How does Carver create precision of reality with his characters, focusing on Fires? When looking at the works of Raymond Carver, one can feel a sense of autobiography, that the characters in his stories are struggling against the same circumstances that Carver himself once struggled through. How true this is, is marginal to say the least, for Carver tells us in Fires that anything from a phone call to living in a seedy apartment in Jerusalem for four months is cause to influence his writing. But taking this as subject of influence for his stories, one must then look at his characters, who at times more than closely resemble