ipl-logo

When We Talk About Love By Raymond Carver

1069 Words5 Pages

What We Talk About when We Talk About Love The short story “What We Talk When We Talk About Love” by Raymond Carver is about four friends, Mel, Terri, Laura, and Nick, having a conversation around a table. As they start to drink, the subject comes to “love.” The main topic of their conversation is defining the word love, in other words they are trying to define the actual meaning of love. However, by the end they don’t end up finding out the definition of love, even though they talked about it the rest of their evening. In the story, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” Carver uses symbols to show that the definition of love can be expressed by gin, sunlight, and heart. Throughout the book nick, Mel, Terri, and Laura are consuming alcohol during their discussion about love. Their increasing intoxication is mirroring …show more content…

When doing surgery on a heart it does take patience and you must be steady with your hands. Mel has strong beliefs on what is and isn’t love. After Terri explained what happened to her in her last relationship Mel said, “My God, don’t be silly. That’s not love, and you know it. I don’t know what you’d call it, but I sure know you wouldn’t call that love.” Mel believes that love should not be hurtful yet fixing your heart can really help you see what love should be like. Mel thinks love is something we spend our lives learning about. His thoughts and questions on love, and his insistence that he and us are just “beginners" (56) makes him seem deeply romantic and sincere. His wife Terri gets that sense, saying, “Mel always has love on his mind […], don’t you honey?” (10). When Mel was telling his story about his patients, he thought working on their heart, he could somehow know about their love for one another. He could somehow know what love could feel like and how it could

Show More
Related

Analysis Of Lockie Leonard By Tim Winton

619 Words | 3 Pages

The idea of love is explored in the novel in the relationship between Lockie Leonard and Vicki Streeton. Lockie moves to his new town and as you would expect he struggles to fit in at school, to make new friends and to be accepted. Lockie falls in love with the smartest, rich, pretty girl in the class, Vicki Streeton. Vicki wants a superficial relationship where she can experience her first kiss whereas Lockie believes that they will last forever.

Read More

Love Language In Fifth Business By Robertson Davies

664 Words | 3 Pages

In conclusion, through the life of the protagonist Dunny, the realization of the different types of love shown by Mrs. Dempster and Mrs. Ramsay becomes evident. Although they similarly have love for Dunny, it appears in two different ways. While Mrs. Ramsay displays a tough love to Dunny, in contrast, Mrs. Dempster gives a carefree and natural love. Their love impacts Dunny both positively and negatively and is significant to the development of his character. The love languages that humans use can be shown in specific ways but in return are received accordingly to that of a specific individual.

Read More

Summary Of Sarah Cole A Type Of Love Story

1494 Words | 6 Pages

We live in a society that has increasingly demoralizes 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 indeed are. Real love is difficult to find and keeping it alive is even harder, especially when one must overcome their own anxieties and uncertainties to embrace its presence. This is the main theme depicted in Russell Banks’ short story “Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story,” as well as in Richard Bausch’s “The Fireman’s Wife.” These narratives, although similar in some ways, are completely different types of love stories.

Read More

Why, You Reckon By Langston Hughes

409 Words | 2 Pages

The purpose of “Why, You Reckon?” by Langston Hughes is to accurately display, through the times of that century and human emotion, that despite money, power, and the color of your skin there can still be an unhappiness of the soul. There is evidence in the beginning of the short story of two men’s unhappiness in life the symbol of them being uncontent was their hunger. “Man, ain’t you hongry.... Well, sir, I’m tellin’ you, I was so tired and hongry and cold that night.” (253- 254).

Read More

Love In The Things They Carried, By Tim O Brien

1234 Words | 5 Pages

In The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, many of the characters’ thoughts stay centered around love. The Things They Carried is a collection of short stories based upon Tim O’Brien’s time in the Vietnam War. Throughout his writing, Tim explains the ups and downs of war, the feelings he and the other men felt, and the situations they found themselves in. He gives a very in depth look specifically on the idea of love during a time of war. The Things They Carried demonstrates the power love has over the thoughts and actions of the people in its stories.

Read More

Grey's Anatomy Episode Analysis Jo Wilson

501 Words | 3 Pages

During the Grey’s Anatomy episode, Silent All These Years, a patient walks into the Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital lobby with a cut on her face. Every sound echoes through her ears as she moves through a crowd of people. She feels as if nothing can fix or change how she feels after what she has just been through. (3:30 - 3:41). Jo Wilson’s, experienced viewpoint is demonstrated through this scene and the whole episode providing the patient, Abby, with comfort, advice, and guidance.

