O'Connor writes as a middle aged adult looking back upon his childhood love for his mother. The story is that of a young boy growing up in an Irish family in the early Nineteen Hundreds. A special relationship develops between mother and son in the absence of the father. Upon the fathers return from what one would presume to be World War One the boy becomes confused and aggravated by the transfer of his mother's attention from himself to his father.

"What We Talk About When We Talk About Love " takes place within a conversation between two couples. The conversation is mostly guided by the character Mel McGinnis, in what

With "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love ," the concept of love is brought up much differently. The characters stumble onto a conversation trying to define what love is. The character

In "My Oedipus Complex," the love written about is that between family members. Love is shown through the attention given to one another. This is a simplistic love, possibly in its purest sense. There is no physical relationship required, merely one's attention and recognition of how you feel towards each other. "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" on the other hand touches base on love a little more truly. With its explanations of varied types of love, it is perhaps the most correct depiction of what love is. Love can be as misguided as Teri's ex-husband's, as unlasting as Mel's was for his ex-wife, or as pure as the older couple's love for each other - the type that will kill the old man "just because he

Mel tries to explain love as something pure. Similar to the story he tells of the older couple, where the older gentleman's heart seems to be breaking "because he couldn't turn his goddamn head and see his goddamn wife."(731). It seems that the definition of love which Mel is trying to find is something that is beyond the physical but purely an emotional attachment. He is baffled however, when his wife Terri tells the story of her ex husband. She feels that even though he beat her that in some way he still loved her. As she put it to Mel " He didn't love me the way you love me. I'm not saying that. But he loved me" Her perception that love can be expressed in various ways

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1083
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)