Carnal Knowledge

"Carnal Knowledge" by T. Coraghessan Boyle is a rather passionate story about Jim who completely falls for Alena, a woman who is completly obsessed with animal rights. I found many interesting points in this story, including a lot of irony. The most ironic part of the story is that in the end after freeing the turkeys and trying to save them from being slaughtered, a "storm" of them are left for roadkill crossing the highway...."there was flesh there too, slcik and greasy, a red pulp ground". Obviously, freeing the turkeys lead them to the same destination as being couped up in a barn....completely ironic...I also found it surprising and ironic how the two of the met!! i dont think that i would care to talk to someone whos dog just peed on me!! i think i might be more furious and angry. ironically after seeing her beauty, Jim brushes the incident off. I found the title of the story to be rather interesting as well. i wastn sure of what "carnal " meant until i looked it up. i found that carnal means "marked by the appetites and passions of the body, "animal instincts"" (wordnet). i felt like Alena was an animal herself and felt what the animals were feeling. She went ahead and fought for their freedom, like an animal might do if endangered. I found this to be very symbolic of the story. through reading the story, i also felt her passion for her love of animals and her passion in fighting for them. the author uses many words and descriptive sentences to express this... "bitter breath"...."real hate in her eyes"...
I was also very intrigued by the fact that Jim so quickly gave up everything he knew, his job, his family, his social life, and his meat eating, for a women who he harldy knew. When he was with her, he did as she did and ate what she did, but after the two of them seperate in the end, he started eating meat again. i felt like he was rebelling against her because she went away with Rolfe for a month.