What We Talk About When We Talk About Love By Raymond Carver

The story “What we Talk about when we talk about Love” by Raymond Carver introduces four grown up characters who have experiences in their marriage life. The story tackles the elusive nature of love. This is evident when the characters vehemently try to describe it. Mel, the talkative surgeon, tries to give his thoughts on love but does not manage to convince the others. The other couple in the room believes they know the real meaning of love but find it difficult to define it. However, in the end of the day, they seem to come to togetherness and are intertwined by the essence of love. The story “Yellow Woman” by Leslie Marmon Silko, tells the story of a young woman who encounters a romantic escapade with a stranger. It involves a girl who runs away with a stranger whom she meets at the river. The stranger tries to convince her that she is the Yellow Woman from an old tale, and he is the Ka’tsina spirit. Silva tries to convince her that they were meant to be together. Although she does not believe him, she continues along with him as he provides her with an escape from reality. In both stories, we can see that love is a stronger emotion than hate, and it wins the day.

In the story by Silko, a young woman is walking by the river when she meets a handsome stranger named Silva. Silva is a cattle rustler living in the mountains and does not belong to any tribe. Although the young woman has a husband and baby, she runs away with the stranger. Although it may seem that Silva is abducting her, she twice returns to him even when she has a chance to run away. As she points out, “And I told myself, because I believe it, he will come back sometime and be waiting again by the river” (1210). When a white rancher confronts Silva and the yellow...

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...his heart and the others hearts beating. This shows that the conversation they had together had brought them closer to one another. This togetherness shows that love is a strong emotions and that it takes the day.

In conclusion, we get to see that the four characters in Carver’s story agree that one can know about love by seeing or feeling it; it may be difficult to define or understand love. On the story of the yellow woman, we get to see a woman who seeks an escape from reality with a stranger she barely knows. Although she barely knows the man, the yellow woman escapes with him leaving her family behind. In both stories, we get to see that love is a very strong emotion.

Works Cited

Carver, Raymond. What we Talk about when we talk about Love. New York: Random House, 2009

Silko, Leslie M. Yellow Woman and the Free Spirit. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996.