In “Burning Bright,” Ron Rash gives subtle signs about the relationship between Marcie and Carl that are a delight to unravel and see throughout the story. Ron Rash is excellent at paying close attention to detail through this story and makes sure we have enough information to follow what is happening. Rash shows this relationship between Marcie and Arthur near the end of the story, revealing that she has been married before and has children with this man, and that the kids favored Arthur over Marcie, which hurts her deeply. Marcie and Carl’s love story isn’t something grand or spectacular, but it was enough for Marcie, which shows she’s a very simple woman who can handle a very simple man. Carl has some roots that he doesn’t want to build up, which leads to him being very quiet and to himself. He started the wild fires and that makes sense because we learn that he has had a past of setting off fires and that’s the only bad thing he’s ever done on the police record. Marcie doesn’t want any trouble or for him to be under any stress, so she lies about when he got home to the police to protect him from being blamed for the fires. I feel Marcie doesn’t continue to push him to have more personality because she’s okay with a simple plain life.
Everyone dances around the fact Aruther died and she has started to date her handyman Carl, but is very direct in what she should do and shouldn’t do especially in the house of the lord. She hired Carl out of pity because her preacher said he was a good guy, but I do believe theres more to that. She says later on that
“The thought came to her then, like something held underwater that had finally slipped free and surfaced. The only reason you’ve been thinking it could be him, Marcie told herself, is because people have made you believe you don’t deserve him, don’t deserve a little bit of happiness.”
Marcie and Carl’s relationship is made difficult because of the age difference, that we see later on in the story,but that never gets in the way of problems in the relationship. But you can definitely tell that Carl and Aruther were very different men, Ron Rash makes that quite clear. Marcie stopped going to church and stopped praying but at the end of the story she says
“She shut her eyes closed tighter trying to open a space inside herself that might offer up all of what she feared and hoped for and brought forth with such fervor it could not help but be heard she prayed for rain.”
I feel she is content in her relationship but she wants more in life, thinking that the rain for Marcie symbolizes noise, a distraction, a emotion or feeling that has not been displayed due to the blandness of Carl and the lively hood of Aruther.