Raymond Carver

1938–1988
Poet and short-story writer Raymond Carver was born in the logging town of Clatskanie, Oregon,
and grew up in Yakima, Washington. He was married and the father of two before he was 20, and
he held a number of low-paying jobs: he “picked tulips, pumped gas, swept hospital corridors,
swabbed toilets, [and] managed an apartment complex,” according to Bruce Weber in a New York
Times Magazine profile of the author. Not coincidentally, “of all the writers at work today, Carver
may have [had] the most distinct vision of the working class,” as Ray Anello observed in
a Newsweek article. Carver attended Chico State University, where he studied with John Gardner,
and earned his BA from Humboldt State College in 1963. He published his first short-story and
poem while at Humboldt State. Carver went on to attend the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Returning
to the Northwest, he took jobs as a janitor, farm worker, and delivery man. His first wife,
Maryann Burk, also held a series of jobs to support Carver as he began writing and eventually
publishing acclaimed short-story collections such as Will You Please Be Quiet,
Please? (1976), What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (1981), and Cathedral (1983).
Carver also published poetry collections, including A New Path to the Waterfall (1989), which
was published posthumously.
Carver’s stories mainly take place in his native Pacific Northwest region; they are peopled with
the type of lower-middle-class characters the author was familiar with while he was growing up.
In a New York Review of Books article, Thomas R. Edwards describes Carver’s fictional world as
a place where “people worry about whether their old cars will start, where unemployment or
personal bankruptcy are present dangers, where a good time consists of smoking pot with the
neighbors, with a little cream soda and M&M’s on the side … Carver’s characters are waitresses,
mechanics, postmen, high school teachers, factory workers, door-to-door salesmen. [Their
surroundings are] not for them a still unspoiled scenic wonderland, but a place where making a
living is as hard, and the texture of life as drab, for those without money, as anywhere else.”

Elephant Summary
The unnamed narrator of “Elephant” is supporting his whole family. His brother got laid
off, and now he needs money or he’s going to lose his house. The narrator’s mother needs a
check every month because she’s too old to work. His children aren’t doing well either: his
daughter has a deadbeat husband who refuses to work, and his son accumulated a huge
amount of debt while in college. Finally, the narrator must pay alimony to his ex-wife every
month. That’s five people.

The narrator works tirelessly to make enough money to support his family. He’s exhausted
when he gets home from work, and he has to give up things he enjoys doing in order to save
money; he no longer goes out to eat or to the theater to see a movie. He begins to resent his
family for the financial strain they place on him, and he fantasizes about moving to Australia
to escape.

One night, the narrator has a dream about his father, whom he hasn’t thought about in a long
time. In the dream, the narrator is a child again, and he’s riding on top of his father’s
shoulders. His father has a firm grip around his ankles and makes him feel supported; the
narrator imagines that he’s riding an elephant and holds his arms up on either side. The
narrator wakes up, then falls back asleep and has a second dream. He relives a time when he
drunkenly kicked in the window of his son’s car, and then threatened to kill him. He wakes
up in a cold sweat and reflects that drinking alcohol is the thing that scares him most—it was
rock bottom.

The narrator decides to walk to work that morning. As he walks, he no longer thinks of his
family only in terms of the money that they owe him; rather, he rediscovers the love that he
has for each of them and wishes them well. He realizes that his place is here, supporting his
family—moving to Australia was a ridiculous idea.

One of his coworkers sees the narrator on the road and stops to pick him up. The coworker
has just borrowed money from the bank to overhaul his car. The narrator tells the coworker to
drive faster—he wants to see what this car can do. They speed off together, toward the
mountains, in that big unpaid-for car.

Elephant Characters

The Narrator

The story’s unnamed narrator is a working-class man with an unspecified factory job. He works very
hard, lives alone, and he’s always sending checks to his mother, ex-wife, daughter, son, and brother.

