However, the narrator tried to describe a cathedral in words but was not successful. Thus, the blind man held hand of the narrator as he draws a cathedral on a paper bag and developed experience of a successful communication that changed the narrator (Verley, 1989)
He stands out in stark contrast to the little group drinking around the table, for, crazy as he was, he had life in him." (Bernardo, 2002) While Terri's life with Mel is not threatening to her life, she certainly is not very happy in her marriage
¶ … Raymond Carver's short story "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" (Carver, 1981) were to be encapsulated in a single statement: What we talk about when we talk about love is really a mirror to our personalities and our characters
But these are merely moments of reconciliations that creep into the conversation when they have minor disagreements and arguments. Adam Meyer, in analyzing Raymond Carver's work, describes the period of the short story (Meyer, 1995)
86) This was also a period when Carver pared down his stories to bare essentials. This probably gave the stories a unique twist (Park, 2002)
The story hints at the sadness of the situation, yet this is never stated. The story begin with the lines, "In the kitchen, he poured another drink and looked at the bedroom suite in the front yard" (Carver 3)
Finally, it is worth considering Carver's minimalist style and how his life experience may have impacted on it. Carver has been described as, "The quintessential minimalist, seemingly reducing to an absolute spareness both his subject matter and his treatment of it" (Clarke 4)
Half my family is still living like this. They still don't know how they're going to make it through the next month or two" (Gentry 138)
Like many of his stories, the emotion is present but is hidden within the story and never outwardly expressed. One author describes the meaning of the story, saying that the main character "metaphorically externalizes his failed marriage on the front lawn and then silently watches a young couple repeat that failure in 'play'" (May 72)
I believe he was simply looking for steady work at decent pay. Steady work was meaningful work" (Carver)
It is also powerfully ironic that the narrator also "sees" reality for the first time when he shuts his eyes. "It was like nothing else in my life up to now," (Carver 14)