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Michael Gonzalez
Professor Lago
ENG 1500-12
5/1/14
In-Class Essay
So many things pop up in my head when I think about love. Love is such an abstract
concept and the only way I can define it, in terms of person to person, is an emotional attachment
and an emotional investment towards someone closest to you. Love, in its essence, is very
beautiful, but it is a hard concept to understand and some may not even know how act on it on
love. For everyone, love has its basic definition, but all have different views and perspectives
about it. The story that best describes all of this is the story of, What We Talk about When We
Talk about Love by Raymond Carver. This story gives us a weird perspective on love. In the
story, two couples, Mel, Terri, Laura, and the narrator, were sitting down drinking some gin and
a very awkward and uncomfortable subject had come up about Terris past relationship with a
guy named Ed.
Terris relationship with Ed is certainly questionable considering that Ed physically
abused Terri. Ed had a deep passion for Terri, but with his inner struggles, he faces friction
between his actions and his passion towards Terri. In addition, Terri defends Ed in the
conversation while Mel was talking badly about Ed. Terri said, He beat me up one night. He
dragged me around the living room by my ankles. He kept saying, I love you, I love you, you
bitch (Carver 331). This could make anyone think that Ed is absolutely insane, but considering
that Terri knew the struggle Ed had within himself she understood that, and even though it was a
weird way of expressing love, but it was his way of expressing it. Mel wasnt too happy about
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that and didnt think it was love, he made it really clear when he said, My God, dont be silly.
Thats not love and you know it (Carver 331). As you can see, Eds actions do not express love,
if so, hate and anger. Eds actions reflect how he misunderstood the concept of love and didnt
know how to act on it (Carver 330-331).
Mel loves Terri very much in a different way in which he thinks it is the right way. His
compassion towards Terri was reflected in a weird way as well, but it is more understood to the
average person. Moreover, Mel showed, almost, disgust to the fact that Terri was defending Eds
actions. Mel said, Poor Ed nothing He was dangerous after Terri had told the narrator and
his wife Laura that Ed had killed himself (Carver 331) . Mels anger and passion towards Terri is
a bit sketchy as well because it could seem like he was controlling Terris opinion and view of
her past relationship with Ed. On the other hand, it seems to be that Mel was upset at the thought
of having the love of his life being beaten by any man (Carver 330-333).
The narrator and Laura were speculating the situation throughout the story and they are
what we considered as, the cute kind of soft spoken couple. In the story it says, I touched the
back of Lauras hand. She gave me a quick smile I encircled the broad wrist with my fingers
and I held her and I thought of this I just thought of the typical cute couple and at an awkward
situation such as this, they were trying to comfort one another through touch (Carver 331).
Throughout the story the narrator and his wife Laura did not speak that much, but when they did,
they had a sense of wisdom and maturity when they spoke and you could actually see it (on
pages 334-336). Laura and the narrator had a clearer concept of what love was for them and they
were more in tune to one anothers perspective about it.


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Works Cited
Carver, Raymond. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. Literature and
the Writing Process. Tenth Edition. Joseph Terry, Sean Strathy. Saddle River New jersey:
Pearson, 2014. 330-338. Print.