A Small Good Thing By Raymond Carver And The Birthmark Essay

A Small Birthmark with Vampiric Communion In the stories â€Å"A Small Good Thing† by Raymond Carver and â€Å"The Birthmark† by Nathaniel Hawthorne there are obvious differences between the two tales. While â€Å"A Small Good Thing† has to do with a family dealing with the injury and then loss of their â€Å"The Birthmark† is a scientific quest to remove a birthmark. The analysis of these two stories show both similarities as well as the differences between the main themes of Vampirism, Communion. These two main themes come from How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster. Foster describes Vampirism as not only true vampires but the idea and concepts included with them. These concepts vary from parasitic ideals to how vampires can be as old as time. The other main theme is Communion which by definition is the sharing of food or drink. Foster connects communion to having a bond or event take place during a meals which can be either good or bad. The main themes of Vampirism and Communion in â€Å"A Small Good Thing† and â€Å"The Birthmark† have both commonalities as well as variances that perfectly reflect the ideas representing in Fosters book. In the two stories, â€Å"A Small Good Thing† and â€Å"The Birthmark†, vampirism be used to describe the tales as an overarching theme. While vampirism is an overarching theme, this does not mean that any vampires are in the stories. Vampirism as a theme rather explains ideas that can be associated with vampires. In the tale of â€Å"The Birthmark† vampirism