Jerry and Molly and Sam Written by Raymond Carver

In the short story “Jerry and Molly and Sam” written by Raymond Carver. Al is thirty one-year-old man who exhibits demeanor of finding everyone around him at fault for his dissatisfaction in life. The writer also uses first and third person narrative in plot structure to help us understand the characters and the story theme. Al’s story goes from exposition, to complication, to the reversal as the final part of the short story.

Al is showing copious amounts of issues in his life. His whole judgemental thought process is all confused. Al said “He wish he could keep driving and driving tonight until he was driving onto the old brick main street of Toppenish, turning left at the first light, and then left again stopping when he came to where his mother lived, and never, never, for any reason ever, ever leave again.” just from this thought, Al is showing a midlife crisis.According to Elaine Wethington who writes “Expecting Stress: Americans and the “Midlife Crisis” whose definition of midlife ir shortened future with life events and transitions symbolic radical life changes in middle age, such a divorce or job loss.”

A struggle with Al is he has an alcohol addiction. Al makes the worst decisions in the short story by Raymond Carver that he will continue. Instead of getting prepared for the upcoming layoffs at work, he wastes his time drinking at a bar and screwing women on the side. In the short story Al decides to become a better man by getting rid of the family dog. Why does Al make sich dumb decisions? It is probably because he will not put that bottle of alcohol down to keep his head clear.“Because drinkers are impaired by alcohol, their ability to make reasonable decisions about behavior, including conflict avoidance, is diminished to waste his time sitting in the bar drinking. Drinking isn't a good thing and it is bad for your health and as stated from Dr. Holder most people need help after the are done drinking.