Ray Carver’s “Popular Mechanics” (1981) is a short story of just a few pages which involves a tumultuous argument and a romantic couple imploding. We quickly learn that the couple, presumably married, has a baby. This makes the situation more complicated and more urgent. 

Originally published in Carver’s collection of short stories, What We Talk ABout When We Talk About Love, “Popular Mechanics’” bleak setting is established in the opening paragraph: 

“Early that day the weather turned and the snow was melting into dirty water…Cars slushed by on the street outside, where it was getting dark.” 

As the man packs his clothes to leave, the woman cries to him defiantly: 

“I’m glad you’re leaving.” 

But the stakes are raised when “she noticed the baby’s picture on the bed and picked it up.” By taking the baby’s picture from the bed, she has not only established that he won’t be taking the presumably framed photograph, but also that he won’t take possession of the baby itself. This is perhaps why the man protests when she takes the photo; not only for its sentimental value as a physical object, but as a symbol of who will possess the actual baby. 

When the man declares that he in fact wants the baby, the woman is taken aback: 

“Are you crazy?” 

The notion that the man would take custody of a baby when a couple splits up was deemed in 1981 as “crazy,” as it still perhaps would be today. Yet the man is not without feelings, and so he persists. 

A physical struggle for the baby ensues, during which, in an act of foreshadow, “they knocked down a flowerpot that hung behind the stove.” Meanwhile, the baby is increasingly agitated during this struggle. The tension of the short story rises as the baby’s physical safety seems to be in danger; this literal danger to the baby is itself a metaphor for the well-being of the baby should its parents separate.  

Thematically, the story deals with a couple breaking up. But how much more the worse when a baby is involved? This is what leads us to the short story’s disaster, a disaster which symbolizes the trauma of a divorce for children.  

The parents are pulling the baby in different directions, which given the fragile nature of babies, seems ill-advised. The title “Popular Mechanics” is as to say that one cannot pull a baby in two different directions, it defies the laws of physics.  The title causes confusion amongst students because it sounds like the title of a magazine rather than the title of a short story. The original title Carver had in mind was a more simple one: “Mine.” 

Further, the idea that a baby is being “split in two” is an illusion to King Solomon from the Old Testament, who famously tells two women feuding over a baby that he will split the baby in two. 

The final sentence, which coldly states, “In this manner, the issue was decided,” is to suggest that the baby has deceased from the pressure, being pulled in two different directions, both physically and metaphorically.  

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