Themes

The main themes explored in the story “Why, Honey?” by Raymond Carver are fear and trust, enhanced by the motifs of lying and of the single parent.…

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Fear

The theme of fear is dominant in “Why, Honey?”, a short story in which a mother expresses her fear of her son, who is now a governor. In the beginning, the mother treated her son’s lies as something inoffensive, but when issues became more…

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Trust

The theme of trust – or, more precisely, the lack of it, is another important aspect of the story. From the very beginning, it is clear that the boy does not trust his mother with the truth. He prefers lying, but we do not know the reasons behind it. As the story unfolds, we discover that…