Billy

Billy is the narrator’s brother, who is in rough financial shape. At the beginning of the story, he asks
the narrator for money because he recently got laid off from his job.Narrator’s Mother
The narrator’s mother is another recipient of the narrator’s monthly checks. Now in her 70s, she’s
retired and she suffers from an unspecified illness, so she relies on the narrator’s financial support.

The Narrator’s Daughter

The narrator’s daughter is another person whom the narrator financially supports. She lives with her
two kids and deadbeat husband in a trailer, and she keeps telling the narrator that she just needs a
little.

The Narrator’s Son

The narrator’s son is also on the narrator’s “payroll.” He goes to college in New Hampshire, for which
he’s accrued a large amount of debt. He believes that America is a materialist society.

Summary

When the narrator’s brother, Billy, asks to borrow money, the narrator knows he should say
no. But he doesn’t want Billy to lose his house, and besides, Billy swears he’ll pay it all back.

Last year, Billy got laid off from the plant where he worked, and now he’s spent through his
savings, exhausted his unemployment, and lost his insurance. His wife is diabetic, and he’s
been pawning his things trying to make ends meet. So the narrator sends him $500. He feels
that he has to do it.
The narrator tells Billy to pay the money back not to him, but to their mother, who is “poor
and greedy.” For years, the narrator has been sending her money every month, so he tells
both her and Billy that he’s not going to send that money for a while, and Billy will pay it
instead to take care of his debt to the narrator. Their mother is suspicious, so the narrator
promises that if Billy falls through, he’ll still send her money.
The narrator’s attitude towards his mother is clearly resentful: rather than giving her money
happily out of love, he calls her “poor and greedy.” This gives readers a clue about how
heavily his family burdens weigh on him. The narrator’s mother also notably seems to lack
compassion for Billy and the narrator’s financial situations—rather than being concerned
about whether Billy will lose his house or whether the narrator can afford to support both her
and Billy, she seems simply concerned about her own well-being, asking nervously about
how she’ll get her money if Billy falls through. This demonstrates the extent to which
financial concern dominates the family’s relationships.

But in the next three months, Billy only pays her a fraction of the money, so the narrator has
to keep sending her checks. When the narrator follows up with Billy, Billy says he’s a
“goner”—he’s selling his house, he’s already pawned all his belongings except the table and
chairs, and his tax refund got seized. He wishes he could sell his blood, but alas, the
narrator’s money is gone.
When the narrator follows up about the money Billy hasn’t repaid, he’s met with a wild tale
of woe. The story never reveals whether or not what Billy says is true—whether he has really
lost his house and all his belongings and his tax refund, or whether he’s simply playing the
narrator for sympathy. It might be a bit of both—clearly, the narrator’s family feels entitled to
lean on him, but they also do seem to all be experiencing one kind of hardship or another, as
the story will go on to show.

Historical Context of Elephant

Much of Carver’s work focuses on the social and economic effects of poverty in blue-collar America.

Though the 1980s is often remembered for its materialism and consumerism, the decade is also

characterized by a decrease in wages for low-income Americans. Ronald Reagan’s economic plan,

called Reaganomics, centered the idea that money from the wealthiest Americans would trickle down

to the poorest Americans. Yet, these benefits failed to materialize for many working-class Americans.

Additionally, the fall of import prices in the 1980s led to deindustrialization, as many American

factories moved production overseas, resulting in large-scale layoffs. The switch from an industrial to

a service economy broke up many existing labor unions, causing union membership to fall drastically.

In sum, working-class Americans were facing a decrease in wages, less powerful unions to defend

them, and mass layoffs, which is reflected in the family’s hardship in “Elephant.”

Other Books Related to Elephant

Carver’s realist style, known as minimalism, prioritized brevity. Perhaps the writer who most

influenced Carver was Earnest Hemingway, who was known for his terse style. Hemingway’s novels,

like The Old Man and the Sea, feature the same simple, concise language that would later
characterize Carver’s work. Nearly all of Carver’s stories, including his two most famous

collections, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love and Cathedral, focus on blue-collar

America. They often depict characters who struggle with addiction or other self-destructive behaviors.

