Carnal Knowledge Coraghessan Boyle How Term Paper

Letting the turkeys go just caused them an even more horrific death, which is the high point of irony in the story. Boyle writes, "As I inched closer, the tires creeping now, the pulse of the lights in my face, I saw that the road was coated in feathers, turkey feathers. A storm of them. A blizzard" (Boyle 337). This is the ultimate irony of the story, but it is more than that, because it makes the narrator really see how pathetic his affair with Alena really was, and how pointless. He also finally acknowledges the emptiness inside him that Alena could not fill, and that is the ultimate irony of his carnal knowledge with this woman.

Even the title of the story is ironic, because the narrator is really such a non-sexual being. He has "carnal" knowledge of Alena, but little else, and so, this is not a real, satisfying and mature relationship, it is based on lust and carnality, and yet there is something missing - passion and romance, to make it truly carnal love. As the narrator says of Alena, "She fascinated me, fixated me, made me feel like a tomcat leaping in and out of second-story windows, oblivious to the free-fall and the picket fence below" (Boyle 331). He is fascinated by Alena, and she takes over his life completely, but there is no passion or real romance between the two, it is simply obsession and lust. The two have sex, but not love, and so, the title, which brings up ideas of long days spent in bed gaining "carnal knowledge" of each other is simply ironic.Most of the narrator's long days are spent protesting cruelty to animals with Alena, rather than really learning about the person behind the picket sign. Through it all, Alena also seems totally disinterested in the narrator as a person, she sees him only as another convert to her "crazy" cause. She is more interested in animals than people, another ironic twist to the story. A man who craves a relationship has a relationship with a woman who craves next to nothing. Irony is woven through this story to give it twists and turns. It makes the reader laugh, but most of all, it makes the reader really think.

References

Boyle,….....