Exploring Carvers Short Story, What We Talk About When We...

What is Love? Does anyone really know the meaning of the word? Does it have a different meaning to different people? These are the questions that Carver’s four characters ponder over heavily flowing gin and deep conversation in the short story, â€Å"What We Talk about When We Talk about Love.† Carver characters discuss and debate the meaning of love throughout the story. I will explain what the different characters feel about love. The author shows there are different types of love and different levels of each type. He also proves that someone’s emotions for a person can change from love to hate and then back to love. The characters search for the true meaning of love throughout the story, and in the end, neither figure it out. The story†¦show more content†¦This emphasizes Mel’s true feelings about love. He goes on to explain that he feels love is unconditional (Carver 727). Mel feels that if you can be abusive to someone and try to kill them, then you cannot possibly be in love with them. Through Mel, Carver is describing a true and unrestricted love. He is telling of a love above all that is not just physical, but powerful and deep, one where you not only feel passion for this person, but a profound emotional attachment. Terri counteracts his feelings about Ed. She believes he did really love her and that his abusiveness was just uncontrollable passion. Terri responds to Mel by saying, â€Å"†¦ Sure, sometimes he may have acted crazy. Okay. But he loved me. In his own way maybe, but he loved me. There was love there, Mel. Don’t say there wasn’t.† (Carver 726-727). This sums up Terri’s feelings of love. She feels that love can be on all different levels and can be felt differently by different people. Terri believes that a person can love another, even though they may be violent and cruel. After Terri left Ed, he tried committing suicide multiple times and finally died from the last attempt. She thinks this shows how strongly he truly felt for her, like her was saying there is no life without Terri (Carver 726-728). I think that the author, through Terri, is depicting a love that can be read in different ways. Terri feels that the passion that Ed felt for her was so strong that it turned easilyShow MoreRelatedAn Analysis Of Cathedral By Raymond Carver1441 Words   |  6 Pages Cathedral Research Paper The short story â€Å"Cathedral†, by Raymond Carver, is a thought provoking piece that focuses on the transition a man goes through to see the world with his soul. The story gives hope that people can change if given the chance to be better people. Over the course of the story, Carver uses both diction and description to explore themes in religion and morality. â€Å"Cathedral† depicts a husband and a wife as they prepare and entertain a friend of the wife. The husband, the narratorRead More Raymond Carvers Cathedral Essay6977 Words   |  28 Pages In quot;The Compartment,quot; one of Raymond Carvers bleakest stories, a man passes through the French countryside in a train, en route to a rendevous with a son he has not seen for many years. quot;Now and then,quot; the narrator says of the man, quot;Meyers saw a farmhouse and its outbuildings, everything surrounded by a wall. He thought this might be a good way to live-in an old house surrounded by a wallquot; (Cathedral 48). Due to a last minute change of heart, however, Meyers choosesRead MoreHbr When Your Core Business Is Dying74686 Words   |  299 PagesTOP-TEAM POLITICS†¦page 90 WHEN YOUR CORE BUSINESS IS DYING†¦page 66 Y GE SE PA IN DS CK R M WA A 53 www.hbr.org April 2007 58 What Your Leader Expects of You Larry Bossidy 66 Finding Your Next Core Business Chris Zook 78 Promise-Based Management: The Essence of Execution Donald N. Sull and Charles Spinosa 90 The Leadership Team: Complementary Strengths or Conï ¬â€šicting Agendas? Stephen A. Miles and Michael D. Watkins 100 Avoiding Integrity Land Mines BenRead MoreLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 Pagesthat is sold to students). (3) No Derivative Works You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. An earlier version of the book was published by Wadsworth Publishing Company, Belmont, California USA in 1993 with ISBN number 0-534-17688-7. When Wadsworth decided no longer to print the book, they returned their publishing rights to the original author, Bradley Dowden. The current version has been significantly revised. If you would like to suggest changes to the text, the author would appreciate