What We Talk About When We Talk About Love analysis explores the theme and symbolism of love in the short story collection by Raymond Carver. The essay contains the book’s summary and character analysis.
Introduction
Raymond Carver is the writer who uses minimalism in his writing style to set up the tone of the story from the very beginning. “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” by Carver explores the subject of love. Love is a word that one hears in everyday life. Talking about love, people mean different things. People talk about loving their parents, cars, pets, movies, books, ice cream, children, spouses, and so forth. However, love is different in each instance, and the concept of love puzzles many people. In contemporary pop culture, the word love has been overused, and it is not easy to tell what the word actually means. Love means different things to different people. The essay shall examine major themes and main characters of the story and their attitude to love and relationships.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love: Summary
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is a collection of 17 short stories written by Raymond Carver, a famous American writer. Published in 1981, the book received immediate critical acclaim and gained the nickname of “minimalist masterpiece”. The collection is united by the theme of love that is considered under various angles in each of the stories.
One of the most touching and thought-provoking stories bears the same title as the entire collection. It focuses on two couples that gather around a table drinking gin and talking about love.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love: Theme
Physical love
Nick and Laura are a couple who got married recently. They met in the course of their professional duties and have been married for eighteen months. The kind of love they exhibit is physical. It is the kind newly married couples express to each other, and it seems that this is a remarkable period in their love life.
They behave very affectionately towards each other “I touched the back of Laura’s hand. She gave me a quick smile. I picked up Laura’s hand. It was warm, the nails polished, perfectly manicured. I encircled the broad wrist with my fingers, and I held her” (Carver 390).
In return, Laura bumps her husband’s knee with hers to urge him to speak. On the contrary, they seem to have a hollow relationship, which Mel describes as virtual perfection. For instance, Nick, who is the narrator of the story, says that they enjoy each other’s company, and Laura is a woman with which it is easy to be close. The couple is friends and lovers, and this would be an ideal situation for any couple. However, there is a sad ring to it because everything that comes easy goes easy. The physical attraction and love talks are bound to end at some point in their relationship, then what?
Spiritual love
The main emphasis in “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” analysis essay is on the old couple. The old couple, as Mel describes, has a kind of spiritual love. The old man is very disappointed because he is unable to see his wife due to the bandages on his face. The couple contrasts the couples in the kitchen who do not seem to have such kind of love that goes way beyond the physical. The type of love the old couple has looks like it will last until death, unlike for the couples sipping their gin who view it as something that can be disposed of when no longer convenient.
Transitory love
There is the myth of eternal love. In many romance movies and novels, couples fall in love and live happily forever. However, the reality of contemporary love is far from the concept of eternal love. People keep moving from one marriage to another. Each time they marry someone, they claim they are in love.
The couples in the story are in their second marriages after the failure of their first ones. As is clear from Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” analysis, each person claims to have loved his or her former spouse. For example, Mel says he once loved his first wife, Marjorie, maybe even more than his own life but now hates her and wishes she would die. He also says that if one of them was to die, he was sure the other would remarry after mourning for a while. One then wonders what love is if you love somebody today, and tomorrow you loathe them.
Brutal love
Terri was married to Ed, a barterer. He abused her physically and threatened to kill her for staying with Mel. Yet she claims that he loved her. According to her, the abuse Ed unleashed on her was a sign of love, but her current husband disagrees and says that kind of love does not exist because love does not try to kill.
Ed seems to be dependent on Terri and feels very vulnerable when she is away, hence he attempted suicide. The kind of love they had was unhealthy. When a person becomes too dependent on another and very possessive, the results can be disastrous, and today, many homicides have been committed in the name of love. So what can we call the love that kills?
Conclusion
The two couples’ attempts to talk about love end up in circles because they do not come to a consensus on what real love is. The ending of the story gives no clear answer to the question about what love is. Each person has a different definition of love, and this applies today. For instance, some people endure domestic violence because they believe the bartering occurs due to love.
In addition, many couples are in search of real love, but it remains elusive as that of the couples who take gin that gives them a false sense of love. In the end, they are left hungering for something more profound than they have as they realize that the gin only gives them an illusion of love.
Work Cited
Carver, Raymond. What we talk about when we talk about love. New York: Harvill Press, 1996.