"The Student's Wife" by Raymond Carver

What really draw my attention in this story is the shift from the wife's needy requests to her trying to get to sleep. 

I could strongly identify with her struggle and how she spent time on her bed thinking and then how she gave up and got off the bed and spent the entire night moving around the house, doing random things. 

I feel that this was a turning point in the story, especially in terms of characterization. 

Initially I thought that the couple was happily married, then that the wife is really needy (to the extent that she may be sick, that's why she has all these requests) but then I realized that the wife is just really concerned and scared of the future. Her concerns keep her awake, as if they hunt her.

This turning point provided a fuller sense of the context, by implying that this is a struggling family. You realize that they have bills to pay and that they are parents with many responsibilities. They are not just a couple reading poetry on their bed while carelessly smoking cigarets. There's a clear contrast between the expectations that the reader has in the beginning of the story than the expectations further down the story. 

I found it an intriguing story as I wanted to keep reading to see what will happen. I think that the dialogue as well as the shift and the contrast were the main tools that made this a special story.