Nature Of Love In The Beginners By Raymond Carver

The short story What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, by Raymond Carver, is about two married couples drinking gin and having a talk about the nature of love. The conversation is a little sloppy, and the characters make some comments which could either be meaningless because of excessive alcohol in the bloodstream, or could be the characters' true feelings because of excessive alcohol in the bloodstream. Overall, the author uses this conversation to show that when a relationship first begins, the people involved may have misconceptions about their love, but this love will eventually die off or develop into something much more meaningful.

In the beginning of “Little Things”, Carver created the scenery of outside to establish the dark side of the relationship. “Cars slushed by on the street outside, where it was getting dark but it was getting dark on the inside too”; Thus, foreshadowing the relationship on its last leg. As the man packed his belongings, the woman responded “I’m glad you’re leaving. I’m glad you’re leaving!”, Carver now expresses the relationship as being gloomy with no sign of contentment. Man, is portrayed as unhappy and leaving whereas the woman struggles to react without being attentive toward the man’s emotions. Foreshadowing is used to create the start point of this catastrophic ending with the man having empathy for the child and not the woman. Emotions emphasized the foreshadowing once the woman removed the picture of the child out the bedroom, Man now makes effort in having a conversation with the woman by the request that she “bring that back”. Emotions effected more than one point of view in “Little Things” due to the relationship involving two people and a child. Mutual affect had been brought to light with “Love and Basketball”, though Quincy was not a baby when the dispute between his parents and adultery started, his father took the time to address the personal situation with Quincy while he attended college by lying. Yet proof from both stories display the reality of emotions between parents and children in modern situation

In the story “Popular Mechanics”, Raymond Carver writes in a minimalistic manner causing the text to have more meaning than it seems. Carver uses symbolism, repetition, and metaphors to characterize the woman as distraught and agitated towards the man. This displays that the relationship between the man and the woman is very dysfunctional. Throughout the story, the woman seems more affected by the situation than the man. Also, the story ends on a devastating note, depicting the deep meaning behind their relationship and leading to a universal theme.

Authors across time have used various relationship models in their works of writing in order to communicate their beliefs about love. By examining the relationship between two unlike brothers in his short story, “Sonny’s Blues,” James Baldwin communicates his belief that the idea of love can save people. Jhumpa Lahiri, in her short story “Hell-Heaven” also shows that the idea of love can save people, but by the end the characters are only truly happy where there is acceptance. Both Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues” and Lahiri short story “Hell- Heaven” while culturally different, use the trials and tribulations of their characters to prove that the idea of love is a saving force.

Love exists in the short story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” by Alice Munro and in the short story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” by Raymond Carver. in Munro’s short story the plot is that of a mentally ill wife, Fiona, who falls in love with another patient while her husband still tries to hang on to their old love. Her husband eventually wants to have an affair with the wife of the man his wife is having an affair with. Their love changed because of their circumstances due to ill health. Carver’s story discusses the different definitions of love due to the type and quality of relationships; everyone has a different definition. Love also exists all over the world within different environments and cultures. The concept of love depends upon the environment in which it inhabits. Love is dependent on the life of the people in love and it also depends on their current environment. Nature and nurture are also huge factors into the development and process of love. What nature and nurture mean is whether it is due to how the person lives and acts along with their personality compared to whether it’s all in their genetics beforehand. Love is more on the nurture side instead of the nature side of human experience.

Raymond Carver wrote "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" in 1981, by doing this Carver also created the character Mel. This short story is written in first person narration from Nick, one of Mel's friends. Both of their wives, Terri (Mel) and Laura (Nick) are also in the kitchen having the love conversation with Mel and Nick. Mel is a forty five year old, tall, curly headed cardiologist. Mel also has an ex-wife with whom he had children with. Mel is related to the theme of Love being undefinable by bringing up the conversation of love, talking about several examples of what love is or is not, trying to prove his point even though he does not completely understand what love is, and being an example of undefinable love himself.

