Love Me Not Blog Post #4

Popular Mechanics by Raymond Carver

1. Discuss the story's final lines. What is the "issue" that is "decided"?
IRONY: a discrepancy between appearances and reality

 This poem also had a big twist at the end. I could sort of see it coming as the story progressed, though. The couple is breaking up and the man is leaving but also wants the baby. The final lines that were shocking to me were, "In this manner, the issue was decided" (Carver). The basic story line of the story is one of breaking up and breaking hearts, but the author throws in another helpless character, the baby. The helplessness of the baby adds to the idea that fights don't only affect the two people involved. Divorce and arguments affect everyone around the two parties involved. This is universal though. It's ironic that the two people wish to keep the child safe and protect it from the other, but in doing this, they end up killing the baby is what I am thinking. The "issue" is who will get the baby and the "decision" is that they end up literally splitting the baby up between the two of them. Tragic, but usually what happens with split or divorced parents. Not literally though, but figuratively.