Lemonade

Innocence

Raymond Carver also explores the theme of innocence in his poem. The theme is illustrated by Jim Jr., a boy who died by drowning. The idea of innocence is mentioned at the beginning of the poem when the boy’s grandfather thinks that “God always takes the sweetest ones”. 

The same idea appears towards the end of the poem, in connection to the boy’s father:

… But dying is for the sweetest ones. And he remembers
sweetness, when life was sweet, and sweetly 
he was given that other lifetime.

As the poem comes full circle, it becomes obvious that the loss of Jim's son to the river represents a tragic and seemingly arbitrary event that raises questions about the workings of fate...