Structure

The short story “So Much Water So Close to Home” by Raymond Carver is structured around a single event: Stuart and his friends discover a girl’s dead body while they are on their fishing trip. However, the story’s twist is that they do not report it immediately, but wait until after they have enjoyed the rest of their trip. The twist and the conflict it causes are foreshadowed from the beginning when Stuart insists he has done nothing wrong (ll. 19-23).

The conflict between Claire and Stuart dominates the rest of the story. Claire is clearly tense around him and makes her feelings known: “I close my eyes and hold on to the sink. Then I rake my arm across the drain board and send the dishes to the floor” (ll. 29-30). This shows that Claire is starting to experience an internal confl...