When We Talk About Love Analysis

In “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”, the story revolves around four characters, friends, who start debating on what real love is. The movie Birdman meditates on the idea that to feel loved, one must be loved by others, and many at that. Both the story and the movie make it clear that everyone has their own opinions on love, and that in the end, the concept of it will almost always remain an elusive mystery.

The story starts out with stating that the narrator’s friend, Mel McGinnis, is a cardiologist, someone who deals with the medical issues of the heart. Throughout the story, Mel is the character who talks the most, and with his career field, it suggests that he should have the most insight into the matters of the heart. However,

When the topic about why they broke up comes up in conversation, Sylvia says, “You threw a kitchen knife at me, and an hour later you were telling me how much you loved me” (Birdman). Terri, when talking about the man that loved her so much he attempted to kill her, says, “He beat me up one night. He dragged me around the living room by my ankles. He kept saying ‘I love you, I love you, you bitch.’ He went on dragging me around the living room. My head kept knocking on things.” (Carver 1). In both cases, the women can be seen as a center of stability in a wacky relationship. Riggan needed Sylvia for affirmations of his worth. He needed her because if someone loved him, it made him feel good about himself. This is not, however, real love, and the eventual abuse is most likely the outcome of realising

The main character, Riggan, feeds off of his past fame as the superhero Birdman. Although his ego is mountainous, he amounts himself to much less than he used to be since his fame is not nearly as great as it was. He’s constantly berated by the alternate voice of Birdman which is basically internal criticism. His drug addict daughter, Sam, is the outcome of their dysfunctional family. She shows hatred for Riggan because he made her feel invisible through their bipolar relationship, which is probably one of Riggan’s internal fears. He’s scared that he doesn’t matter, that he’s forgotten or ignored. He feels the most individual worth and ‘love’ when the largest amount of people give him positive attention, however he lacks the ability to do the same for