Love
What is love? How a word that has only four letters can be so hard to define? How this tiny word can mean something different to each person? This happens because love is an emotion, something that is felt, and something that is empirical, that do not have a reasonable explanation. Therefore, in the short story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” a group of four friends, Mel McGuiness, Teresa, Nick, and Laura, were talking about love, and each one of them have a different opinion about the meaning of this simple four letters word. However, as the story goes by the characters start to drink, and the more they drink the more they understand less about the subject love. The author Raymond Carter uses the alcohol as tool to revel
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In the beginning, Mel says that “love was nothing less than spiritual love” (What We Talk About When We Talk About Love 1) because he spent some years in a seminar before going to medical school, and he learned that this was the definition of love. As the story goes by, Mel starts to drink, and he starts to get really confused. He says: "It seems to me we're just beginners at love. We say we love each other and we do, I don't doubt it. I love Terri and Terri loves me, and you guys love each other too. You know the kind of love I’m talking about now. Physical love, that impulse that drives you to someone special, as well as love of the other person's being, his or her essence, as it were.” (“what we talk about when we talk about love” 5). At this point is clear that he changed his mind from love being something spiritual, from love being something physical, and also is clear that he knows that he loves his wife, but he just can’t define in general what is love. Right then, Mel changes again the definition of love by saying that love can be define as Carnal either, and that this type of love is when you care day-by-day about the other
Love is a variety of different emotional and mental states, typically strongly and positively experienced, that ranges from deepest interpersonal affection to simple pleasure. This value is precious amongst all humans, it is what makes or breaks us. Not only does love remind us of a time that was relevant or memorable,
Love is a feeling of strong or constant affection for a person (Dictionary 1). Love is what is known as the “universal language”. There are so many ways love can be interpreted. The central message that the comfort humans receive, and the shyness they feel for an individual are compartments of love that may not always be touched on in poetry.
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.
What is love? How is love express? Where can I find it? All in all, it is obvious to distinguish that love is the essential emotion of human every time and everywhere. Some people may confuse about that, however, it is an arduous job to describe it due to the diversity. Some people believe love likes delicate and charming roses, which makes you stand and appreciate for the admiration. Some people approximates the bright light of the lighthouse, which illuminates the backing way of the sailing people. Some people confirm love equals
Love is undoubtedly one of the most frequently explored subjects in the literary world. Whether the focus is a confession of love, criticism of love, tale of love, or simply a tale about what love is, such literary pieces force readers to question the true meaning and value of love. Raymond Carver accomplishes this in his short story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.” As the unadorned setting and the personality of each character unfold, the reader realizes that Carver is making a grave comment on the existence of love. Carver utilizes strong contrast, imagery, and diction to ultimately suggest that love cannot be defined concretely and therefore cannot be defined in words, and because of this, it is better off unexplored.
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.
Poets have written love poems for centuries with the first said to be around 1000BC. But what is love? It is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘ to have attachment to and affection for’. However, after studying various love poems, I have found that love is portrayed in many different ways. It can be possessive, hateful and pure and the fact that William Shakespeare said ‘The course of true love never did run smooth’ suggests that love is more complicated than a simple dictionary definition.
Love is the strongest four letter word know to man. It can be sharper than a sword and more effective than a grenade. On the other hand, love can a sustaining effect even ooze
After analyzing Raymond Carver's "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love," it is easy to see that there are several different ideas concerning true love that the characters in the story are in dispute over. Terri's idea of real love is the most valid out of the group at the table. All of the members of the group are rather confused as to what real love is. Terri is included as one of the confused. However, I believe that she is the closest to understanding what love is. A key piece of evidence demonstrating her understanding of love is her remark to Laura and Nick. She scolds the couple for basing their relationship on physical aspects, rather than emotion or passion. Terri, like the rest of the party, is on her second marriage.
Diane Ackerman’s purpose for writing her essay “Love’s Vocabulary” is to persuade the readers that love is an unique emotion that we use in such an unorganized manner. This is demonstrated through the connotations of words such as “sloppy”, and “delirium”. The connotative meaning of the word sloppy as used in line 41 indicates that people use the word love to describe how they feel in many different occasions that the word has lost its meaning and the value it makes someone feel when said to them. Furthermore, the connotative meaning of the word delirium as used in line 38 suggests to the reader that love is an exciting and passionate emotion that has be seen and shown throughout history. Her use of figurative language, particularly metaphors
Love, it is only a 4 letter word, yet it means so much. What exactly does it mean to love? If it were to be searched in a dictionary or online, there are so many different definitions that will come up, that nobody truly knows what love is. So why exactly do we people say it when we don’t even know what it is or how to describe it? People say it’s something that you just feel and no words can explain the feeling. But why exactly should we feel it? In the beginning love will seem like an amazing thing, but by the end of it all, hurt is all you’re left with. Instead of loving someone, just never love, because towards the end of life everybody will lose someone they love, and not loving just saves people from the devastation of a heart break.
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
Symbols are an essential part of daily life, since they help to express ideas without the need of a detailed explanation; traffic signs informing drivers without short paragraphs being posted in their place, facial gestures expressing feelings without having to describe them verbally, just to name a common couple. Likewise, symbols are a crucial part of a literary work, helping the author subtly incorporate concepts throughout the work. An author will deliberately incorporate a symbol into his or her literary work, which alone would mean nothing, but in context carries out a point the author is trying to make. "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" is a short story about four friends trying to find the true meaning of love, trying
Love cannot be defined in one sentence or even a paragraph. Every human has his or her own definition of love because people usually define love based on their cultures, backgrounds, social classes, educations, and their societies. In this essay, the main point will be the different kinds of love that Carver illustrates in his story “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love.” In Carver’s story, there are some points that I can relate to my personal experience. There are a few characteristics and symbols in the story that are really important to understand in order to define what a real love is and find the intention thrown out the story. These characteristics includes, Mel, Terri and Ed and Terri’s relationship. Furthermore, symbols
Love has many different meanings to different people. For a child, love is what he or she feels for his mommy and daddy. To teenage boy, love is what he should feel for his girlfriend of the moment, only because she says she loves him. But as we get older and "wiser," love becomes more and more confusing. Along with poets and philosophers, people have been trying to answer that age-old question for centuries: What is love?