What We Talk about When We Talk about Love - Essay Example

The Recognition of Love “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” is the story to one of Raymond Carver’s most minimalistic short story collections. It is a first-person narrative told from the perspective of one of the characters named Nick. Nick and his wife, Laura are drinking gin at the house of a cardiologist, Mel and his wife, Terri in Albuquerque. Their conversation veers toward the subject of love. Mel dwells on the subject of spiritual love and reveals his life as a seminarian before he leave it to enroll in medical school. His wife Terri then relates her own story of her last boyfriend, Ed, who she claims loved her to the extent of wanting to kill her. Mel refutes her statement and reveals that Ed is the same person who threatened to kill him. The visitors Nick and Laura comment that love cannot be pinned down in a definite way. Mel continues his narrative about how Ed killed himself. Terri mentions that she was with him in the hospital room when he died. Mel and Terri argue whether this could be considered love. She admits that the situation was abnormal but insists that it was indeed true love. On the other hand, Laura declares that she and her husband Nick know about true love. Nick responds by kissing her hand which proved amusing to all. Laura explains that she and Nick have been together for a year and a half. Terri warns that things could change over time. The two couples drink a toast to love. In the course of the afternoon, the couples continue to drink gin and tell stories. Mel doubts whether anyone can really know about true love. He confesses that he now has difficulty in accepting the fact that he once loved his first wife as much as Nick and Laura now love each other. He concludes this belief by stating that he and Terri as well as Nick and Laura all had loved other people before and suggests that if anything happened to him and Terri, they would grieve for a long time but eventually love again. Terri suggests that her husband is already drunk. Mel embarks into another story about love. He tells of a couple in their seventies who got involved in a car accident with a teenager who was instantly killed. The elderly couple was rushed to the hospital alive but seriously wounded. As the conversation went to other topic, Mel made a surprising remark. He states that if Nick was not his closes friend and if Terri was not his wife, he would fall in love with Laura. Terri tells her husband to finish his tory and he continues by saying that he would periodically visit the old patients in the hospital and, noting their progress, comforted them by telling them that they would soon get well. The old man was depressed at the fact that he could not turn his head to look at his wife. Mel emphasized the reality of the situation that what was killing him was that he could not look at her. His companions did not know how to react. Just then, Mel says he wants to call his children but Terri reminds him that his ex-wife might object and that would make him feel even worse. He reacts with a death wish for her and the story ends when the final bottle of gin is kicked with Mel spilling it onto the table. The sun setting, no one in the group dares to move “even when the room went dark.” We go next to the various literary contexts encountered in Raymond Carver’s short story. Because not much happens in terms of plot development, the gist of the story consists of dialogue among the characters. The socializing that takes place centers on alcohol consumption which in this case is gin. Without gin they are at a loss for words or action, for that matter. The author exhibits realism in his description of the drunken behavior of Mel since he comes from an alcoholic family. He and his father were both alcoholics. While not much happens among the couples seated at the table, the theme concerns the stories about love the characters narrate. Two stories served as “framed” narrative or stories within stories. One of them is about Terri’s past relationship with Ed, the man she lived with before Mel. She claimed that Ed loved her despite his abusing her physically and emotionally. Mel, in turn, insisted that Ed was crazy. When Terri left Ed, he committed suicide. In the hospital, despite Mel’s disapproval, Terri was with Ed. Terri describes the abnormal relationship with Ed as true love, despite its being abnormal. The next framed narrative is told by Mel about the elderly couple who met with an accident. That a version of Mel’s comment is used as the title of the story suggests that the old couple experiences genuine love, while the characters who discuss love merely talk about it, but do not fully understand it. Carver’s short story makes use of symbol, one of which is the bees which symbolizes Mel’s rage toward his ex-wife. He wishes her to be stung to death by bees. Another symbol is that of the knights. The knights, serfs and vassals present the hierarchical relationship that existed during the Middle Ages. Mel believes that everyone is always a vessel (vassal) to someone. This short story we focus on classified as minimalist fiction. Minimalism is a writing style in which most of the plot occurs beneath the surface. Other attributes are realism, depicting working class characters and frequently open-ended conclusions. “Chekhov is exemplary of a minimalist fiction writer and often credited with originating the technique. Hemingway is credited with developing the American Minimalist short story, and his well-known “iceberg theory” in which he says that seven-eighths of the action in the story takes place under the surface of the plot, provides a good definition of minimal” (Champton, n.d.) In his writing career Carver cites both Hemingway and Chekhov as outstanding writing influences for him. It was Carver who revived the minimalist short story tradition in America in a significant manner more than any other writer in the 1970’s. What then is true love? In my search for answers I read Carver’s famous story all over again and have come to agree with some ideas that have surfaced as a result. Finally, that we all recognize love when we see it; know it when we feel it; cherish its presence and grieve its loss. Another is that love is in the details and it’s the same in fiction. Still another is that since people are entirely similar and entirely different – we all love, we are all loved, but we all love differently. This writer’s idea of true love centers on an elderly couple like Mel’s example who had lived together for half a century. Every single day of their lives, they would eat breakfast together and while the husband scanned the daily papers, the wife would sip her coffee feasting her eyes on her husband’s face as though she could never have her fill of it. The old man passed away and for a time she was heartbroken. She healed in time, but the scars are still there. She has his pictures in their bedroom and they greet her when she gets up in the morning and when she retires in the night. She revealed this to me not so long ago and I should know. I am a close friend and neighbor. True love stands the test of time. She has never lost hope that they will see each other again. Reference Champion, L. (n.d.) Literary Contexts in Short Stories: Raymond Carvers "What We Talk about When We Talk about Love". Read More