What We Talk About When We Talk About Love By Raymond Carver

When two people are in love, they are happy and look past the bad things in one another. "Affection, as I have said is the humblest love. It gives itself no airs," (pg.33 paragraph 3). They look at the good, and can usually ignore the bad. They work together through problems and issues that arise. The two help one another out and make sure they are both doing well. They care for one another the

Mel says, 'There was a time when I thought I loved my first wife more than life itself. But now I hate her guts. I do.'; (p 114) Mel's former relationship was once full of love, but eventually the love withered away until it was gone. Also, Mel talks about how love can continue even if you lose your first love. Mel says, 'And the terrible thing, the terrible thing is, but the good thing too, the saving grace, you might say, is that if something happened to one of us–excuse me for saying this–but if something happened to one of us tomorrow I think the other person would grieve for a while, you know, but then the surviving party would go out and love again, have someone else soon enough.'; (p 114) In this quote, Mel reveals that if any one of them dies, his or her spouse would eventually lose the love they once had for him or her, and would then go and love another. So, the author has shown us that love can die off and be replaced by anger or hatred, or even love for another.

The Short Story “My Father’s Life,” by Raymond Carver illustrates the difficult task of a son trying to find his own sense of identity and individualism while watching his father’s life unravel. Carver explores the relationships of his parents and his own struggle with sharing the same name with his father and the similarities and differences between them.

Between Jane and Martin there was love beneath the surface, a love that was rekindled by the unfortunate flames that Martin faced on that stormy night. However, Between Sarah and Ron there was only the hint of love, something that was widely obscured by the shame that Ron felt towards Sarah’s looks. Even if he had come to his senses about how he truly felt towards Sarah, he would have never been able to regain her confidence and she would have always been dependent on his good looks for her happiness, using him as a trophy of sorts. We assume, in the end, that Ron is incapable of openly and truly loving Sarah because of he was vain and he cared too much about what others thought of him. Thus, he could have never loved Sarah the way she needed to be loved, for she needed to be built up as a woman and Ron’s shame could’ve never allowed that. The story serves as a reminder of how important it is to consider your actions carefully and that “people often remain alone simply because they refuse to come to terms with their feelings and anxieties.” Ron was definitely vain, but he was also full of self-doubt and his own insecurities, which was the main reason he could not bring himself to commit to Sarah, regardless of her

that one guy that everyone seems to know. He stands out from others; he’s unique. You

In Raymond Carver’s story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” there is a wide array of opinions concerning the true definition of love. I believe that the character with the most absurd idea of love is Mel. Mel is Terri’s second husband. He claims to only believe in spiritual love. In his past, Mel spent “five years in seminary.” This is obviously what he bases his idea upon. Mel declares that if he could go back in time, he would enjoy being a knight in armor to shield him from other people. This reveals to me that Mel is emotionally closed off and concealed from other people. Furthermore, as seen through his wife, Terri, Mel does not have the passion inside him that is necessary to experience love. The only love that Mel does experience is the love toward his children, but that is love in a different sense. Loving his children is a natural instinct. They are born into his care, and are made with his own blood. His love for them was not searched for. It just came to be when they were born. Mel’s relationship with Terri, or any other women that he may have encountered in the past is distant and indifferent as to who they are inside. Mel’s ideas toward love are

The story started with a group of four people drinking gin in a room. The first man to say the first word was Herb. Herb was a cardiologist his specialty was the heart. He started talking about the value of love. “Love is somewhat spiritual or agape in nature,” (1) He said.

Have your ever thought of how challenging love can be? Love can be addressed in multiple ways. It is a strong emotion that people grew up around from a young age. As stated in the essay, Love’s Vocabulary, “What is my goddaughter to think when she hears her mother say; “I love Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream”; “I really loved my high school boyfriend”; “ Don’t you just love this sweater?” “I’d love to go the lake for a week this summer”; “Mommy loves you.”

In the article “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”, which was written by Raymond Carver in 1981, the author is mainly talking about the story from Mel McGinnis, who is at home with his wife Terri and their friends, Nick and Laura, are drinking gin and tonics and talking about love.

Raymond Carver's story, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, was set late afternoon at a kitchen table in New Mexico. Unlike, Birdman, which was set in New York. The movie Birdman had a different way of filming it, with techniques to make it seem like it was done in all one shot. Kind of how Raymond Carver’s story seemed to only have had one shot throughout the whole story. The film Birdman it seems to show the different ideas and beliefs of many things that people care about, including what it means to be relevant.

In “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” by Raymond Carver the narrator and Mel are sitting at Mel’s kitchen table drinking gin with their wives. They begin talking about love and Mel thinks love is spiritual, but Terri thinks that even a man who tried to kill her still loved her. The initial disagreement between Mel and Terri leads to the primary “man versus man” conflict in “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.” Carver illuminates the purpose of his writing, to stir up the ideology of the nature of love, through the narrator. Carver asserts “I took the section, squeezed it over my drink, and stirred the ice cubes with my fingers” to personify himself figuratively stirring the idea that love is an illusion.

This emphasizes Mel’s true feelings about love. He goes on to explain that he feels love is unconditional (Carver 727). Mel feels that if you can be abusive to someone and try to kill them, then you cannot possibly be in love with them. Through Mel, Carver is describing a true and unrestricted love. He is telling of a love above all that is not just physical, but powerful and deep, one where you not only feel passion for this person, but a profound emotional attachment.

Laura and Nick only express their love through physical signs, like necking, not by rational means. This is clear when Nick says: “I touched the back of Laura's hand. She gave me a quick smile. I picked up Laura's hand. It was warm, the nails polished, perfectly manicured. I encircled the broad wrist with my fingers, and I held her” (Carver 413). They believe that they know what real love is, but they never provide a clear definition about love or explain why they’re so certain in their convictions. They merely demonstrate physically their love, petting between them, blushing and holding hands. Nick said: “I took Laura's hand and raised it to my lips. I made a big production out of kissing her hand. Everyone was amused” (Carver 414). But these

Israa Mahmoud 2.x -2015 Film review. An analysis of the cinematography of Birdman by Alejandro G. Iñárritu Birdman is one of the latest works by Alejandro G. Iñárritu as a director, writer and producer, where a combination of several actors including Michael Keaton and Edward Norton create a disturbing thriller with a great script. A wonderful cast of Michael Keaton as Riggan Thomson exploits the topic of stardom and uncovers a hidden sight of the inner lives of celebrities. Riggan is a Hollywood actor who plays the superhero Birdman, while he is anguished by a mocking inner voice of Birdman.

In the story Laura says, “Well, Nick and I know what love is, for us, I mean. She bumped my knee with her knee…For an answer; I took Laura 's hand and raised it to my lips. I made a big production out of kissing her hand. Everyone was amused.”(Carver) Nick and Laura, express their love by kissing hands. Since we don 't get to know Nick and Laura very well, we can 't see all that deeply into their relationship. On the surface, they certainly do seem to be in love. Nick really likes Laura, and because things are easy between them the two of them must be in love. This begs the question of shouldn’t love be more complicated and he might want to rethink such a simple definition. "What do any of us really know about love?" Mel said. "It seems to me we 're just beginners at love."(Carver)