When We Talk About Love Short Story

In Raymond Carver’s short story, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” the nature of love remains elusive regardless of the main characters trying to define it. Mel talks about love throughout majority of the story but can never pinpoint what love actually is to him. For example, he tells his friends about an elderly couple who nearly died in a car crash, and how the old man became depressed by not being able to see his wife. When he asserts that he’ll tell everyone exactly what love is, he loses his train of thought once more and goes on to talk about how strange it is that he and the others have loved more than one person. As well as stating that Terri’s previous relationship was not love and that her ex was dangerous. Terri exclaims that, “Say what you want to, but I know what it was. It may sound crazy to you, but it’s true just the same. People are different, Mel. Sure sometimes he may of acted crazy. Okay. But he loved me. In his own way maybe…” While Jack and Laura show their way of love differently by being more physical by holding hands, touching knees, and blushing towards each other. Carver had these characters face these certain conflicts to show that everyone has a different connotation with love whether it be that they are stuck in an abusive relationship, they love something so much they would die for it, or life is nothing without finding a true love, to them it is love. One motif that might have caused the discussion of love to come up could of been