Carnal Knowledge
T. Coraghessan Boyle
About the Author:
Formally known as Thomas John Boyle, the
young writer changed his name at age 17 to Thomas
Coraghessan Boyle in order to add flair to his previously
dull name. T.C. Boyle was born December 2, 1948 in
Peekskill, New York. He was the son of a bus
driver/janitor and secretary. Both his parents died
young from alcohol related problems, but despite this
Boyle speaks of them fondly and describes their support
in his desires of continuing his education. He graduated
from Lakeland High School in New York and went on to
achieve higher education at State University of New
York. It was there he changed his desired major of being
a musician after he was cut from the music program to
becoming a writer. Even with his addiction to heroin, he
was able to kick the habit due to the death of a friend
and refocus his life through writing. Boyle’s focus on
American landscape through literature has won him a
significant amount of awards including: PEN/Faulkner
Award, O. Henry Award, Malamud Award, etc. His
writing is often hinting at social controversy and the
edginess of modern society, much paralleled to his urban
lifestyle in his younger years.
Synopsis:
“Carnal Knowledge” is narrated by the carnivorous Jim, a
man in his thirties, still alone who seems to be passing through
life with no cause to champion or statement to make. In enters
Alena Jorgensen, a beautiful and passionate women who gives
Jim a cause. She converts him to the ways of an
animal rights activist, taking him to protests and
filling him with “brewer’s yeast and. . . bark
marinated in yogurt.” Things work out well for
Jim; he gets his fight and his
reward that is in the bed of
Alena. Jim believes he is
adjusting well to the life
Alena pushes him to live, until she pushes him
too far. After a turkey-escape plot gone wrong
and a confrontation with the truth of his
relationship with Alena and with meat, Jim
accepts that meat is just as fine a cause as any.
Literary Elements:
STYLE: the distinctive manner in which a writer arranges words to achieve
particular effects
Diction: the writer’s choice of words; crucial in controlling a reader’s
response
TONE: revealed by style, tone is the author’s implicit attitude toward the
people, places, and events in a story
IRONY: a device that reveals a reality different from what appears to be true
Verbal irony: a person saying one thing but meaning the opposite
Situational irony: an incongruity between what is expected to happen
and what actually happens
Dramatic irony: when there is a discrepancy between what a character
believes or says and what the reader understands to be true
Important Quotes:
“I’d never really thought much about meat. It was
there…It was all the same to me, food, the body’s
fuel, something to savor a
“I feel that the tragic and
moment on the tongue” (267).
poignant can be made even
more powerful, more affecting,
if the writer takes the reader by
surprise, that is, puts him or
her into a comic universe and
then introduces the grimmest
sort of reality”–Boyle
“Now I was the protestor, a placard waver, now I
was fighting for the right of every last weasel and
lynx to die gracefully, now I was Alena Jorgensen’s
lover and a force to be reckoned with” (273).
“I was plugged in now. I felt righteous – for the
first time in my life I had a cause – I had Alena, Alena above all”
(274).
“The hollowness opened up, cored me out till I felt as if I’d been
plucked and gutted and served up on a platter myself” (280).
“All that was between us had come to this, expectations gone sour, a
smear on the road” (280)
Discussion Questions:
(Please Answer 2 of the following)
1) The title can be viewed several different ways in relation to the story.
What do you understand to be its meaning or importance and why?
2) Jim goes to extreme lengths to get companionship from Alena. At
what point does it go too far? In society is there a point where
“compromising” for the sake of a significant other becomes
converting to abnormal and indecent ideals?
3) How does Boyle’s use of irony create a humorous tone to the story?
4) Does the obvious symbolism between meat and sex and Boyle’s
characterization of Alena provoke an anti-feminist tone? Why or
why not?
5) Alena quotes Isaac Bashevis Singer when she tells Jim, "Every
day is Auschwitz for the animals.” Do your views on
vegetarianism, animal rights groups, or meat in general affect
your response to the story?