Raymond Carver’s, The Beginners, institutes the power and impact of love. Love is a common universal topic, but it’s meaning is different for many people. Carver presents a couple who has experienced situations dealing with the meaning of love in intimate relationships. Herb and Terri McGinnis are the couple who have both individually had unique encounters, which has molded their perception of love. Herb and Terri share a time full of stories and mixed emotions with colleagues, Nick and Laura, the other couple who are close friends to them.
In the beginning of the story Carver ironically introduces Herb as a cardiologist, a heart doctor. It was also stated that, “Herb thought real love was nothing less than spiritual love” (Carver 1). Herb’s idea of love clashed with his wife’s idea of love. Terri had come out of an abusive relationship that she still claims her ex, Carl, a suicidal, violent, and emotionally disturbed individual, loved her. Herb thought her beliefs of love were absurd if she thought being beat and dragged around was love. Carver shows that experiences impact your beliefs and definitions on things that many people experience.
This story shows how much love impacts a person’s behavior and what they begin to accept because of it. In the beginning of the story Terri shares her experience with her abusive ex husband Carl. Terri believed Carl actually loved her because he said he did and other actions besides abuse made her believe he did. She even recalls him saying, “I love you, don’t you see? I love you, bitch” as he drags her across the floor. “People are different, Herb. Sure, sometimes he may have acted crazy. O.K. But he loved me. In his own way, maybe, but he loved me.” Referring back to the Characteristics of Cultural Studies, the first characteristic supports that scene that Terri described. Cultural studies observe cultural practices and their relation to power. It also exposes power relationships and examines how the relationships influence and shape cultural practices. Terri and Carl’s relationship was certainly a power relationship and in this case Carl had the power that made Terri believe that unacceptable actions were acceptable.
Carver displayed each characters perception of love through their experiences. Herb is a person that has been hurt from love, but still believes in genuine love. At the end of The Beginners Herb’s character became more open and emotional when he shared the love he saw between an elderly couple. He really admired what they had even though he had been hurt and apparently suicidal because of his last marriage. Herb was very sensitive when telling the story about the elderly couple, Henry and Anna Gates. That couple had been deeply in love for many years. “Month in, month out, they’d be there together, the two of them, the same routine, the same everything, never anyone else to talk to or visit with during those months, but they had each other. That’s all and everything they had, each other.” An accident had left both elderly people in intensive care units. The two had been together so long that it was nearly unbearable to even be in separate rooms. The connection Herb saw between them really had an impact on him. So much that he became depressed because he wished he could experience a love like that. Both Herb and Terri came from battered relationship to a certain extent, but the story of the old couple made them both realize what true love was. Carver used the old couple to show the tradition of true love and he used Herb and Terri to show how love has been altered. Terri even made a statement to Nick and Laura showing that she believes in genuine love, but it’s just something she’s not accustomed to. “I just want to say this, and that’s all. But I don’t want it to sound negative. I hope and pray that you guys still love each other five, even three years from now the way you do today. Even four years from now. That’s the moment of truth, for years.”
At the end of the story Carver made a reference to Mars and Venus, two planets that represent each sex. Women being Venus and Men being Mars. Nick and Laura seem to have a stable relationship compared to Herb and Terri’s. When Nick goes out to look at the sky after it has changed in accordance to the aura of the room he says, “I recognized Venus, and farther off and to the side, not as bright but unmistakably there on the horizon, Mars.”Carver uses that statement to show the powerful discourse surrounding the institution of love. The statement shows how sexes are so different but very much alike. In this case Venus seems to be more dominant and have more of an impact just as Terri did with Herb and Anna Gates with Henry.
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