The main conflict seen in this short story seems to exist between the characters and themselves. More specifically, all the characters seem to be confused over the concept of love and are left questioning "what [they] really know about love"(carver, 176). The reason this conflict even exists stems from the fact that every character attempts to define love. Terri believes that Ed, "the man she lived with before she lived with Mel loved her so much he tried to kill her"(Carver, 170). Ed's physical abuse towards Terri makes Mel feel as if "[that is] not love"(Carver, 171), however, Terri believes that the physical abuse was Ed's way of expressing love. The message Raymond Carver is providing here is that love cannot have a set definition. Throughout
