What We Talk About When We Talk About Love Analysis

The elusive nature of love.

What we talk about when we talk about love analysis. The abuse she says derives from love. This is a hidden conflict that erupts in looks and surprisingly candid remarks. Terri has had an abusive relationship. Mel tries again and again to pinpoint the meaning of love but his examples never build up to any coherent conclusion.

Taken from his collection of the same name the story is narrated in the first person by a man called nick and it is through his observations that the reader discovers how difficult it is to define what love is. Of the four characters in the story mel by virtue of his profession would seem to be the one most likely to have some insight into matters of the heart. As the story opens mel is talking as nick from whose perspective the story takes place provides some description of the scene in mel s kitchen. Mel thinks love is spiritual and says he used to be in the seminary.

In what we talk about when we talk about love the conflict of power and control centers around mel and terrie. In what we talk about when we talk about love the conflict of power and control centers around mel and terrie. The setting is mel s house around a table with a bucket of ice in the middle. What we talk about when we talk about love.

What we talk about when we talk about love. A bottle of gin is inside it. Not only do the characters never leave the apartment they never leave the kitchen table. What we talk about when we talk about love.

The first thing we learn about mel mcginnis is that he s a cardiologist a heart doctor. What we talk about when we talk about love is set entirely in the albuquerque apartment of mel and terri mcginnis. The nature of love remains elusive throughout what we talk about when we talk about love despite the characters best efforts to define it. It takes places over the course of an afternoon in late summer or early fall.

What we talk about when we talk about love is indicative of this style there is no action to speak of or change of setting and nothing seems to really happen besides conversation over drinks. The narrator and mel are sitting around mel s kitchen table in albuquerque new mexico drinking gin with their wives laura and terri. They begin talking about love. Indeed he talks more than anyone else about love and has the strongest opinions.

The narrator says that his cardiologist friend mel mcginnis is talking. What we talk about when we talk about love is a short story of two married couples mel and terri and nick and laura who engage in a conversation one evening about the meaning of real love. In what we talk about when we talk about love by raymond carver we have the theme of love and the difficulties that can come with trying to define through language what love is. This bare bones setting is perfect for the story.

This is a hidden conflict that erupts in looks and surprisingly candid remarks.