Analysis of "Why Don't You Dance?" by Raymond Carver
life is a dance. all you need to do is find your rhythm.
The first time I read, Why Don’t You Dance? was for an assignment in my Introduction to Fiction class. I was immediately drawn to Raymond Carver’s simplistic yet powerful writing style. His work felt far more enjoyable than the previous short story authors we had researched. What fascinated me the most was how he conveyed meaning without explicitly stating it. He relied solely on subtle implications that left room for interpretation.
Carver’s ability to allow readers to find their own understanding of the story resonated with me, especially as someone who enjoys writing and taking various writing classes helps me to find my wanted style. Authors like Carver inspire me to create stories that evoke thought and emotion.
I’m sharing my short essay of my interpretation and argument of the story. I encourage you to read the story in your own and come up with your own perspective. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
My Short Essay:
“Why Don’t You Dance” by Raymond Carver follows a middle-aged man who places his furniture and personal belongings in his front yard, as though they were for sale. There is an unknown reason for this. A young couple passes by and looks at the items and negotiates prices with the man. The further they interact, the more we see that the man seems to be disconnected from the world in a way. After some small talk, they all dance together in the front yard around all of the furniture. We get hints of small subliminal messages throughout the reading, yet, there isn’t a defined plot for this short story. I argue that “Why Don’t You Dance” by Raymond Carver discovers the reality of both wanting to recapture and remove moments of your past, more specifically in this context, a first love or past lover.
One significant aspect of Carver’s exploration was the placement of the furniture in the yard. In the beginning of this story, there are descriptions of the bedroom with specific placements, “In the kitchen, he poured another drink and looked at the bedroom suite in his front yard. The mattress was stripped and the candy-striped sheets lay beside two pillows on the chiffonier. Except for that, things looked much the way they had in the bedroom— nightstand and reading lamp on his side of the bed, nightstand and reading lamp on her side. His side, her side.” (Carver). While the significance of the furniture is never fully explained, the small description suggests a few possibilities. The unnamed character moves intimate objects outside for everyone to see. This creates a recreated past in a space that’s no longer private. He seems to be carefully placing these items outside with the exact placement as they were inside, as a last act of getting rid of what he can’t actually let go of. The furniture possibly symbolizes his previous past attachments or things that hold emotional weight. When he mentions the two different sides, “His side, her side,” we get an idea of a once shared life that is now broken. A woman was never mentioned later on in the story. This could be an act of him trying to distance himself from his past or perhaps his past relationship. These certain items could have been significant within his past relationship and left too many memories that he couldn’t bear to live with anymore. Carver leaves much to interpretation, prompting the readers to reflect on the character’s detachment from the things in his home that were once important to him.
Raymond Carver further explores the theme of attempting to recapture and erase memories from the past through the interaction with the young couple in the story. They decide that they want to bargain for some of the items placed in the yard. The man’s interaction with the young couple seems unusual. He’s offering the items in his yard but doesn’t seem concerned about the money or cost, “"I want the desk," the girl said. "How much money is the desk?" The man waved his hand at this preposterous question… "Everything goes," said the man.”(Carver). This reaction contrasts how people usually behave at yard sales. Typically, when people have yard sales they have strong attachments to the items and don’t actually want to sell them that easily. If anything, they’ll make the price slightly higher than it typically should be. Yet, the man seems eager to sell everything. This furthers my point that he wants rid of every item that reminds him of his past connection with his past lover. Yet, him setting the furniture up in the same exact form as it was inside was his last moments of what he once had. As the story unfolds, the man and the couple all drink, listen, and dance to a record. There is a moment where the young couple stops dancing to the record together and the old man joins the young lady instead, “He felt her breath on his neck. "I hope you like your bed," he said. The girl closed and then opened her eyes. She pushed her face into the man's shoulder. She pulled the man closer. "You must be desperate or something," she said.” (Carver). As they were dancing, the middle-aged man seemed to picture the young girl as his past lover. This is a very intimate exchange, but once the girl mentions him being desperate, he snaps back into reality. There is an odd sense of longing from this description of them dancing.
Although this story seems to be subjective to several possible themes, Raymond Carver’s “Why Don’t You Dance” presents an exploration of a man’s attempt to recapture and erase memories of a lost love. Through the man’s strange behavior with his furniture and with his interactions with the young couple, Carver shows how hard it is for him to move on. The man places the furniture outside of his home in a particular formation, which suggests he’s trying to hold on to the past while also trying to get rid of it. He has an odd response to selling these items which reveals his want to be free of the memories that they hold. The dance with the young woman also highlights his longing for the past, when he briefly pictures his past lover. In the end, Carver captures the emotional struggle of trying to both keep and erase memories from the past.