Women, Men, Love and Relationships

1646 Words4 Pages

Pam Houston's "How to Talk to a Hunter"

Raymond Carver's "What We Talk about When We Talk about Love"

Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Love Is Not Al,"

If you ask a woman want they want from a man, most women will provide a list of qualities that have been drilled in their heads since they were little girls. The perfect lifestyle has three things that have to be added together in order to come out with the correct equation. Money, kids, and most of all a wonderful man to provide these things are what women want most in life. One of the most known sayings today is that women go to college to get their MRS degree. The confusing issue to men is that once they find their perfect mate, they are already searching for someone else. What women want in a relationship are qualities like trust, devotion, and excitement but once the thrill of the chase is over with and these traits are found in a man, a woman is bored and out the door.

In Pam Houston's "How to Talk to a Hunter," the couple has a relationship that is full of uncertainty and excitement. Throughout the story, the hunter is never able to commit to the woman, and when she brings up the word "monogamy" the hunter is unwilling to give her the answer she wants to hear. Even though on the surface she seems to want him to commit to her, the calls from a mysterious woman named Patty Coyote bother her, deep down his unreliability makes her want him more. The woman's best female friend asks, "at this point, what is it about him that you could possibly find appealing?" Although the woman never responds, what makes the hunter so appealing is the fact that she can not have him to herself. Even though the woman cannot trust the hunter, the things he says to her overrides how untrustwo...

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... hard to get, and that is why relationships become so difficult and complicated. What is also noticed in the stories about love is that every woman has a different view of the `right' relationship. Teresa sees her abusive ex-husband in a different light than others, the relationship of the hunter and woman seems dysfunctional yet the lady craves the hunter the worse he is to her, and even Frances seems to want her husband more the less attention he gives her. Women are complicated because they are all unique and want different things. Even when a relationship contains trust, excitement, and devotion, sometimes those qualities are not enough to hold a couple together. In that case, what makes women happy? Are females incapable of being satisfied? Being a woman myself, I am not even sure of the answer, but I know one thing: women always want what they can not have.

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