When We Talk About Love By Raymond Carver Analysis

In the essay, “Love’s Vocabulary,” Diane Ackerman communicates the idea through figurative language, that love is an emotion that is seen universally, but no one can explain what it is. For instance, the analogy about music conveys Ackerman’s idea as it suggests that every person from different time periods and locations recognize love just as they recognize music, but they cannot comprehend its meaning.

Mrs. Phelps and Mrs. Bowles, Mildred’s friends, do not have affection for their husbands, due to them not worrying or caring if their husbands die (Bradbury 85). Husbands are just regular people who mean nothing to Mildred’s friends, Mildred displays these feelings when she calls the firemen on Montag, just like she would on everyone else (Bradbury 107). The people’s lives are so bland, that they watch the television show “The White Clown”, which is about clowns dismembering each other, just to get a thrill (Bradbury 85). Husbands are meaningless to women, whereas in our society, people care for one another, and their spouse’s safety. Having no detail due to censorship has turned people into uncaring monsters who try to find thrills in their

Laura Kipnis’s “Against Love”, and Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love” ,brings up the issue of what is the definition of love and is love what we think it is. Love has changed in comparison to what it once was, and we now loosely use the term, but what does it truly mean, and why do we buy in to it. Kipnis’s essay develops the idea that this “mature love” is when someone can love and be loved, and she takes the position that this does not happen. Although Kipnis believes mature love is neither a realistic expectation nor a good thing to have, I claim that the idea of mature love is not bogus, because even though it is rare to find, and may even take a few tries, I believe it is possible for people to have this mature love. Unlike Kipnis too, I believe mature love can take on different forms, and doesn’t have to just be so black and white like Kipnis explains it as.

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.

Love lies underneath the surface waiting for the one much like a volcano waiting to erupt. Love is the unselfish loyal concern for the good of another. Love can oftentimes create a strong bond between two people. This concept is often a popular theme within literature. As Janie develops throughout Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, she constantly learns and grows from her experiences.

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.

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.

In “About Love”, by Danielle Crittenden, she argues that women can only be happy in a marriage, if they set aside what she sees as misleading feminist ideas about having equal rights like man do, yet still being married to a man. I agree with the author that misleading ideas of feminism can cause a doubt about getting married too early or too late. A few reason that women are not sure about being married and still claim to be feminist is due to the worrying about being lonely, feeling that she will be looked down upon by her peers, and are trying to do things that could have been done far too later in her life.

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

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 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

One of the most complicated experiences in life, love cannot be precisely defined, but some basic indications help to characterize the feeling. Love is a very deep, passionate affection one person has for another or a relationship of the same nature that implies a unique intensity of emotion. It requires an especially strong connection and compatibility between two people, usually identified by a total understanding and respect for each other and a fundamental similarity in ideology. Love can also be seen in the way it alters people’s normal behavior; when someone is in love, the object of their affection seems like the most important thing in the world, and they do extreme things for that feeling to be requited. Love cannot easily be

   Love is one of the most confusing emotions that one can experience. It is simple yet complicated, unconditional but demanding, overused and unique. It is hard to explain what its means to feel love, to feel loved, or to be in love, however, there are aspects of love that are easily expressed. For example, ones unquestionable affection to the one they love, or the hardships and sacrifice that is endured for loved ones, and the underlying fact that once it is experienced it is not easily dismissed. The play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller describes love in just these ways, and, most of all, as the ultimate moral value that is the eternal bond that keeps people together. One can

In the poem, The Love song, written by T.S. Elliot, J Alfred Prufrock is a man who is very lonely and insecure. He goes throughout his life wishing for a change, but never stepping up to the plate and actually making a change. The title of the poem portrays to the reader that the poem is going to be full of love and romance. The reader soon found out later that the poem is just the opposite from the title, a sad, lonesome man who is not only lacking love, but also lacking self confidence and self esteem.

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?