Narrator and point of view

The events described in the short story What We Talk about When We Talk about Love” by Raymond Carver are told by a first-person narrator who is also one of the main characters in the short story. 

The narrator functions mainly as an observer and presents the events as they happen. He only makes brief comments during the conversation, and his focus is mainly on Mel, who does most of the talking: “My friend Mel McGinnis was talking. Mel McGinnis is a cardiologist, and sometimes that gives him the right” (p. 111, ll. 1-2). Consequently, the readers are mainly presented with Mel’s perspective on love, instead of the narrator’s: “ ‘It seems to me we’re just beginners at love. We say we love each other and we do, I don’t doubt it’ ” (p. 115, ll. 1-3). ...