Raymond Carver Short Story

The central question raised is what constitutes love, and this is raised in terms of how certain actions and behaviors might claim to be love but really cannot be. That, at least, is Mel's point of view when Terri talks about the man she lived with before: "Terri said the man she lived with before she lived with Mel loved her so much he tried to kill her" (256). Mel takes umbrage at this characterization: "That's not love, and you know it" (256). Terri's description of what the man did to her is especially brutal, but all the while the man continued saying that he loved her even as he beat her and dragged her around the room. Underlying this talk is a certain tension between Mel and Terri that emerges in what they say about each other and what they think about this former boyfriend. Terri is indulgent with him and also understands that love may take some odd forms, while Mel pretends that love has only

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nhealthy, but at the same time, it is highly romanticized, which may be why it appeals to Terri in spite of the damage it did to her. He pines for her and commits suicide, or at last this is the way it affects her. In another sense, she is more forgiving and more sympathetic than Mel, who says, "the kind of love I'm talking about, you don't try to kill people" (257). At the same time, Mel seems resentful about the fact that love is transitory. He is not sober in this scene, and the fact that he has had too much to drink frees him to be more open than he might be at other times. He is described by Nick as a man who when sober, "his gestures, all his movements, were precise, very careful" (257). Such a man might not be so open about his feelings about love, but under the influence of alcohol, he begins to wax philosophical on the subject and to point out what love is and is not. The immediate impetus for this is Terri raising the issue of Ed, but the entire conversation seems to be one that reflects an ongoing battle between Mel and Terri--this is a discussion they have had before as Mel deplores what Ed did and Terri shows sympathy for the man in spite of how he treated her. Throughout, Nick and Laura serve more as foils
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Laura Nick, Ed Terri, Nick Laura, Raymond Carver, Mel Terri, Plato's Symposium, Terri Mel, Stop You're, nick laura, Terri Saltzman, mel terri, Socrates Plato, talk love, throughout nick laura, ed terri, terri lived, lived mel, terms actions, mel takes, laura serve, nick laura serve, talk talk love, claim love,
Approximate Word count = 1450
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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