There is rooted in the American identity a restless spirit that is never content to be defined by the same terms for too long. Yet the things Americans value remain the same, evidenced by the titles they work so hard to achieve: husband, wife, mother, father. These titles represent who Americans are as much as who they are. They are the roles that give Americans purpose and meaning. What is distinctive about Raymond Carver's short story, “A Small, Good Thing,” is that its characters are undeniably American. "A Small, Good Thing" was originally published in 1981 as "The Bath" in Carver's second major publication, What we Talk About When we Talk About Love, before reappearing two years later in the longer and revised Cathedral. The second version includes a new ending that offers more closure than its predecessor but completely changes the meaning of the story, painting the conflict in a new light, creating a tone that saturates the story like a color filter over a lens; However, what the new ending offers most is a deeper insight into the identity of the characters involved: who they are, what they hope for, what they fear, and what has the power to heal them. Like the characters in his stories, Carver was no stranger to pain. Born in 1938 and raised in the Northwest, Carver was a typical blue-collar American, working odd jobs to support a wife and two daughters, doing his best to deal with the frustrations and struggles of the working class ("Raymond Carver"). He was considered self-centered, an alcoholic with violent tendencies, and ambitious to the point of sacrificing his marriage and family for the fame he sought (Yardley). Dying of cancer at the age of fifty, he lived the harsh reality of the American Dre... in the middle of the paper world, wondering what terrible thing might be lurking around the corner. In “A Small, Good Thing,” Carver shows how strong Americans can be, how it is part of their nature to find a way to start over and continue the story, which is the greatest kind of ending. This is what good literary fiction should do: hold a mirror to your face so you can see who you are clearly, without losing sight of the world beyond you. Works Cited Carver, Raymond. “A small, good thing.” Volume of American Literature 2. Ed. William E. Cain. New York: Pearson, 2004. 1035-1055. Press. "Raymond Carver". Volume of American Literature 2. Ed. William E. Cain. New York: Pearson, 2004. 1035. Print.Yardley, Johnathan. Rev. of As It Was: A Portrait of My Marriage to Raymond Carver, by Maryann Burk Carver. Thewashingtonpost.com. July 16, 2006. Web. March 24. 2014.