Love is a huge topic of literature, but Raymond Carver has an interesting approach in this short story. He portrays the conversation between two couples in a way that simply conveys an informal house setting that seems quite believable and real.
"My friend Mel McGinnis was talking. Mel McGinnis is a cardiologist, and sometimes that gives him the right."
I liked these opening words the first time I read them. After reading the brief biographical information on Carver, it was nice having an example right away of his use of blue-collar and white-collar references. The story is written from the character Nick's perspective; Nick sees Mel as educated and qualified to say certain things because of his professional standing. Mel takes advantage of this later in the story (page 58) with a lengthly monologue about his take on "real love."
"Sunlight filled the kitchen . . ."
References to the sun and its effects come throughout this text. This quote comes in the second paragraph, where we learn that the two couples are drinking gin and talking. Later, on page 58 and after the four characters make a toast to true love, "[t]he afternoon sun was like a presence in [the] room, the spacious light of ease and generosity." Three pages later, "The sunshine inside the room was different now, changing, getting thinner." At this point Mel is getting more drunk and Laura is trying to get him to finish his story. Finally, Carver mentions the sunlight again: "The light was draining out of the room, going back through the window where it had come from." At this time they were admittedly "a little drunk." The sun and its effects seem to match the tone of the characters' conversation. As the sun fades, the quality of conversation diminishes.
Several references are made to the hand. The first is when Nick holds Laura's hand, feeling her warmth and polished nails. Next he kisses her hand. Then he puts his "hand on her warm thigh." These references seem to personify Nick to me, showing me that his take on love is that it includes physical affection; he shows Laura he loves her in these ways.
Laura speaks the least out of all the characters. Many times when she talks she is inquisitive ("What happened?"). Twice she is blunt when talking to Mel ("Shame on you"). Her lack of dialogue says that she enjoys listening and wants to know other people's thoughts. She doesn't speak idly.
Something I am confused about is the description of Terri. It says that she "liked necklaces made of turquoise, and long pendant earrings." None of the other descriptions mention material things. I am wondering if this is just a simple description given by Carver or if there is another meaning for including it.
On page 57 Mel says two very similar phrases in reference to Terri's trying to persuade him that her abusive ex-husband really did love her. Mel says, "If you call that love, you can have it," and, "If that's love, you can have it." This repetition shows the gradual affects of alcohol on Mel as he begins repeating himself (also observed later). But again I am left wondering if Carver meant anything more by repeating these similar phrases. I guess it could show that he doesn't want to expressed or accept love in that way. He has a view of love that he's okay with, but actions that are not in line with that view he cannot see as expressions of love.
One interesting element is the point Carver makes about the static nature of the characters. The only time he mentions one of them moving is when Mel gets up to get more gin. When the sun goes down, no one gets up to turn a light on. When Terri offers to get cheese and crackers, she doesn't actually get up to do it.
One final thought. Midway through the story Mel talks about how he wishes he would come back in his next life as a knight because "they couldn't get hurt very easy" since they wore all that armor. Maybe he is afraid of being hurt by love. Maybe he's afraid of loving Terri and not being loved back in the ways he needs to be. This could be why he keeps the conversation going.
On a side note... I was googling this story to try and learn more about the parts I didn't quite understand. I came across the irony that Mel is a cardiologist. I can't believe I missed that! He knows all about how the heart works but has a hard time with the concept of love.
You have some pretty good observations here, for instance, both about the different kinds of repetition that you put some interpretation to and the things that stick out to you as significant but you can't quite pin down. It seems like you're putting into practice the active reading we read about.
ReplyDeleteIt is pretty funny to have Mel be a cardiologist.
Doing outside research on a story is fine--great even, sometimes--but I think that you never want to use that in place of wrestling with the story or poem on your own. Not that that's what you're doing, but I thought I should mention it since you mentioned Googling.
I actually did wait to look up those things until after I was done reading and writing...just so you know!
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