The Bath (Short Story )

The Bath by Raymond Carver is the short story about a birthday party that never actually takes place. Scotty has an accident, gets hit by a car on the exact day of his birthday, falls into a coma. According to Carver (1989 ) At an intersection, without looking, the birthday boy stepped off the curb, and was promptly knocked down by a car." The boy is later taken to the hospital, where he lies in a deep sleep, while his parents fear the worst and wish for the best. Scotty 's father and mother wait at his bedside while doctors attempt to figure out the problem. The mother is very womed and refuses to leave until she thinks he might get better if she leaves for a while. She goes home with the intention of feeding the dog and taking a bath and with the hope of the good news.

Taking a bath. It's a key element of the story. The bath is a fairly mundane, every-day aspect of life. It is a ritualistic, religious cleansing and it is also important because it is a small good thing and small good things tend to help people during tough times. Once the woman arrives home, she receives a phone call about her son Scotty and this is where the story ends.

I liked this short story because throughout the story there were excitement and emotion, the author depicts every character interestingly and each person enshrines the excitement and interest throughout the story.
Although enough communication that interested me, but lack of communication is also a theme throughout this story. In some situation it was very difficult to understand what was going on. Communication is integral part of our life and without proper communication we cannot get what we want or do anything. There are enough communication in the story "The Bath" but there are also lacking certain kind of communications. The characters and their actions are interesting, but communication never succeeds in stirring the same interest. For example, when the technician starts to take Scotty's blood, Ann (mother of Scotty) tells the technician 'I don't understand this,' Ann (as anyone would) expects some explanation from the technician but it is not forthcoming. He continues without discussion or explanation, to take Scotty's blood.

Lack of communication is further explored when the baker makes his first phone call and Scotty's father answers the phone. The baker in the beginning only wants to know what is absolutely necessary. He talks like a robot. Scotty's father doesn't know anything about a cake and ends up hanging up on the baker before he can find out what the call is about. Baker calls asking for him money the Father has no idea who that is and the Baker says "Don't hand me that," which shows he thinks that he just got ripped off.

The ending of the story is also interesting. I think that it was the Baker, who called the Mother at home because he was only interested in getting his payment though Ann doesn't realize it is the baker. This is important (Ann not knowing who is calling) as it suggests that there is no resolution for either the baker (who is still looking to be paid) or Ann (who is looking to be told Scotty is better). So both the baker and Ann remain in conflict, though for the baker the conflict is external and for Ann it is internal (worried about Scotty). It is also ironic that a phone call (a form of communication) is used at the end of the story, ironic because neither person (baker or Ann) will hear what they need to hear.