Mel agravated me. He didn't recognize the true love of the elderly couple. I think everyone in the room was agravated by him. He wants to be this knight in shining armor, yet he is devoid of real feeling. He loves his wife for her body, I think, yet he doesn't truly love her. Perhaps her old husband did really love her even though he was derranged. The former husband did not know what to do with such intense feelings, and ended up killing himself in the end. I think his ruined teeth reflected his deranged personality, and his gums his emotional state. I found myself wondering if he would have been better off dead so that he couldn't feel pain anymore. That is exactly what happened to him, though in the end.
I really enjoyed reading this story, especially when Mel told the story of the old couple. I was elated that finally, he meantioned true love- not love for physical or platonic reasons. The elderly couple had it right all along. Sure, they may have looked botched up on the outside, but there was nothing wrong with their hearts.
You suggest several times that Mel does not know what love is. Are you suggesting, then, that you do know what it is?
ReplyDeleteAlso, at one point, you suggest that Mel doesn't understand the point of the old couple's story and then in another place it kind of seems like you think he does. I think it is pretty clear that Mel doesn't act lovingly. But do you think that he might understand a thing or two about love, even if he can't act it out?
I like your use of specific details--the teeth and the gums--to comment on Terri's ex. Perhaps you could dig into that a little more. You could give a relevant quote and then explain it. As it stands, my interest is piqued by your suggestion here. But I'm not yet convinced. What makes you so generous toward him? What suggests to you that he might have really loved her?
Just some questions. :-)
(By the way, it is really hard to read black font on a brown background.)
I think every member of this story hasn't fully understood love. Each of them has thrown it away when hard times came to them. Mel doesn't even want to talk to his own children because he doesn't want to here his ex's voice. He even prays that she would die on page 63. That isn't love. On page 57, Terri even says, "Wait a while", as if to say that Laura and Nick will eventually grow miserable in their marriage.
ReplyDeleteNick and Laura can't even come up with a description for their love. Nick tells us that, "For an answer, I took Laura's hand and raised it to my lips." What depth is there to that beyond passion?
I think that love is something that I will be studying and learning about for the rest of my life. I think the elderly couple had it right. The old man cared more about gazing into his wife's eyes and communicating with her directly than he did about just hearing about her. He wanted to pursue her. Of course, as Christians, we have 1 Cor. 13, and we know that God is love. God wants to pursue us. That is what I know about love, and I don't think any of the characters grasped it. Love is so deep. It is not about the physical, it is not about having "pals" as Carver writes on page 59. I don't think that love can be contained.
Terri makes a point about love, I think, when she says her ex-husband, "...was willing to die for it. He did die for it." I think this ironically alludes to Christ in a way. Then again, Christ is nothing like Terri's old husband. Anyway, I think that Ed was a mentally ill man. I think he really did love Terri, but he didn't know what to do with those intense feelings. He loved her, but in a way, he was afraid to love. I think he was afraid of rejection. What suggests that he really loved her is that he never stopped trying to get her back even after they were divorced. Sure, he was astonishingly messed up in the head, but he still tried to run after her, and even tried to murder Mel because he wanted her back so much.
Ack, I am sorry about the grammatical errors. It will not let me edit them. :(
ReplyDeleteNice response. Thank you!
ReplyDelete