When We Talk About Love Raymond Carver Analysis

2.) The setting/place in a story is an important device that an author can use to enhance a message or symbol. In Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”, the setting of the kitchen and kitchen table is used in a metaphorical way to symbolize to the reader the characters inability to come to a conclusion. In this story, the characters try to define the concept of love in concrete terms. In addition to not coming to a conclusion about this definition, they never leave the kitchen despite intending to go out. In this story the fact that the characters cannot leave the setting acts as metaphor for the characters inability to come to a consensus about what love really is. This is illustrated by the final lines of the story where Nick narrates, “I could hear my heart beating. I could hear everyone’s heart. I could hear the human noise we sat there making, not one of us moving, not even when the room went dark” (Carver 236). Here the narrator describes the “human noise” the characters were making which is indicative of the characters thinking about what love actually means. Then the narrator says that none of them move, thus they continue making that “human noise” of thinking never leaving the place in which this thinking began. If the setting had have

The setting can also be used to emphasize a certain message or deeper meaning in a story such as in “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” when the setting shows how ‘Love’ is a difficult concept to define. Similarly, the setting can be metaphorical for the inner thoughts of the characters in the story. This was seen in snow when the light reflected Russell’s uncertainty about what Love meant for him at his stage in life. These stories show how the setting is such an important aspect of emphasizing the message and meaning of a story to the