Raymond Carver's Put myself in my shoes
"Put Yourself in My Shoes" is one of the longest and most complex stories in the collection, and one of its finest. In addition, it brings together a number of the themes and images that have recurred throughout the book. For example, it depicts the kind of interaction between two couples that we have seen in "Neighbors" and "What's in Alaska?"; in this case, the Myerses go to visit the Morgans, whose house they had lived in for a year while Professor Morgan and his wife were in Germany, but whom they have not seen since. Furthermore, the issue of empathy that surfaced in "Fat," "Neighbors," and "The Idea," the ability to visualize oneself in another's perspective, is so central here that in becomes the title of the story. What is different about this story, however, is its self-consciousness, its concentration on the role of the writer. In many ways, "Put Yourself in My Shoes" can be seen as Carver's comment on his own career, on storytelling itself. Myers is a writer, although he hasn't sold anything yet and is currently not writing. He has quit his job to pursue his muse, but with little success. As the story opens he is depressed, " between stories and [feeling] despicable", when his wife
calls to invite him to the office Christmas party. But he doesn't want to go, mainly because the textbook publishing company where she works is also his former place of employment. Like Marston in "What Do You Do in San Francisco?" Myers is feeling the guilt of the plays the gracious host but curses and throws things in the kitchen, and he now begins to explain the root of their resentment by telling another story. Saying " Consider this for a possibility, Mr. Myers!", Morgan tells of a couple, Mr. and Mrs. Y who go to Germany for a year and lease their apartment to Mr. and Mrs. Z, a couple whom they do not know. Mr. and Mrs. Z violate the terms of the lease in several ways, such as bringing in a cat and using stored materials. The reader quickly realizes that this is the story of the Morgans and the Myerses, and that the Morgans' anger over these violations accounts for the tension that Myers has been feeling throughout the evening. Myers in now forced to put himself into the other person's shoes, and he does not see much to admire when he looks at himself from that perspective. Edgar Morgan, enraged and delirious about the invasion of Mr. and Mrs. Y's privacy by the tenants explains, " that's the real story, Mr. Myers". Once again, however, Myers's only outward response to the story is to laugh. Paula seems to disregard the meaning of the story entirely-as they drive away she remarks that " Those people are crazy"-but Myers shows himself to have been more deeply affected. The story's final lines show us a man who looks like a deer caught in deadlights: "He did not answer. Her voice seemed to come to him from a great distance. He kept driving. Snow rushed at the windshield. He was silent and watched the road. He was at the very end of a story". Tell me what you think of this. Put yourself in the shoes of that eighteen-year-old coed who fell in love with a married man. Think about her for a moment, and then you see the possibilities for your story." Hilda responds that she has no sympathy f
Some common words found in the essay are:
Hilda Morgan, Germany Myers, Yourself Shoes, Edgar Morgan, Francisco Myers, Raymond Carver, Myers Myers's, Germany Hilda, Myers Morgan, Morgan That's, yourself shoes, edgar morgan, myers feeling, morgan wife, black humor, oneself another's, story hilda, myers writer, hilda morgan, try understand,
Approximate Word count = 1365
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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