After Carver’s success many American writers adopted his minimalist style, albeit with their own

twists. Tobias Wolff’s first story collection, In the Garden of the North American Martyrs, was

lumped together with Carver’s work under a label called “Dirty Realism” for its grittiness and

unadorned language.

Key Facts about Elephant

 Full Title: Elephant

 When Written: 1988

 When Published: 1988

 Literary Period: Contemporary

 Genre: Minimalism

 Setting: A working-class American town

 Climax: The narrator has two dreams that reframe his idea of dependency

 Antagonist: Financial strain

 Point of View: First person

Elephant By Raymond Carver |

Elephant | Summary
At the beginning of the story, the narrator admits that he regrets lending money
to his brother. Billy, the narrator’s brother, is suffering financially and keeps
asking the narrator for money, assuring him that he’ll pay back on time but
then he makes excuses each time and ends up not paying back. We learn that
the narrator’s mother is financially dependent on him as well. His brother asks
him for five hundred dollars stating how he is on the verge of being homeless.
Feeling sorry for him, the narrator agrees and asks his brother to pay back by
sending the money to their mother. However, his brother fails to give the money
back and the narrator has to send his mother money every month by himself
again.
The narrator is frustrated with this situation as he has a long list of people
relying on him. He has to pay his ex-wife money as the court demands it, his
daughter and his son need his help as well. He lives alone and works very hard
all day but doesn’t get to save any money for himself. His daughter is married to
a good-for-nothing lout and has to raise two young children. Consequently, she
asks her father for support. He feels sorry for her and decides to send her
checks every month. His son goes to college but he doesn’t work and he’s
burdened with student loans. So, he does what all good sons do – he pesters his
father for money and threatens that he’ll become a criminal or kill himself if his
father refuses to help. The narrator is fed up with everyone and decides to tell
them that he can’t continue to write them checks anymore. He bluffs that he’ll
change his name and move to Australia. He feels too exhausted and wants to
escape everyone by moving somewhere far away.
He receives various responses to his letters, his son writes a letter stating that
he will kill himself, his mother says she’ll go work at the age of seventy-five
(knowing well that her son won’t allow it) and his daughter says she’ll stop
asking for money but needs money one last time to start up a new job. Nobody
believes that he’ll leave them; they apologize but continue to emotionally
blackmail him for money. The narrator gives in and continues to write the
checks to everyone. Even though he needs new shoes and wants to visit a
dentist, he limits his expenses and tries to provide for everybody. He even
resorts to taking loans to ensure that he provides for everyone. One day, he gets
a call from his brother again. This time, his brother asks for a thousand dollars,
promising that he’ll return the money on time. The narrator resultantly agrees
and sends the money but his brother again fails to pay him back. His daughter
gets robbed and again asks for more money. His son asks for more money and
says he’ll move to Germany to start a new life. He is constantly worried about
the whole matter with money and it takes a heavy toll on him.
The narrator has two dreams one night. He dreams that he is a child riding on
his father’s shoulders and thinking his father is an elephant. He feels safe and
sound with his father. In the second dream, he sees that he is back with his
wife and kids living happily – but he then remembers attacking his son while he
was drunk. He also sees someone offering him whisky, which he accepts and
this wakes him up.
The next morning, he reflects upon his life and his bond with his family. He
realizes that he’ll never move anywhere else and it eases his burden on him. He
realizes that he loves his family and prays for everyone’s safety. Accepting his
role as the provider of the family, he lets go of the weight on his mind and feels
happier. Finding a new light, he decides to walk to his job feeling content. He
runs into his colleague George who offers to give him a ride to work. George
reveals that his car is not paid for as he drives the car very fast. The narrator is
thrilled at the speed and encourages him to drive even faster.

