Professor Denman
English
8 October 2014
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
In the story of What We Talk About When We Talk we About Love, the meaning of love is constantly trying to be interpreted. At the end of the story we realize that love is something inexplicable and experienced differently by everyone. Mel, Terri, Nick and Laura spend the afternoon drinking and talking about their prior and current experiences with love in the brightly lit dining room of Mel’s house. Mel being a cardiologist and working with the heart on a daily basis tries the hardest to interpret the meaning of love. Every single person at the table believes they have been in love but cannot come to a conclusion on what love is.
Mel is the …show more content…
Mel buys a gun because he is threatened by the love Ed has for Terri. Mel knows that Ed would be willing to kill him over his love for Terri. Another idea Mel has for the protection of love is the beekeeper’s suit he would have on, to protect him when he unleashes a swam of angry bees into his ex-wife’s house. Mel talks about knights and their suits of armor and how it prevented them from getting hurt easily. These objects would protect Mel from being hurt by love. The others point out that when it comes to love maybe protection isn’t the best idea. They talk about how the knights would overheat in their armor because they were too tired. After the knights would fall to the ground they could suffocate, be trampled by their own horses or they may even just lay their until somebody comes along and makes a shish kebab out of …show more content…
The alcohol in the story represents the flow of conversation. When the bottle of gin is full conversation is flowing, and when the bottle is empty there is not much participation in the conversation. When the second bottle of gin is opened conversation begins to flow again on the topic of the old married couple. By the time the second bottle of gin is gone the room is dark and no one is moving. Mel claims he can only hear his heart beating at that point. The light in the room can be interpreted as the deepness and meaning in the conversation. As the conversations start everyone is open and excited in the room, as it is lit brightly. As the room darkens the conversation gets deeper into stories and the meaning of true love is being examined