Read More

A Bridge To Wiseman's Cove Analysis

937 Words | 4 Pages

As the story progresses, love is expressed in the novel. The author uses character perspectives to express the theme of love. Love is a common topic played in society. The many types of love include, love for an object or thing, family love, and the love for the

Read More

The Impacts Of Love In Sketches By Eric Walters

769 Words | 4 Pages

Love is a specialty Love consists of many stories and good times with your family and friends, but it also consists of many challenges along the way. In “Sketches”, Eric Walters explores the impacts that love can cause people who truly care about others and or are facing the same challenges as Dana. Furthermore, love can help in times of need and this is evident in Walter’s characterization of Dana and the gloomy yet helpful setting of Toronto. Eric Walters’ use of love in the setting, especially when they are alone on the streets at night and when Dana is in the sketches building, lets Dana, Brent, and Ashley realize that they love each other. He uses love as a primary setting when Dana, Brent, and Ashley are on the streets alone at night,

Read More

If Beale Street Could Talk By James Baldwin

541 Words | 3 Pages

Kirby If Beale Street Could Talk Essay James Baldwin uses a vast and varied toolbox of writing techniques to illustrate and highlight the many themes of oppression, family, religion, sex and violence in If Beale Street Could Talk. One technique that is used consistently throughout the text is a reliance on metaphors. “If you cross the Sahara, and you fall, by and by vultures circle around you, smelling, sensing, your death” (pg. 6), here Baldwin is using the Sahara as a metaphor for both the oppression that black people face on a daily basis and the way the system (the vultures) has chewed up and spit out, or rather is still chewing, on an innocent black man (Fonny). Another metaphor used by Baldwin is the statue that Fonny gives to Tish’s

Read More

The Giver, By Lois Lowry

758 Words | 4 Pages

Jonas knew what love was, but he didn’t know the feeling of warmth and adoration. His family never felt compassion towards Jonas either. This was the same with the whole Community, no one felt love. When people do feel a sense of intimacy, they have to take a pill to get rid of their feelings. Mother explained, “...You’re ready for the pills, that’s all.

Read More

Analysis Of What We Talk About When We Talk About Love By Raymond Carver

959 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout the whole story, each member of the group was sure they knew what love was. However when trying to verbally describe it out loud, none of them could do so well enough to get across what they meant. Mel tried using two different examples but neither explanation ever went anywhere. Terri was sure she knew what love was based on an abusive relationship, showing the reader that her idea or perception of love is warped. Nick and Laura both just knew they loved each other but only being together for eighteen months they were still in their honeymoon phase with their blinders

Read More

Sympathy By Paul Laurence Dunbar

791 Words | 4 Pages

Slavery was, and still is one of humanity’s largest issues to date. Oppression is far from overcome, and discrimination because of one’s race is something that most believe will never truly disappear. The poem “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar is a piece of work that highlights the tactics which were used against slaves at the time, yet in a subtle manner. The poem itself is a conceit; one long, extended metaphor, comparing slaves with a caged bird that is unable to fly and be free. The poem utilizes many different literary devices and types of figurative language, such as symbolism, simile, alliteration, imagery, and other sound devices to convey to the readers the true horrors of slavery and what it did to the African Americans.

Read More

The Theme Of Love In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

1161 Words | 5 Pages

Have you ever read a love story before? Well, according to writer Harper Lee, her book To Kill a Mockingbird is a love story. When people first read the book, they would never in a million years have thought that it would be a love story. However, after you finish To Kill a Mockingbird and read it over a couple of times, you will soon realize that she was right to call her story a love story. Although it is not your typical love of kisses, it has a different type of love, which the Greeks call philia love, the love in deep friendships; storge love, the love of a parent and their child, and vice versa; and finally, agape love," the highest level of love, in which you love someone no matter what.

Read More

When We Talk About Love By Raymond Carver Analysis

1396 Words | 6 Pages

The short story “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love” by Raymond Carver is about four friends- Laura, Mel, Nick, and Terri, gathering on a table and having a conversation. As they start to drink, the subject abruptly comes to “love.” Then, the main topic of their conversation becomes to find the definition of love, in other word to define what exactly love means. However, at the end, they cannot find out the definition of love even though they talk on the subject for a day long. Raymond Carver in “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love” illustrates the difficulty of defining love by using symbols such as heart, gin, and the sunlight.

Read More

Personal Narrative: Auto Mechanics

930 Words | 4 Pages

The Intro Lights of different shapes and colors appear across your dash and your vehicle is making odd noises and smells. The questions run through your head of what it could be, how much will the fix cost you, who will you go to? You know nothing about cars so what do you do? I used to ask the same question when I started driving my own car.

Read More

More about When We Talk About Love By Raymond Carver

Related Topics

Open Document