Elephant | Analysis
Elephant is a story about greed, reliance and the emotional struggle that comes
with having a dependent family. Every member of his family seems to be
dependent on the narrator for financial support. The relationship they share is
almost parasitic. The narrator is alone and he too needs their company to
satiate his emotional urge to feel needed. They cure his loneliness and in turn,
he provides them with financial security and leadership. They are co-dependent
on each other. The story also focuses on acceptance; in the end, the narrator
accepts his role as the provider. Once he makes peace with his responsibilities
as the head of the family he feels at ease. Perhaps, this is what life is like.
All his family members are most likely are just parasites who are leeching off
the narrator – or maybe all of them are in fact suffering and can’t manage on
their own. They ask the narrator for help repeatedly but since we never see
their point of view, it’s not clear if they were always being honest.
The narrator understands that his ex-wife and mother are greedy, his children
and brother indolent yet he pities their condition and continues to supply them
the money. Maybe there’s a reason he can’t say no to them. It is mentioned
twice in the story that the narrator had drinking problems in the past so we can
assume that at some point in his life he neglected his role as a father, husband,
and son for which now he feels responsible and wants to make up for it. The
narrator talks about how alcohol was his rock bottom and the worst that could
happen is if he starts drinking again. He also tried to attack his son while he
was drunk – for which he’s ashamed. It might be possible that it is the guilt
that keeps him from cutting ties with his family members.
It’s also apparent that the narrator loves his family. He sees that his son is
unhappy with his life and thus wishes to help him, he feels sorry for his
brother’s struggles, he is thankful that his mother is alive, he understands his
daughter’s battles in life and he still remembers how much he used to love his
ex-wife. He helps them not only because he is guilty but also because he holds
profound, almost paternal affection towards all of them.
The title represents the leadership, stability, and hard-working nature of the
narrator. Just like an elephant, he is strong, hard-working, loyal, and reliable
to his family members. He provides all of his family support and ensures that
they live a proper life. The main significance of the title is revealed in the
narrator’s dream where he sees his father – as a child, he felt safe with his
father and used to ride on his shoulders pretending to think that his father was
an elephant. The narrator trusted his father as his father told him ‘You can let
go” and “I’ve got you. You won’t fall.’ He felt his father’s strong grip on his
ankles and so he raised his arms high knowing that he was safe. The narrator’s
dream in the story also provides a glimpse of his vulnerability and his need to
feel cared for by another reliable person. Deep down, this father is also a child,
still craving for a father figure in his life – something that reality doesn’t allow
him which is something his psychological self seeks to fulfil by tapping into his
childhood memories through dreams. The wishes and repressed emotions that
we see in the narrator’s dream give way to another psychological element – the
emotion of guilt. This is reflective of the way the narrator’s family looks up to
him. He used to rely on his father the way his family relies on him now. The
narrator is now carrying on his father’s role as the caretaker, providing support
to all his family.
After this dream, the narrator beings to understand his responsibilities towards
his family and embraces his role as the provider in the family. He admits that
he’ll never abandon them and somehow this makes him feel light-hearted. He
lets go of the tight grip that made him worry about money and finally he is out
of the woods. He realizes that accepting the situation he’s in and taking up his
responsibilities with shoulders straight is the only way of letting go of what bogs
him down.
After letting go of his distressing thoughts about financial matters, he feels
happier. When he is standing outside Smitty’s café, he raises his arms in level
with his shoulders mirroring his dream, and thus it shows that he is indeed
ready to let go. When George mentions that his car is unpaid, he understands
that people have their problems and that he isn’t a lone-sufferer in life. George’s
condition is parallel to the way the narrator’s family is in debt. The narrator
urges George to speed up the car – showing again that he is finally letting go of
the burden which tied him down, that he is accepting his family members as
they are and forgiving them for their reliance on him.

Elephant | About the author

Raymond Carver Jr. (1938 –1988) was an American poet and writer. His short
stories are often a reflection of his life – stories that have helped revitalize the
American short story genre in the 1980s. He is often associated with
minimalism and has received many awards, including five O. Henry awards. He
is well known for his works “Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?” (1976),
“Cathedral” (1984) and “Errand” (1988).

