What is a common theme in Raymond Carver's short stories?

Love, Passion and Alcohol

Explanation:

In the short stories of Raymond Carver, we find love, passion and alcohol, all go hand and hand. Using tone, symbolism and diction Carver explores themes of love and alcohol which ultimately affect relationships. In his first collection of short stories, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Carver has created characters who can communicate, exhibit, or accept love unless they consume alcohol. Alcohol fuels conversation. In The Cathedral, love relationship seems to stand always on the razor edge. Modern love, Carver argues, lacks passion; two people are together, yet they live a lonely life since love seems bitter, conditional, and hence, alcohol symbolizes an easing catalyst which does not solve the problem.