Literary Analysis Essay on What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

Introduction

The short story "What We Talk about When We Talk about Love" is among the most famous short stories that were written by Raymond Carver. The collection of short stories that he published earned a national reputation because of the style he employed. Carver made use of minimalism in his literature as well as absolute characterization, and this made his work outstanding. In most of his short stories, Carver loved incorporating characters that are alcoholics and showed how alcoholism affects relationships. This speaks a lot because we know that Carver had a drinking problem; therefore, it is apparent that he could mostly well-relate with what alcoholics go through. Carver was an alcoholic for more than ten years; however, he successfully managed to recover from the addiction. In "What We Talk about When We Talk about Love," Carver captures the theme of alcoholism alongside that of love. The four characters in the story, Mel, Terri, Laura, and Nick (the narrator) are captured spending their evening drinking gin and tonic water while indulging in a fascinating conversation on love. Drawing closer to the conversation and the drinking escapade that evening, it can be noted that Terri, Mel's second wife, has a different perspective on love. Mel disagrees with Terri's ideology, and he pours out several examples of love stories that are somewhat confusing just to prove his idea of love. Mel seems unsure about the clear explanation of love, and as a result, he kept drinking during the conversation while trying to drive his point home. Terri's perception of love makes Mel bitter, consequently prompting Mel to take more alcohol just to prove his point on the subject of love.

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The idea of love is central to the story. However, the subject of love is complicated as the characters lack a clear explanation of the topic. In the story, Mel is Terri's second husband, and Terri is Mel's second wife. Mel divorced with his wife of four children, and Terri's lover, Ed, committed suicide. Also, Laura is engaged to Nick. Less is revealed about the love existing between Laura and Nick. As the four spend the evening together, they drink gin and start discussing the nature of real love. Mel initiates the topic of love and affirms his belief that love is more than spiritual love. Terri offered her perspective on love by drawing an example from her real-life situation with her ex-lover, Ed. She states that Ed beat her although she believes that Ed loved her anyway. Mel disagrees with Terri, and he wonders the kind of reasoning emulated by her. Mel replies by stating, "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 it love" (Carver 171). These words capture the existing disparity between Mel and Terri regarding the nature of love. As for Terri, she believes that love can still exist even where couples engage in fights; however, as for Mel, violent relationships do not contain any love. The conflicting ideas on the issue of love between the two are overwhelming, and so Mel turns to the other couples for their opinion instead. He further explains that his life was at risk because Ed went ahead and threatened to kill him. Terri seems to incite Mel, pricking his inner peace into speaking more about the topic. However, on Ed's issue, Mel insists that "that's not love" (Carver 171). This debate influenced Mel into drinking more and more as he always tried to bring sense to Terri's situation with her ex-lover.

As the conversation about Terry's ex-lover progressed, Terri, for a moment, agreed with Mel that their lives were threatened by Ed, who was always on their backs planning to separate them so he can have Terri back. Terri pours the last of the gin into her glass and waggles the bottle. She appears tense, and in some way, influenced Mel into going for more gin at the cupboard. Mel went ahead and picked another bottle of gin, and resumed to the heated conversation. The four made a toast to love, to true love, with Mel initiating the toast. It seems Mel badly wanted to explain what real love is, and he could only do that under the influence of alcohol. This is the point where Mel wanted to demonstrate love based on an excellent example. He went ahead and poured more gin into his glass before continuing with the story. It is evident that Mel is an alcoholic, and he would only initiate conversation while drunk. However, all this influence comes from Terri, whose thinking on the issue of love seems to make Mel bitter to the point that Mel gets even less aware of the people around him.

