Carver's "The Student's Wife"

I really admired this short prose piece, especially since difficulty in falling asleep is something I'm faced with almost every night. But in all seriousness, I think what Carver does here the best is the dialogue he crafts between Mike and Nan. Over the course of this piece, their relationship goes from normal/happy, to unhappy/dysfunctional/unfulfilled. This in large part is shown with the dialogue, because over the course of the night, the longer Nan can't manage to fall asleep, Mike becomes more and more able to, and even does so while she's trying to talk to him. Also, Mike's responses become more and more monosyllabic over the course of the night/piece. Another key part of this piece too was the anecdotal parts, i.e. when Nan relates her dream to Mike, or when they're taking about their night on the Tilton River. Carver crafts these little monologues of imagery very well, and they embody the classic "show, don't tell" trope that writers are taught to strive for. Lots of sensory descriptions that really paint the scene in other words. In those little passages, we also see a side of the couple that isn't in the text's "real time" so to speak, and the reader is led to believe, or at least, the connotation of these passages makes it seem like we, as the reader, are supposed to interpret this as the times when the couple was happy. Even the small details on how the bed looks, and the contour of the blankets and Mike and Nan in the bed are so well crafted and genuine. Furthermore, Carver's descriptions of the bed illuminate the crux of the piece at the end, where Nan comes back and the husband is right in the middle, under the ball of a blanket and a pillow. The fact that they can't both sleep soundly in bed, except when she leaves and he's passed out, says so much in so little, especially with the prayer at the end, which resonated with me after my initial read.

All in all, Carver masters "Show, Don't Tell," in this piece. (As I'm sure he does in all of his pieces.) Specifically with the student's wife, Carver achieves this with his dialogue that runs all throughout the piece, as well as his invention with the dream and the reminiscing of the lake. Both of these aspects are accented by Carver's sensory appeal and earnest all throughout.