The Millers feel that their lives are passing them by. Bill, a bookkeeper, and Arlene, a secretary, have been quite envious of their neighbors Harriet and Jim Stone and how they seemed to live a much brighter life. This feeling of envy sets the stage for the whole story, as it seems that the Millers, especially Bill, seemingly enjoys thinking that they own the apartment. At one point in the story, Bill finds a container of Harriet's prescription pills (we never find out what exactly they are supposed to treat) in the medicine cabinet and drops it into his pocket. He later takes two drinks from a bottle of Chivas Regal (straight from the bottle I assume), and puts it right back in the cabinet. As an even more obvious example of this desire to pretend, he goes into Harriet and Jim's room and proceeds to put on Jim's Hawaiian shirt and pair of Bermudas and checks himself out in the mirror. Bill then goes on to try on more of his clothes but then goes even further. After a few drinks, he puts on Harriet's panties and brassiere, a black-and-white-checkered shirt, and then a burgundy blouse. He stays in her clothes looking out of their living-room window as if he receives some sort of excitement from exerting this kind of subconcious dominance over their place, almost like an animal. The living-room, for many, is the center of the home. Being in there while wearing her clothes seems to enrich this experience for him. Arlene also gets a taste of this, but the reader is left to infer this when the narrator says: "He noticed white lint lingering clinging to the back of her sweater, and the color was high in her cheeks." There, the reader discovers that she was doing something in there, but it's not quite clear exactly what.
Another kind of emotion that the apartment seems to arouse in the Millers is of the sexual variety. There are many instances in this story where either Bill or Arlene engages in marital privileges after coming from the Stones' home. It happened once the first night of their apartment-sitting, when Bill returned to his own, touched Arlene's breast and urges, "'Let's go to bed, honey.'" It again happens the next night, when he returns from his second foray into the neighbor's home. Another time, they neck after Arlene makes her visit.
By the end of the story, they discover that they locked themselves out of Jim and Harriet's apartment. This is made even more disturbing by the fact that Arlene had just found some pictures, perhaps of the Stones in somewhat precarious, or even pornographic positions. These pictures may have been left out, leaving the Millers open to the consequences of their actions, judging by the following passage: "They stayed there. They held each other. They leaned into the door as if against a wind, and braced themselves." They braced themselves for the Stones' imminent discovery of their snooping.
Raymond Carver has been known to write about characters who are not exactly "normal." This statement is true for this story as well. The actions of Bill and Arlene Miller, in and coming out of their neighbor's home, demonstrates this clearly, as do Bill's primitive signs of dominance in taking over their home. But, would we do the same things, maybe to a lesser extent, if given the same chance? Maybe no; nevertheless, this Carver's "Neighbors" is truly an interesting study of human psychology.
If you liked what you read here about Raymond Carver's work, why not help me out AND read more from this fascinating writer?
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