The Story Of Carver 's `` What We Talk About When We Talking About Love ``

“The most important thing in the world is family and love,” a self-explanatory quote from John Wooden . In modern day, many people could say that the quote is true. Sometimes even, people may focus on love too much, that the “journey” of looking for love surrounds everyday of their lives, all the time. If so, it takes away from the family life, and could be considered somewhat dangerous. This is not only true in the real world, but also in literature about a couple of teens that fall in love.

     In contrast to these fairly pessimistic views on love, the author describes an instance in which a couple found true love. Mel tells an anecdote of an old couple that was admitted to the emergency room after a very bad car accident. The two people were wrapped up in full body casts, and as a result they could not see each other. Mel noticed that the old man was very sad, even

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

Love makes us do crazy things. It makes us become people we never thought we were. Love gives us an ultimatum about our life. Love is a powerful bond and wicked curse. When we love, we love hard. We will do anything for love and to be loved. In “My Sister’s Marriage,” Cynthia Marshall Rich presents the different views of love upon similar yet different characters. Two sisters, who share a loving yet manipulative Father show the different ways love affects us. Sarah-Ann and Olive have many similar and different relationships with love, their dreams, and their traits.

The short story, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” by Raymond Carver, invalidates the struggles and the lives of women, especially those that have experienced abuse. Carver oppresses women through lack of empathy for a victim and reinforcement of certain stereotypes.

Love tends to be the topic of many poetic literary works, whether it be the joys that come with it or the pains suffered because of it, but what can be made of the love that results in both? In the poem, “For He Looked Not upon Her,” George Gascoigne already makes that message clear through his title: sometimes, there is reason not to desire what we can not help but long for. When his audience reads the work, they are meant to discover that reason behind why “He” would not look upon “Her”. Through the speaker’s form, diction, and imagery that he utilizes in the poem, it becomes clear that his tone towards love is wary, yet also conflictingly longing.

The poems also depict love-sickness experienced by the lovers, which causes one to be irrational, jealous, and results in the inability to complete mundane activities (Fox 1985:279-280). The love songs also describe how the love of one’s lover is the only effective medicine for ailments, given that love to them brings well-being and vitality, “She is more powerful for me than the Compendium” (Fox 1985:280).

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 literature, there are many works that investigate conversations that tackle questions about love and marriage. Marriage is a bond that should last forever and display two sincere paramours; however, a forced marriage will not display a real connection because love must be from one’s choice and not from the opinions of others. William Shakespeare was an English poet who wrote an influential play that allows readers to engage in these conversations; furthermore, Romeo and Juliet are characters who reflect the perfect bond that most people dream of. Thus, William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet showcases the power of love in two major characters and their potent dialogue; more specifically, Romeo’s acknowledgement of their barrier-free

Everyone does not always have the same views on love. In Carver’s short story, Mel implies how he feels no one truly knows

the easiest things for society to get wrapped up talking about is love. And it always has been. In Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” the four characters spend an entire afternoon discussing the simple word that has countless interpretations. Carver uses this story to convey how not everyone shares the same definition of love. He uses Mel, Terri, and Nick and Laura to show just a few of the ways love can be seen, expressed, or develops through stages.

In the short story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” written by Raymond Carver, we are introduced to the two couples Mel and Terri and Nick and Laura. They are all buddies and they are gathered together intoxicating themselves with the consumption of gin meanwhile discussing with their best efforts the definition and the meaning of love. The more they drank, the more they talked about the meaning of love, but the more they talked about it the more confused they would get. They all as well come from failed marriages and never come to a coherent conclusion about the meaning of love. The trouble of coming to a conclusion of the definition of love shows the loss of clarity and happiness as they grow increasingly confused about its meaning.

In “The Beginners” by Raymond Carver, the theme of the story is Nature of Love. The author provides a different insight of what love is and what love can be. The author creates four different couples to explain their perspectives on what love is and how love can be shown. In this way, it shows that love cannot be absolute. It is through these relationships, where they support the theme of Nature of Love by their behavior towards their significant other.

The movie Birdman and the story What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver incorporates and complements many of the characters from the Carver stories in the film. In the movie, the leading actor Riggan Thomson and Birdman, as well as Mike Shiner are more like the characters in the Carver stories. Riggan who portrayed to be Ed and Mel in his Broadway debut is similar to the story What We Talk About When We Talk About Love and the man in Why Don't You Dance?. Birdman, who was Riggan's alter ego was similar to the knight in the story What We Talk About When We Talk About Love that Mel talked about. Mike Shiner who portrayed to be Mel in the Broadway debut is also more like Duane in the Carver story Gazebo. Riggan Thomson,

In this writing, Carver shows us two friendly couples, Mel and Teresa (Terri), in one side, and Laura and Nick, in the other side, sharing their love stories and ideas in a friendly social meeting. In the meanwhile they are drinking alcohol like in a ritual. The scenario is Mel's house, around a table with a bottle of gin on a bucket of ice in the middle. They are gathered to talk and drink, and as long as the conversation evolves, through the pouring, stirring, and sipping of drinks, they are sharing experiences and making toasts about love, jealousy, misconceptions, and pain. The four characters debate the nature of love, only to find that their ideas are quite different. Each couple is representing a different state of love: Nick and Laura