Loyalty is Love Throughout life, we are bound to have multiple lovers or partners.

We tend to stray and break up with partners over time and these breakups show that the relationship was not based on true love. In Carvers What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, all of the characters have had past relationships, and they did not exhibit true love in any of them. Although people believe true love is simply an intense passion, true love is actually all loyalty and commitment. True love is the ability to not only love, but to stay in love, and this is exhibited by Eds characterization, dialogue between Mel and Terri, and the symbolic relationship between the old man and woman. Eds character is just one exhibition of how true love is about loyalty. Although he spent his days with Terri dragging her around the living room and knocking her head into things (1), he was loyal to her. While they were in a relationship, Terri believed that Ed truly loved her and Mel believed he didnt. Mel would not know what true love is because his unfaithful self has never been in true love. Ed loved Terri until he died. Had Ed moved on to another woman when Terri left, it would show that he did not truly love her. When I left, he drank rat poisonthen he shot himself in the head (2). When Terri left, Ed stayed loyal to her and did not chase after another woman. He knew there was no way to bring her back, but he loved Terri until he died, and that commitment shows true love. Even though his passion was expressed through violence, he still loved her because he stayed caught up on her until his last breath. During the story Terri also talks about how Ed loved her so much that he tried to kill her. Although killing someone is not the usual way to express affection, his growing love after her death would count as true passion. Even if he were to succeed at killing her, the reader can infer that he would sulk over it for the rest of his life- after death, he will still love only her, and that shows it was true. Ed was truly in love with Terri, but Mel is not truly in love with her at all. As he kept drinking the gin, his inner thoughts came out. During his conversation he stated how if something were to happen to one of usthe surviving part would go out and love again (3). Mel acknowledges that he would not remain faithful to Terri. Some might argue that faithfulness only remains while the person is alive; this is not true. Being faithful to someone implies that you will only love them. Love also does not end when our lives end, it is eternal. If love is eternal, and true love is loyalty, then loyalty should be eternal too and it should not end when someones life ends. If Terri were to die tomorrow, then a Mel that truly loved her would stay loyal to her regardless. Since Mel and Terri agree that they would love again, it proves how their love is not real. Mels love towards his first wife was not true either. If it were, they would still be together and faithful to each other. You also cant express severe

hatred for someone you truly loved, and Mel prays that shell get herself stung to death by a swarm of fucking bees (5). His disloyalty towards his past relationships and potential disloyalty towards Terri shows that even though he is a wise cardiologist, he did not feel true love for anyone yet and he does not know what true love really is. Mels job at least gave us one glimpse of true committed love- the old couple. The fact that they were old shows that they were committed to each other for a long time. Their passion is expressed by their actions, such as when the mans heart was breaking because he couldnt turn hishead to see his..wife (5). After such a big accident happened, they still thirsted to see each other. This accident can be symbolic of all the hardships relationships come with. The obstacles in relationships are never there on purpose, and usually relationships cannot survive through them. In this relationship, both of them survived through it devoted and still loved each other. Their commitment to survival and their desire to see each other is the only example of reciprocated true love in this whole story. Loyalty is important in all sorts of relationships, but it is especially important to have in true love. Mel and Terri did not show any signs of true love, Nick and Laura are too early in their relationship to tell, and Eds love was never reciprocated. However, Ed along with the old couple showed that they truly loved their partner through their devotion. If you can get over someone and move on to another partner, then you should assess your relationship and realize if it was really true love or not.