As Mel begins the conversation after the toast, he first admits that they are all amateurs in the game of love. He admits that he loves Terri, who indeed reciprocates the love with similar energy. He goes on to acknowledge that love as being physical love as well as carnal love. However, Mel gets a hard time believing that he also loved his first wife at some point, which proves Terri's perspective of love. Mel momentarily paused and went on with the conversation. For a time, Mel drops several questions regarding the kind of love he experienced with his first wife, including, "There was a time when I thought I loved my first wife more than life itself. But now I hate her guts. I do. How do you explain that? What happened to that love? What happened to it is what I'd like to know. I wish someone could tell me. Then there's Ed. Okay, we're back to Ed. He loves Terri so much he tries to kill her, and he winds up killing himself" (Carver 177). Immediately after uttering the last word, he sips from his glass. This is a clear indication that Mel is consumed by Terri's kind of loving. He still finds it hard for Terri to keep insisting that she experienced love from Ed. The remembrance of Ed gives Mel a terrible recap. The mention of Ed in the whole story seems to drain him quite a lot. The instance where Mel admits that love can be rekindled even after a partner's departure conveys crucial information. It is until Terri gets concerned and interferes; she tells Mel that he is getting drunk. Mel's reaction is a bit harsh, and he starts justifying his statements by saying, "I don't have to be drunk to say what I think. I mean, we're all just talking, right?" (Carver 177) Mel gave those comments while his eyes glued on Terri. It appears that Mel had something eating him up, but would not explicitly speak it out. Mel goes on to state has he is not on call that day, implying that he has enough time to get his point home. This part showed some form of frustration present in Mel's expressions. Laura had to calm the situation by responding "Mel, we love you" (Carver 178). Mel created a satirical statement and picked up his glass for another drink. The fact that Terri's perspective on love pained him, it drove him nuts; he drunk every moment Terri intervened. Mel happens to be still bitter about Terri's ex-lover, Ed, yet Terri did not seem to get it. The fact that Terri does not admit that what she experienced with Ed was not love makes Mel angrier inside.

Mel happens to dominate a significant part of the conversation, and most of the narration expresses his opinions regarding the idea of love. Another exciting part of Mel's narration is when he tells of the old couple's story. This was a story that he believed to convey his meaning to real love, unlike Terri's story. He believed that if at all, there is true love, then the old couple showed him precisely what it means. Mel was perplexed by the idea that even after the old man suffering in bed after the accident, his main worry was not getting to see his wife as he usually does. During the narration, Mel took breaks to consume the gin. Other than that, Mel talks about the idea of him being a knight though all this seems to be a figurative language. Mel's is amused by the idea of putting armor on as a knight. He states, "You are pretty safe wearing all that armor" (Carver 180). This clearly shows his desire to shield himself emotionally against toxic love. This imagery is brought to sense, even more, when it suggests that the emotional armor has failed to shield him against the threats of new love: "It was all right being a knight until gunpowder and muskets and pistols came along" (Carver 181). His love for the Knights' ideology demonstrates how vulnerable he is and how he desires protection from getting hurt while in relationships. In a way, it can be understood that Mel is hurting from Mel's comments regarding the subject of love. How he protects himself from getting emotionally hurt is through drinking. The drinking allows him to forget the reality of love, and Mel fails to appreciate the fact that love can be complicated, and that words are not enough to explain love. Terri's view of love is quite different and open-minded; she appreciates the fact that love can exist even where domestic violence is present. She continuously justified Ed's doings, claiming that it was a show of love to her.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can note the destructiveness of love in the short story. Terri's love for Mel enables him to continue abusing alcohol. Terri seems to have a significant influence on Mel's drinking. The idea that Terri views love at a different perspective disturbs Mel. Throughout the conversation, Mel focused on drinking whenever he had to justify his verdict on love. Terri claiming that Ed loved her seems to eat up Mel's mind. He fails to understand how that is possible; he claimed that Ed's behavior is not "love," but instead, he gave examples to demonstrate ideal cases of real love. Mel bears an entirely complicated perspective of love because, at one point, he even questioned his love for the first wife. As the conversation progresses, Mel takes an antagonistic stand and attacks the others. They try to cool him off, but Mel drunk more, all in an attempt to drive his point home. The writer uses minimalism in the short story, and it causes suspense and ambiguity in the narrative. As such, the writer ends the story in a hanging manner. Carver is a living example of an alcoholic, and that is the reason why he clearly understands how alcohol affects relationships and vice versa. Carver gets to capture the conversation in an ideal view while incorporating stylistic figurative language. In the short story, Terri, however, does not realize that she enables Mel's drinking. The idea of her inciting Mel to speak more on the topic blinds her from realizing that she is prompting Mel to drink more. Mel comfortably told the examples and justified his experiences while getting drunk, yet Terri never realized.

Works Cited

Carver, Raymond. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (Mandarin Edition). Simon and Schuster, 2014.