, or does it signify a deeper emotional drain, suggesting that he, like his daughters, grapples with a hollow or non-existent identity?
Final Thoughts
This ambiguity may be another of Carver’s intentional traps for readers. In many of his stories, the narrators hint at the possibility of a transformative ‘epiphany’ within the characters, yet this very notion is often rendered questionable by the ambiguous depiction of such realizations. We might conclude that the father turns toward his family, face pale, having overheard their discussion about him and now confronted with an uncomfortable truth. Alternatively, he may simply be curious about their conversation, as his expressionless face does not convey any profound emotion.
If modernist short stories often feature epiphanies that are subtly undermined by the narrator’s perspective, Carver’s minimalist narratives frequently veer away from definitive insights or revelations. Just as the father’s origins and lineage remain a mystery to his daughters, he, as a character, remains an enigma to us, the readers of ‘The Father.’