George and Lennie have two things: hope and each other. In the novella Of Mice and Men, author George Steinbeck provides a glimpse into the lives of two itinerant farmers whose only true possessions are those two elements. Steinbeck uses these ideas to support the conclusion that although it was Lennie who parishes in the end, the novella truly tells the story of George’s tragedy. The relationship between hope and humanity and how it is expressed through both Lennie and George as a team, can be used to explain why the death of Lennie is more of a loss to George, than Lennie himself. However, before one can fully understand the role hope and humanity play into George’s tragedy together, one must understand how each theme is represented in

Everybody has that one person in their life that they are willing to do anything for until that person gives them no other choice but to do what ever has to be done. George and Lennie have a brotherly, father and son, best friend type of relationship. Their dreams, and the fact Aunt Clara told George to look after Lennie keeps them together. They are different from the other ranchers because they have a dream to look forward to. Lennie looks up to George,but it’s difficult for George sometime because he has to look after lennie. But in the end George does what he has to do to protect his friends. In the novel “Of Mice and Men” John Steinbeck uses the relationship between George and Lennie to show the friendship may not always be fair and can be hard for one or both frinds.

Love is like a soccer ball kicked by a bad teammate. It hits hard and most of the time leaves you in pain. But in the end it can be good, like for example you might not have to go to school the next day because you have a broken nose. The love in most romances are often cliched, and unreal. But two stories that come really close to explaining the real meaning of love is ¨Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe and ¨The Highwayman”by Alfred Noyes.

Helen Oyeyemi’s novel Boy, Snow, Bird deals with tendentious issues such as abuse, race, beauty, and mother daughter relationships. Many of these issues are blatantly illustrated throughout this story between different characters. Often more than one relationship deals with each of these issues, and most of these relationships deal with more than one issue at a time. That being said, some of the relationships deal with their issues and themes in a much more subtle way than others. One relationship in particular deals with issue very subtly, Charlie and Boy’s. Charlie and Boy grew up together in the same town, and he even asked her to prom, wrote to her, toke her to see fireworks (Oyeyemi 7-9). The two of them formed an unspoken sporadic romance. The relationship between Charlie and Boy acts as a window into the circle of abuse and abandonment, builds a foundation of feigning a position of power, and connects to the theme of beauty.

The short story ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,’ by Raymond Carver, is set in a scene where there are two couples drinking gin and having small talk about the nature of love. The conversation is a little sloppy due to the fact that the couples are intoxicated and the characters make some comments which could either be meaningless because of the excessive alcohol intake, or it could be the characters’ true feelings. Overall, the author uses this conversation to show that when a relationship first begins, the people involved may have some misconceptions about their love, but this love will eventually die off or can develop into something much more meaningful. Raymond Carver sets the scene with two couples sitting around a table drinking a cheap gin and making small talk. The real story begins when the topic of love comes up.

The Language of Love “What do any of us really know about love?”, Mel says is the story What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver (304). Everyone has their own definition of love and demonstrates it differently in their everyday lives. Even within the book, there are four different people that have diverse opinions on the matter. Love is such a loosely defined word, that it can mean so many things.

In the story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” by Raymond Carver, four friends discuss their thoughts about love. The friends drink gin and talk about their past relationships and their views about love. The central idea is that love is an emotion that can not be defined by words because it means different things to each person. Everyone interprets love in their own way based on their personal experiences.

This analysis will provide an in-depth look into Dean and Cindy’s troubled relationship and how it was perhaps destined to fail and be unsatisfactory from the beginning. Since they married young because of the pregnancy, they did not have a chance to fully engage with each other. While all three components of Sternberg’s Triangular theory were present, they weaned quickly. Their verbal communication was not the most effective and later on was one of the major breaking points of their relationship.

Upon reading Erich Fromm’s The Art of Loving, I gained a better understanding of what love really is. Fromm’s book puts love into perspective. He begins with several facts with regards to the attitude in which people treat love. They are the problems of how to be loved, the object to love as well as the confusion between the initial experience of falling in love and the permanent state of being in love, which had a great impact on me, as far as thinking about what love is.