When I read through the headnote about Raymond Carver, he sounded like many other poets and short story writers. He had his struggles to provide for his family. Carver was an alcoholic for a little while, then stopped. He got divorced, remarried and then died. He had his problems that he dealt with, yet he was still successful and Carver's work is still being read to this day. I liked at the end of the headnote as it reads, "In Carver's stories, reader get the sense that he chooses his words very carefully so that the honesty of the moment can emerge." I enjoy when things are honest and real so that I can picture the scenario in my head. "Honesty of the moment" is important so that the readers can connect to a "real" situation in a fictional short story.
What is love, really? It seems to be a big theme throughout this story. The characters think that there are different kinds of love. People see love in different kinds of ways. Mel said, "Terri's a romantic. Terri's of the kick-me-so-I'll-know-you-love-me school." Although Terri was abused by her first husband, she believed that Ed loved her "in his own way"(54).
Some of the different kinds of love are the way that Ed "loved" Terri, how Mel loves Terri and vice versa. The way that Nick and Laura love each other as newlyweds as Nick took her hand and kissed it. There is also a friendship kind of love between all four of them as Laura says, "Mel, we love you" and Mel replies, "Love you too, Laura. And you, Nick, love you too... You guys are our pals" (59). Love is shown in different kinds of ways throughout the story. And especially the way the older gentleman loved his wife when they were in the hospital room and he couldn't look at her. Apparently, that was a significant kind of love, but I don't think that the four characters could comprehend that kind of love since they were so drunk. Yet Mel insisted that this story "ought to make [them] feel ashamed when [they] talk like [they] know what [they're] talking about when [they] talk about love" (59). Apparently this couple was an example of true love, in Mel's opinion.
I guess there could be different kinds of love in human minds, but it amazes me that God has just one kind of love: He loves all people with His whole heart. He has abounding love. His love is so big. We try to compartmentalize how we love certain people or how much we love them.
I think that love in general is a hard concept to get, and I don't really know if we understand or have experienced true love. We try to put rules and guidelines about how we should love. And the Bible does tell us what love is (1 Corinthians 13) and who we should love (Matt. 5:43-48; 22:37-39).
I don't really know why the whole scenario is about these two couples sitting around a table drinking gin and in the end they end up so drunk that they can't even move. It's a "casual" scenario, I guess, and when we're comfortable with certain people we can talk about anything. Maybe he writes this story with them becoming drunk to see how our minds work and think when we're not in a clear mind. Mel becomes cruder with his language, but he just keeps on talking.
And maybe this is a true scenario of what does happen when people get together and sociably drink. I wouldn't know because I don't and can't legally drink.
I think the descriptions about the sunlight and how it starts fading away is significant. One of the first lines is that "sunlight filled the kitchen," then the afternoon sun was a "spacious light of ease and generosity" (54, 58). Then the "sunshine in the room was different now, changing, getting thinner" (61). There is talk of sunset, and lastly, "the room went dark" (64). At these different points you can see the changes in the light in comparison to how drunk everyone is. As the light fades, it signifies that their minds start fading and becoming fuzzy, and maybe they pass out at the end to correlate with the darkness. Carver uses descriptions of the sun as the four characters progress into drunkenness.
I don't know if I completely understood the whole story and all the meanings, but it did make me stop and think about love.
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