Elephant by Raymond Carver

In Elephant by Raymond Carver we have the theme of acceptance, struggle, security,
letting go and dependency. Taken from his Elephant and Other Stories collection the
story is narrated in the first person by an unnamed narrator and from the beginning of
the story it would appear that Carver is exploring the theme of dependency. The
narrator’s brother (Billy) is looking for five hundred dollars from the narrator to help
him while he looks for another job. As the story continues the reader also realises that
Billy is not the only person who is dependent (or relying) on the narrator. We also
learn that he is supporting his mother, sending her money every month, his ex-wife
(alimony payments) and his two children. Every character in the story appears to be
reliant or dependent on the narrator for support and also appears to be struggling (just
as the narrator is). What we also know as readers is that the narrator lives alone,
spending much of his time sitting in his chair at home too tired after work to do
anything. It is as if he is living his life, just to help his family. He is in essence their
security, without him their lives would become more unmanageable if not impossible.
What is also interesting about the narrator is the fact that he accepts his position in
life. Even when he suggests to his family that he might move to Australia (to escape
from his family’s financial demands) he soon realises that he will never do it and the
fact that he remains at home highlights his acceptance of his role to help others.

Throughout the story the narrator’s family become more dependent on him. His
brother asks him for a further $1000 and he continues to lend money to his daughter
and his son, while still paying monthly payments to both his mother and his ex-wife.
What is interesting about the narrator’s views of his mother and ex-wife is the fact that
though he considers them greedy, he continues to send them money. To his mother
because he pities her and to his ex-wife because the judge has told him that he has to
keep sending money to her. Though it is not explicitly said, there is a sense that the
narrator in some ways feels responsible for his family. This can be seen when he
dreams about hitting his son in the car. It is something that actually happened and
there is a feeling of guilt or regret on the narrator’s part. He longs for his son to be
happy and as a result continues to send him money so that he can go to Europe. What
is also important about the narrator dreaming about his son, is the fact that he also
dreams that someone had given him some whiskey in the dream. For the narrator this
is the worst thing that can happen to him, to drink again. He might be struggling in
work and paying money to his family but he knows that drinking, ‘that was the worst
thing that could have happened. That was rock bottom.’ By introducing the whiskey
into the dream Carver may be highlighting a breaking-point for the narrator.

However the most important dream that the narrator has is the one where he is sitting
on his father’s shoulders and he imagines that his father is an elephant and he is riding
on top of him. This dream is important for several reasons. Firstly because it
symbolizes support, his father telling him that things will be okay ‘You can let go, he
said, I’ve got you. You won’t fall.’ It is the first time in the story where someone else
is supporting the narrator rather than him supporting everyone else. It is also through
this dream of his father that the reader realizes that the narrator is taking on the role
his father had, of supporting others. The second reason the dream is important is
because it is after the dream that the narrator begins to let go, just as his father had
told him.
How much the narrator has let go can be seen the following morning (after his
dreams). It is as he is walking to work that the narrator starts to think about his family.
No longer does he view them as just people who want his money but he hopes that
they are doing okay (his son, mother, daughter and brother). Despite the fact that the
narrator is supporting them, he appears to have accepted his role (as a leader or
supporter, like his father) and wishes all his family well. Money no longer being the
driving factor in how he feels about them. The idea of change within the narrator is
further explored when the reader finds him outside Smitty’s café. He stands there with
his arms level with his shoulders, mirroring his dream of him sitting on his father’s
shoulders. Not only is the narrator remembering his father again but more importantly
he is letting go, as he did in the dream.

There is also a sense of irony in the closing section of the story. The narrator is
standing outside Smitty’s and George, a work colleague of the narrator pulls up and
offers the narrator a lift. What is ironic about this meeting is the fact the reader is
aware that George’s car remains unpaid for (mirroring all the money which the
narrator is still waiting for from his family, they remain in debt just like George).
Despite this the narrator tells George to drive the car as fast as he can. Not only is
there a sense of letting go (driving the car fast) but there is a sense of freedom now
within the narrator. He is no longer tied down to his old ideals in which he begrudges
supporting his family. Now the narrator appears to accept and embrace his role,
understanding that there are more important things in life than money.