“Food, like a loving touch or a glimpse of divine power, has that ability to comfort”

In the story “A Small Good Thing” by Raymond Carver food plays a comfort role to the parents of young Scotty. Just like the story is named it plays a small important role in the story. Throughout the story the reader can’t help wonder why is the baker keep being mentioned? And what exactly is his significance in the story? It’s obvious the baker has more in common with the parents and the doctor then imagined.

The beginning of the story is odd. However it does well capturing the feeling of isolation felt by the baker and the parents. The baker is a workaholic. The way he presented himself gave off just that. For example, Ms. Weiss herself wonders “if he’d ever done anything else with his life besides be a baker.”(pg. 115). His attitude gave off his unhappiness. He paid so much attention to his work and not his personal life he was bitter. This caused the isolation between him and the world out there. Food played comfort to him. Just baking was a comfort to him. That’s why when Scotty’s parents seem

The parent’s having to deal with a sick child. He was not supposed to die. It didn’t seem like he was going to die. It was unexpected. The parent’s knew he was sick, and were unsure of what exactly was happening with him. It was obvious the last thing they thought would happen was him dying. It’s rare. The story never makes you feel like it’s even a possibility. The story gives off more uncertainty about his health. No real answers. Hopeless best describes what’s going on for the parent’s and the baker.

The story shows the little boy needed nourishment just as well. The parent’s lacked giving him nourishment. The story shows us he’s about to die and his poor body is aching for nourishment of some sort. It will take anything. The mother had no nourishment either. When she needed it the most she had no one to give it to her. She herself didn’t think of giving her body nourishment. That was not something she was worried about. Until her last meeting with the baker she didn’t quite feel how important it was that her soul be fed.

to forget about the cake he took it very personal. His insistence was for a reason. Food is comfort to him. The baker did not see his work as a job. To him it is something more then that. It gave him a feeling of satisfaction because he enjoyed it. However, the consequences were he did not know how to react to the outside world. One thing he has in common with Scotty’s parents is they both feel isolated. With Scotty’s parent’s it’s a different type of situation.

Scotty’s Parents isolation brings them more anguish and hopelessness. They feel like the only ones going through this tragic circumstance. It doesn’t

Some topics in this essay:
Dr Francis, There’s Food, Raymond Carver, Scotty’s Parents, That’s Scotty’s, Ms Weiss, Soul Body, scotty’s parents, parent’s baker, poor job, read “he, body nourishment, nourishment story,