Stories, be they written or on screen, usually employ setting as a backdrop and having no direct relation to the actual storyline progression. This, however, is not the case in Raymond Carver's tale "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love." In this short story, a single element - sunlight - reflects(no pun intended) the progression of the story, showing a direct relation between the characters openness in talking about love, their knowledge on the subject, their mood, the point of discussion as well as their confidence in their own abilities. As we will soon see, the element of sunlight will take us into four different levels of progression, helping us to dissect and better understand its role within the story.

In the first phase of the story, when "Sunlight filled the kitchen from the big window behind the sink" the mood in the room is one of general happiness; the two couples are joking with each other, smiling and being affectionate as we see when Nick admires Laura's fingers and also kisses her hand. (Carver 170) Their main point of discussion is about Terri's ex-boyfriend, Ed, and how mentally unstable he was. During this conversation, we see that ther

In the third phase of the story, when "The sunshine inside the room was different now, changing, getting thinner," the topic of discussion centers on an old couple who were involved in a car crash. By this point in the story, everyone is pretty much open with their feelings, and they are all deeply involved in the conversation. This is exemplified by Laura's encouraging of Mel in his story-telling. She asks him, "What about the old couple? You didn't finish the story you started" when he changes the subject midway through his story. (Carver 182) The mood changes even more, turning more serious than earlier. (Carver 182) Mel becomes very serious in his retelling of the story of the old couple in the hospital, admonishing Terri for making jokes about it. Their knowledge of the subject of love takes a further beating when Mel continues his story of the old couple, showing his disbelief at their level of love for one another, stating that "it was killing the old fart just because he couldn't look at the fucking woman." (Carver 183) He found that level of love to be so unheard of that he has to ask everyone else "Do you see what I'm saying?" to make sure that they comprehended exactly just what it is he was trying to state. Their confidence was slowly ebbing away even further. Whereas earlier in the conversations they were so sure of themselves, even going so far as to toast "To love", now they were even unsure of what that meant. (Carver 176) Unable to come to terms with the realization that he knows nothing about love, Nick instead tries to rationalize everything by saying "Maybe we were a little drunk by then", blaming the alcohol for skewering his 'world.'(Carver 183)

The element of sunlight and its effect on the Raymond Carver story "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" follows a very strict time-line. Everything either follows a pattern of progression - as in the case of the couples opening up to the conversation - or regression, as we see with their confidence and understanding slowly fading from beginning to end. When the sun shone brightly, everyone was happy and confident, when the sun w

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1426
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)