Dear statement is meant to be a closure telling her goodbye in a sense and that he will always have affection for her. Because his father was a drunken spiteful man who usually treated her bad. Except for the couple times when he was sober and was able to say something nice with Dear; it brought security and warmth to her problems. For that reason the son gives her that message, insisting that though she might be worried or upset, she will be okay and he will always care about her, no matter how far they may drift apart.The final statement of the short story notably summarized the characters feelings. Carver writes, Whats there to tell? The people over there embrace for a minute, and then they go inside the house together. They leave the light burning. Then they remember, and it goes out (424). This symbolizes the son and his mother and how their relationship has progressed. Their relationship is represented by the light. But as the relationship progresses over the years he finally realizes the problems of her bring negative all the time, and complaining at every turn, will never go away. In seeing he will never be able to help her, he gives up. And if he can never truly help and talk to her he can never have an authentic conversation with her, and help her when she is down. Which is what authentic friends must be capable of doing, communicating clearly with that person. Thus he realizes that he must bring closure to their relationship even though he loves her a great deal. He even knows that he will not be going back to Los Angeles ever again, and when she left it would be the last time he would ever see her.Carver gets his theme of closure of a relationship clearly across to his readers. From the candle, the boxes, and their relationship throughout this piece of work this is well displayed. Especially, with the conclusion of the story with the symbolism of the light. The mother and son depicted in this story are seen...
