When I was reading "The Student's Wife" by Raymond Carver, I kept thinking about how the story is easy for me to picture taking place in real life. Maybe this is because the dialogue is straight forward and simple, as are the actions of the characters. For example, when the man in the story "groaned extravagantly as he rolled out of bed" to go make his wife a sandwich (202) I could just see a tired and aggravated guy who only wanted to sleep but still felt responsible for getting his wife the sandwich she wanted. Also, when Mike (the man) is falling asleep but the wife, Nan, wants him to listen to her talking, the fact that she keeps checking "do you remember that?" (202, 203) is sometimes the sort of repetition I'll use when I want to make sure someone gets what I'm saying. There are also instances throughout the story of back-and-forth dialogue which is realistic to me.
Also, I think that because the story doesn't end up all neat and problem-free, it is more like what happens in our lives. Most of the time, our problems won't go away with one go at fixing them, and we get quite upset at feeling so helpless, just like Nan seems to do at the end of the story (in the last paragraph of 206).
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