Goodbye Days

“Death steals everything except our stories.” 

An epigraph is a phrase, quote, or poem set before a book, often providing some reference to a major theme or argument the work makes. The epigraph for Goodbye Days, which is a quote by the author Jim Harrison, is fitting with its reference to stories. Every dead boy’s goodbye day is made up of stories about the dead boy, allowing him to live for one more day. It is through stories about Eli, Blake, and Mars that the reader gets to know these characters, even though they’re dead—a testament to this epigraph’s message.

“Where are you guys? Text me back.” 

This is the text that Carver sent Mars and that Mars was presumably responding to when the accident occurred. This text haunts Carver, and he even sees himself as having written his friends out of existence by sending it. Carver’s messages are set off from the rest of the text in bold, a choice by the author that adds emphasis to these few words and parallels the massive impact they had.

“You don’t let people see how someone looks after something like the Accident.” 

This is one of the many instances in which Carver refers to the accident with capital letters: the “Accident.” This choice shows how he views the event as pivotal, a turning point in his life.