“What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” by Raymond Carver is a short story that discuss about nature of love from the aspect of realism in contrast to fantasy. The story entails real life feelings, perspective, and raw truth between humans. He tries to define love through several characters’ perception on what true love is; however, the author kept it vague for the reader’s own interpretation.
The story’s main focus was on Mel, a man of science, through his work as a cardiologist. Terri, Mel’s second wife, who was the abused in a physical abusive relationship with her ex-husband, Ed. The fours friends were drinking and happen to stumbled on the topic of love. They began a light discussion on the subject matter; however, the lightness of the conversation changes as different view points began to emerge.
Terri got out of an abusive relationship because her ex-husband was physically abusive toward her. Ed ended up
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He believes that the EX was just a crazy person that enjoys abusing others, but tries to mask it by using the word love. Mel who works as a cardiologist tried to define what love is, but the more he does, the more confused he became. However, he truly believes that physical abuse is not love. Mel gave an example of what true love is by referencing the old couple that was his patient. The husband of the couple became depressed when he can not physically see his wife. To Mel, love is more factual and the physical aspect of time, meaning here and now. Seeing that the couple cannot be without each other is true love. He also mentions that if something was to happen to him or his wife, then the remaining party would eventually move on to look for new love. From this perspective, and his scientific background, I believe Mel feels that human are adaptive species, that will adapt to new situations and environments to fulfill their needs, which includes finding love and