Structure

The short story “Leftovers” by Nickolas Butler is structured around the inner conflict of a man named Mason who loves his wife but is unhappy because he feels rejected by her. The conflict is enhanced by the fact that Mason’s mother has died. The narrative is structured using a flashback plot where present action and tension points are combined with memories that help explain the main character’s conflict.

Title

The title of the short story, “Leftovers” (meaning something, typically food, which remains after the rest has been consumed), is intriguing at first because it does not hint clearly at anything about the conflict.

Reading the short story, we discover that the title has both a practical and a symbolical role. On the one hand, it refers to the food leftovers in Mason’s mother’s fridge, as the characters clean the woman’s house after her death: “I’m just going to throw these leftovers away, Renee says. I mean, this is disgusting.” (l. 20).

These food leftovers trigger the main character’s memories about his mother’s food, which he loved. At the same time, they remind Mason of the conflicts between his wife and his mother and between him and his wife.

While for Renee the leftovers are ‘disgusting’, for Mason they become a symbol of his mother’s love: “His mother, wrapping leftovers in aluminum foil, handing the food to him like a package (…) Renee, who loathes leftovers.” (ll. 33-36).

At a deeper symbolical level, the title refers to what remains of Mason’s relationship with Renee. They seem to have used up the good things in their relationship, and there are now few things keeping them together: “How does a distance so wide open between two people who live together so intimately? Who have loved each other? He can’t explain it. Can’t explain where the magic, the love, the friendship, the decency, the partnership went.” (ll. 55-57).

Mason tries to hold on to his marriage, to the ‘leftovers’ of their once good relationship, but he eventually accepts that their marriage needs to end: “He looks at her, says, I’m so sorry. Thinks, I want a divorce.” (l. 141).

Mason eating the leftovers from his mother fridge at the end is symbolical of him consuming the rest of his relationship, leaving nothing to hang on to, along with an exp...