True Love I think Not Raymon Carver

A detailed Summary of True Love I think Not Raymon Carver

In Raymond Carver's, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love," Mel offers the old couple that is injured in the car accident as an example of true love. Mel says, '"they had these incredible reserves those two ... they both kept plugging away at it for two weeks hitting it better and better on all the scopes'" (p. 413). This statement makes me think the two are struggling to get better for each other. In the end though, one can see that Mel's example really isn't as good as he thought.

You hear about it from time to time that a couple that is truly in love will do whatever it takes just to get back in the arms of their partner. This idea was brought up by Mel's quote, '"the husband was very depressed for the longest while ... after he found out his wife was going to pull through he was still very depressed ... he'd say it wasn't the accident exactly but it was because he couldn't see her through his eye holes'" (p. 415). Mel's example here is that the man was very upset because he could not take one glimpse of the woman he loved. All he wanted to do was look at her, and the fact that he could not set him into a deep depression.

We as readers can infer that true love isn't the kind where the physical aspects are the

Mel had said before that for true love there needs to be a '"sentimental, day-to-day caring about the other person"' (p. 412). When Mel calls the story a '"good example"' (p. 411) of love, we expect to see both sides of the love, the physical aspects and the sentimental ones. We in fact only see the physical ones by the time Mel's story is complete. This is proven by the way the author italicizes all of the verbs, such as; look and see. He says, '"even after [the old man] found out that his wife was going to pull through he was still very depressed"' (p. 415). This quote points out that the sentimental love is not all there. He knows his wife is going to live and still does not change his outlook on life. Mel's story ends very shortly after this discovery. He is found concluding his story by saying, '"I mean it was killing the old fart just because he couldn't look at the *censored*ing woman"' (p. 416).

At this point everyone at the table looked right at Mel. In an unsure voice he replied, '"Do you see what I'm saying"' (p. 416)? At this point Mel realizes he just contradicted his previous statements. He said earlier that true love contains two distinct kinds of love, the physical kind and the sentimental kind. The old man in this story definitely didn't have both kinds of needs. The old man only stated the fact that he needed to see her, and not that he needed to talk to her. Therefore, the man only had a physical love for his wife and not a sentimental one. Since the combination of the two is wh

Some common words found in the essay are:
Love Mel, true love, love mel, physical love, love wife, mel's story, person' 412 mel, caring person' 412, physical love wife, found wife pull, kinds love, physical aspects, mel's example, real love, 412 mel,

Approximate Word count = 1028
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous