Summary Of Raymond Carver's What We Talk About When We Talk About Love?

In Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love,” Mel McGinnis’ occupation as a cardiologist, a physician that mends broken hearts, stands in stark contradiction to his claim to understanding the workings of the heart as it pertains to loving and being loved. The discord between healing his patient’s hearts and his inability to recognize his own malady of heart is exaggerated by how he deals with the relationship of Ed and Terri, as well as that of the elderly accident victims and his ex-wife Marjorie.

As both the dominant and dominating character in the story, Mel has very strong ideas about love. He believes that “…real love is nothing less than spiritual love” (137), something reinforced by his seminary training. This commitment

The couple, Mel states, was driving down the interstate when an intoxicated nineteen-year-old “plowed his dad’s pickup truck” into the couple’s camper (146). Though the driver was pronounced dead on arrival, the couple survived. They were, however, in critical condition. During their recovery, Mel states, the man was depressed: even after learning that his wife was safe. The reason being that, “…he [the man] couldn’t see [his wife] through his eye –holes…his heart was breaking because he couldn’t turn his goddamn head and see his goddamn wife”, an idea that would, by popular accounts, define the real nature of true love: of the two becoming one (151). Despite his self-proclaimed knowledge on the topic of love, Mel cannot fathom the thought of two people having such a level of affection for one another that the reality of not being able to see one another interferes with their ability to heal. As a cardiologist, it is Mel’s job to fix broken hearts. It is the one area where he feels he can relate to the heart. Yet with this couple, though he could physically mend the man’s broken heart, Mel cannot mend the man’s heartache. This leaves Mel feeling confused and

His feelings of animosity and venomous hatred for his ex-wife are in direct conflict with his original self- evaluation of both being capable of understanding, and engaging in that enigma known as true love. Mel is, in many cases, the Ed to his ex-wife. Whereas Ed engaged in the violent act of dragging Terri throughout the apartment by her ankles, Mel describes, with almost childlike delight, how he has fantasized about playing the starring role in her murder. Mel does not seem like the type of man who would commit such a deed. He does, however, consider how good it would feel to seek revenge against Marjorie in retaliation for her “crimes” against his heart. Therefore, rather than fondly reminiscing, or even grieving at the lost love between him and his ex-wife, he instead resorts to anger and resentment, neither of which is characteristic of the type of “love” he so dogmatically professes to