Love, Communication, Priorities of Men and Women, Femininity and Women’s Sexuality

Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Course Title
Date
Short Stories Analysis
The relationship between a man and a woman has been known to define ‘love’ and has dominated the tenets and values of a family in many societies globally, throughout the ages. Nonetheless, men have always dominated over women, but emerging resistance and struggles against patriarchy are slowly changing the scene and redefining the position of women in society, and giving new meaning to love. Raymond Craver’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is a story that explicitly attempts to define love and what love entails, although the numerous attempts by the story’s characters to define the topic are futile and the theme remains as elusive as before. Among the most critical themes discussed in the story include love, failed communication, and domestic violence that normalizes and distorts the meaning of love. John Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums revolves around love, failed romance in family, marital frustrations due to lack of children, femininity and women’s sexuality, and centers attention on a woman who struggles to achieve happiness in a marriage. Lastly, Ernest Hemingway’s Themes in hills like white elephants incorporates failed communication between two people who claim to be in love and their complete contrasting life decisions. As if in total agreement, the three stories illuminate on common issues that define love, relationships, and marriage, and the position of a woman in a male-dominated society.
The story What We Talk About When We Talk About Love was written by Raymond Craver. The author mainly describes the theme of the genuineness of love. The action is done by the repetition of words, actions, gestures, and character. Craver uses three methods that are developed to describe the primary theme of the story. The first one is the repetitions of certain words which uses the same phrase to define the topic. The words and sentences, mostly repeated include; “love,” “true love,” “I love you among others” which gives the reader the view of the main theme in the story. The second method used is gestures and actions. The author elaborates how the idea of love can be replicated by gestures and action of a couple. An example in the story is “when Nick kissed Laura’s hand, raising it to lips” (Carver, 175). Another is “Mel touched Terri’s cheek with fingers” (171). The author uses gestures and action between the couple to show that love is not only in conversation. The couple expresses their feelings towards each other through their gentle actions. The third method used by Craver to illustrate the central theme in the story is the characters. The primary character is used to develop the validity of true love. Despite efforts by the main protagonist in the story, it still remains unclear the nature of true love in the whole story. Mel tries to explain love by telling irrelevant stories to an elderly couple involved in a road accident. Mel is trying to unite the couple due to wife's disability.
The Chrysanthemums, written by John Steinbeck, describes the position of a woman in a male-dominated community. The autho...