Love: How Is It?
Amrita Sarkar
English 1B
19th September 2012 Love: How Is It? Life has lots of emotions: happiness, sorrow, guilt, frustration, love, and so on. Love is the one emotion which brings in huge changes in our lives and a different kind of emotion begins with it. How can we describe it? Describing love is very hard because in every phase of life, characterization of love can be varied. In childhood, through romantic films and stories, we started to get feeling that love is passionate and when people will be going through it, life would be full of happiness. In adulthood, people’s perception about love might change. Those who are fantasizing about love realized that it is not only about physical attraction but also about relationship, responsibilities and companionship. When ages grow, some people become optimistic about love, some become pessimistic and some of them are on a way to rediscover love. Definition of love can be changed not only with one’s maturity level but also with his/her cultural values. In Raymond Carver story – ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love’ – the main protagonists Mel and Terri, and Jhumpa Lahiri’s creation – ‘Going Ashore’ – soon to be married couple, Hema and Navin, had enough knowledge about love but they could not still fully realize it. So, they are on their ways to discover the essence of love. Mel-Terrie and Hema-Navin, all four are mature persons. Individually they all previously experienced love. In ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love’, Carver described that Mel and Terri had unsuccessful marriages in the past. Terri’s marriage with Ed was abusive. But Terri claimed that Ed was possessive but loving husband. As a proof, she said about Ed, “He beat me up one night. He dragged me around the living room by my ankle”. Even with this aggressive behavior toward her, Ed “… kept saying ‘I love you, I love you, you bitch’” (Carver 722). On the other hand, Mel and Marjorie also had a bad marriage. After they ended
English 1B
19th September 2012 Love: How Is It? Life has lots of emotions: happiness, sorrow, guilt, frustration, love, and so on. Love is the one emotion which brings in huge changes in our lives and a different kind of emotion begins with it. How can we describe it? Describing love is very hard because in every phase of life, characterization of love can be varied. In childhood, through romantic films and stories, we started to get feeling that love is passionate and when people will be going through it, life would be full of happiness. In adulthood, people’s perception about love might change. Those who are fantasizing about love realized that it is not only about physical attraction but also about relationship, responsibilities and companionship. When ages grow, some people become optimistic about love, some become pessimistic and some of them are on a way to rediscover love. Definition of love can be changed not only with one’s maturity level but also with his/her cultural values. In Raymond Carver story – ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love’ – the main protagonists Mel and Terri, and Jhumpa Lahiri’s creation – ‘Going Ashore’ – soon to be married couple, Hema and Navin, had enough knowledge about love but they could not still fully realize it. So, they are on their ways to discover the essence of love. Mel-Terrie and Hema-Navin, all four are mature persons. Individually they all previously experienced love. In ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love’, Carver described that Mel and Terri had unsuccessful marriages in the past. Terri’s marriage with Ed was abusive. But Terri claimed that Ed was possessive but loving husband. As a proof, she said about Ed, “He beat me up one night. He dragged me around the living room by my ankle”. Even with this aggressive behavior toward her, Ed “… kept saying ‘I love you, I love you, you bitch’” (Carver 722). On the other hand, Mel and Marjorie also had a bad marriage. After they ended
Cited: Carver, Raymond. "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love." Making Literature Matter. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin 's, 2012. 721-30. Print. Lahiri, Jumpa. "Going Ashore." Making Literature Matter. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin 's, 2012. 622-46. Print.