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The main themes of the story are isolation and detachment, as well as the relationship between father and son. The isolation in the story is present through Myers' desire to live in a house surrounded by walls, the fact that he does not want to be in a tour group, his inability to communicate with the people he meet, and the fact that he mentions that no one but his secretary and a few coworkers may need to know of his absence. Myers has been isolated from the rest of the society, because of all the barriers he has built around him. The detachment is present in his latent urge to pursue solitude and segregation from everyone else. The father-son relationship is primarily less associated with the main part of the story, due to the abstract and obscure nature of their relationship. The Language barriers are like the barrier which has been constructed between Myers and his son. His attempt at establishing a decent conversation with his son, who he has not seen for years, is a barrier which is just as impervious as the barrier of language between Myers and the local Frenchmen. The quote "the farmhouse surrounded by a wall" could be a symbol of the social barriers Myers keep constructing around him, disabling people from getting close to him. He wants to move in to such a house, because he has a habit of pushing anyone close to him, away from him, by building invisible walls between them. The protagonist has been living a rather dynamic life on the surface, but inside he may seem to be much more static, as he has not really moved on from his relationship with his wife, which can be deducted from the focus he has on her well-being, and the fact that he went to visit Venice, which was his and her joint dream. The fact that he takes the train back, just shows us, that he still does not care for the boy, which he never really did. He does not actually show some kind of development, due to the barriers which are preventing him from falling, but thus also preventing him from taking chances, and evolve. The minimalistic elements in the story include how the main story is being showed and not told. The ending is rather open, without an actual satisfactory explanation of what is going to happen next, or what has actually happened. The main character in the story, is rather skeptic to the issue of being alive, and maintaining a healthy social and relationship to the family.
Analysis: The compartment is about an engineer called Myers, who is sitting in a train to Europe to Strasbourg. He is going to see his son after 8 years. The short story was written by Raymond Carver in 1983 and it follows the protagonist Myers. The story is told in a third person limited point of view where the reader is only exposed the thoughts and feelings of one character which in this case is Myers. The story takes place in a train around Europe. Myers boards the train in Milan, the train stops at a little station at Basel and then he goes to Rome then Venice which was a place his ex-wife had also talk about visiting(Myers thought Venice was a disappointment). Then he goes to France where he is going to meet his son. He is very lonely and isolated from other people which are also one of the themes in the story. The tone of the story is somehow negative and lonely and the reader doesn’t get much information about Myers’ personal life. Myers is described as a very flat character because the reader doesn’t know very much about him, just that he has been married before and he has a son. Also the reader gets to know when Myers is having a vacation the only person that gets to know this is his secretary because he has nobody else in his life. The title of the story represents his journey in the compartment because he goes from being a man who has no attachment to his son. The journey defines his life. And when he starts to talk to the other people in the train, they can’t really communicate because they don’t speak the same language and this is a symbol for that Myers is isolated from other people and he doesn’t really know how to communicate with other people. This also brings forth the themes of the story which is isolation, regret and attachment. The text is minimalistic and one of the characteristics is short sentences and there is a meaning under the surface.
The main themes of the story are isolation and detachment, as well as the relationship between father and son.
SvarSletThe isolation in the story is present through Myers' desire to live in a house surrounded by walls, the fact that he does not want to be in a tour group, his inability to communicate with the people he meet, and the fact that he mentions that no one but his secretary and a few coworkers may need to know of his absence. Myers has been isolated from the rest of the society, because of all the barriers he has built around him. The detachment is present in his latent urge to pursue solitude and segregation from everyone else. The father-son relationship is primarily less associated with the main part of the story, due to the abstract and obscure nature of their relationship.
The Language barriers are like the barrier which has been constructed between Myers and his son. His attempt at establishing a decent conversation with his son, who he has not seen for years, is a barrier which is just as impervious as the barrier of language between Myers and the local Frenchmen.
The quote "the farmhouse surrounded by a wall" could be a symbol of the social barriers Myers keep constructing around him, disabling people from getting close to him. He wants to move in to such a house, because he has a habit of pushing anyone close to him, away from him, by building invisible walls between them.
The protagonist has been living a rather dynamic life on the surface, but inside he may seem to be much more static, as he has not really moved on from his relationship with his wife, which can be deducted from the focus he has on her well-being, and the fact that he went to visit Venice, which was his and her joint dream. The fact that he takes the train back, just shows us, that he still does not care for the boy, which he never really did. He does not actually show some kind of development, due to the barriers which are preventing him from falling, but thus also preventing him from taking chances, and evolve.
The minimalistic elements in the story include how the main story is being showed and not told.
The ending is rather open, without an actual satisfactory explanation of what is going to happen next, or what has actually happened.
The main character in the story, is rather skeptic to the issue of being alive, and maintaining a healthy social and relationship to the family.
Firat G, Emre G and Mehmet G
Analysis:
SvarSletThe compartment is about an engineer called Myers, who is sitting in a train to Europe to Strasbourg. He is going to see his son after 8 years.
The short story was written by Raymond Carver in 1983 and it follows the protagonist Myers. The story is told in a third person limited point of view where the reader is only exposed the thoughts and feelings of one character which in this case is Myers. The story takes place in a train around Europe. Myers boards the train in Milan, the train stops at a little station at Basel and then he goes to Rome then Venice which was a place his ex-wife had also talk about visiting(Myers thought Venice was a disappointment). Then he goes to France where he is going to meet his son. He is very lonely and isolated from other people which are also one of the themes in the story. The tone of the story is somehow negative and lonely and the reader doesn’t get much information about Myers’ personal life. Myers is described as a very flat character because the reader doesn’t know very much about him, just that he has been married before and he has a son. Also the reader gets to know when Myers is having a vacation the only person that gets to know this is his secretary because he has nobody else in his life. The title of the story represents his journey in the compartment because he goes from being a man who has no attachment to his son. The journey defines his life. And when he starts to talk to the other people in the train, they can’t really communicate because they don’t speak the same language and this is a symbol for that Myers is isolated from other people and he doesn’t really know how to communicate with other people. This also brings forth the themes of the story which is isolation, regret and attachment. The text is minimalistic and one of the characteristics is short sentences and there is a meaning under the surface.
Berna & Büsrax2