The Student's Wife- Ray Carver

The piece I connected with this week was “The Student’s Wife” by Ray Carver. I really liked this piece because it created a sense of nostalgia. Carver did this by using description to create a history and want for that history by Nan. I got a good sense of who Nan was when she listed what she liked and how that was contrasted with the fact that she can’t afford most of the things she likes. This contrast, added together with the story of Nan and Mike fishing, showed Nan’s want for a better time. It made Nan, and myself along with her, feel nostalgic for what was and what could have been. I think another reason why I felt a sense of nostalgia was because I imagined my grandparents as Nan and Mike. There’s a line in the first paragraph, “…stopped only to reach to the nightstand for a cigarette,” that completely transported me back to my grandparents. They were both smokers and I know how much my grandfather cared for my grandmother. I don’t know if he read to her, but I feel like he did other little acts like that to show how much he loved her. It’s also a funny coincidence, but my grandmother’s name was Fran and the wife’s name is Nan. Nan is definitely more dramatic than my grandmother was, but I think they both have a sense of the melancholic that helped me place my grandmother in Nan’s shoes. Being able to visualize these characters as people I actually knew, added another layer to the nostalgia because it made me want for a time that they were still alive.