When We Talk About Love Short Story

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is a collection of short stories by Raymond Carver. Named “One of the true contemporary masters,” by Robert Towers of The New York Times Review of Books, Carver creates fiction that opens the reader’s eyes to a seldom spoken of, but all too real, part of American life. Alcoholism, and its ability to destroy families and escalate domestic disputes into violence, was a common theme throughout Carver’s short stories. Though there are many equally powerful themes in all of the stories, alcoholism is the driving force behind most of the misfortune in “Gazebo” and “A Serious Talk.”

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 this global era of evolving civilization, it is increasingly difficult to ignore the fascinating fact about love. Love is a feeling of intimacy, warmth, and attachment. Love is inevitable and it plays a vital role in human life as Janie uses her experience with the pear tree to compare each of her relationships, but it is not until Tea Cake that she finds “a bee to her bloom.” (106).

We live in a society that has increasingly stomped on love, depicting it as cruel, superficial and full of complications. Nowadays it is easy for people to claim that they are in love, even when their actions say otherwise, and it is just as easy to claim that they are not when they really are. Real love is difficult to find and keeping it alive is even harder, especially when one must overcome their own anxieties and uncertainties. This is the main theme present in Russell Banks’ short story “Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story,” as well as in “The Fireman’s Wife,” written by Richard Bausch. These narratives, although similar in some aspects, are completely different types of love stories.

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.

not Ed loved Terri. Mel thought not. That started Mel off on what love is. Mel thinks

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

Once Jean Farris said, “And they lived happily (aside from a few normal disagreements, misunderstandings, pouts, silent treatments, and unexpected calamities) ever after”(Jean). Many can relate to Farris’s quote as falling in love is sometimes accidental, but staying in love is a choice that is made. A successful relationship may be the product of an almost fairy tale like romance. However, after tying the knot, hard work and commitment are needed from both sides to solidify the relationship in order to achieve the ‘happily ever after’. Throughout human civilization expressing love has generated countless literature and intellectual works in every language and culture known. While many of these works will come to rejoice love, others will address it with resentment and bitterness. In her poem “Cinderella”, Anne Sexton offers us a different version of the traditional Cinderella story. Sexton uses sarcasm and paradox through her poem arguing the sham of happily ever after as portrayed in certain fairy-tales stories and how it always has been represented through media. On the other hand, Lydia Davis’s short story, “Break It Down” narrates the dilemma of a man who is trying to break down the cost of eight days of love that costed him almost $1000 by the end of his affair, in a way, he was trying to question if love is a wise investment or if it is possible to put a price tag on love. Sexton’s “Cinderella” lays out a helpful framework for understanding instances of

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.

Through the stories “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” “How to Talk to a Hunter,” and “Good Country People” there is a similar theme; they all showcase the mystery of love and how there is no universal way to define it. Although these stories have a similar theme, they have some differences on what the source of conflict is for the characters of each story. Each story has a unique plot and character, however, different interpretations of love from characters in the stories is a commonality.

Mel’s inability to create a clear connotation for love leads him to question certain aspects of life. Mel has a lot to say about love and there is no doubt in his mind that we spend our whole lives learning about what it actually is. He believes that no one is exactly experienced when it comes to love, "What do any of us really know about love?" Mel said. "It seems to me we're just beginners at love." (Carver 556) Although he cannot define it he has had experiences that help him understand what true love looks like in a relationship. A particular experience that had an effect on Mel, was when he treated an old couple at the hospital. They were badly injured in a

In Raymond Carver’s short story, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” Mel, Terri, Nick, and Laura we drinking gin and have a unique conversation about what the concept of love meant for them. Laura is sitting there with her husband, Nick, just listening to Mel and Terri go on and on with his stories. The story that Terri tells about her love interpretation isn’t exactly a happy one, causing the tone to turn to a more pessimistic view on love. Terri starts out by telling a story of her Ex, who abused her and Mel for a while before killing himself. It was obvious that this relationship was far from healthy, but Terri insisted that her Ex loved her. Laura was asked to state her opinion but she simply said, “‘I don’t know anything about

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.

When someone as a reader looks at Mel’s situation, it is a totally different kind of love. Education, background, social class comes together and describes Mel’s definition about love. To be specific, Mel is an educated person, and he is a cardiologist. However, Mel sees love as something that can be pass on to someone else, and he doesn’t really understand the concept of real love. There might be another reason for Mel definition’s of love, and the reason is Mel’s first love with his first wife (Marjorie). Mel was in love with Marjorie (Mel first wife), but suddenly everything just collapsed, and he didn’t know what cause the divorce, and what happened to his love. Mel sees love as a “memory not even a memory” (Carver 676), and that is when he started to talk about love at the beginning of the story. Mel thought about love in an educational way not in his own personal way. He defined love based on what he had learned in school and in his educational way not personal way. In my opinion, Mel wanted to do the same thing that Ed did to Terri but in his own way. Mel was more educated than Ed, so he wasn’t going to fight with his

I met her two years ago and we did not have much to say at that time. Little did I know that she would later steal my heart and become an intimate part of my life. As the saying goes "there is someone for anyone at any time in this life" and I was about to find out that this saying was so true. I have had a wall built around me and my defense was as a stronghold to protect myself from all the relationships that have come and gone over the years. I thought that I was meant to be alone in this old life and happiness was forever gone from me. This wonderful woman I am speaking of is Mary Doe, and the joy she has given me has revived my hope and faith that I may have finally found love and peace within. She has made me feel like I am a child