Ms. Nguyen
English 1301
December 11, 2016 “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” was the story written by Raymond Carver in the year 1981. This is one of his most popular stories and continues to be referenced, even in 2015, in pop culture. The story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” is a story about two couples one evening as they sit around debating about love while drinking gin. Terri speaks so much about her past partner who was emotionally unbalanced and physically abusive to her, while still claiming that he loves her in his own way. Mel says that he was trying to make a point. He tells them about an elderly couple who were nearly killed when a drunk teenager hit their camper with his car. …show more content…
Mel is always on duty that is why he cannot spend much time with Terri. The ordinary quiet life is too boring for her. She doesn’t have the variety in her relationship with Mel. But Mel, who works so hard, prefers such boring way of life with the laying on the sofa and reading the newspaper. Their passion and desires are over, and Mel and Terri are both tired of each other. But Mel is more sensible person than Terri. It is clear for him, that Ed had never loved Terri. It is hard to believe how Ed can bit his wife Terri, if he loves her that much. Throughout the whole story, one can observe the tense between Mal and Terri. She tries provoking Mel to impoliteness; Terri breaks into a conversation, interrupts his speech. The Mel’s phrase -” Just shut up for once in your life”- tells a lot about their relations. Though they say they love each other, it is not true because love it is not only the display of attraction, passion, and declaration of it, but it is also the understanding, the ability to listen to a someone and sometimes even the concessions. As we could see in their discussion, Terri and Mel don’t have anything from the …show more content…
They seem happy and know what love is. As Terri says, they are still gaga, and it is no wonder because they have been together a year and a half. It passed not so much time to get tired with each other. Furthermore, as Nick owns to himself, Laura “is easy to be with”. So, the love for all those people on the kitchen – is something light and easy done. While Mal and Terri were fighting for love at the first stage of their relations, they were interested in it, and it seemed to them it was the real love. Now, when Ed is dead and their sufferings are over, their feelings passed. The same situation can be with Laura and Nick. They like each other while there is an attraction between