A Note On My Son's Face, By Martin Luther King Jr.

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Martin Luther King Jr. declared, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that” ( citation ) . Many people feel as Mr. King did, that love can fight hate, and ultimately love is the answer, the fixer, to this figurative darkness. The word’s love and hate express a strong and perhaps intense feeling for something or someone. However, these intense emotions are commonly used in opposition of each other. It is crucial, though, to note that these powerful emotions can easily cross lines and become blurred. Evidence of this claim is supported by Rempel and Burris’ “...Integrative Theory of Love and Hate,” which outlines what it means to love and what it means to hate, and how humans …show more content…

An important element that is displayed in both love and hate is motivation. An example of this is portrayed in “A Note on My Son’s Face,” as the author states, “I wanted that face to die, to be reborn in the face of a white child” (35,36). This line displays a level of prejudice towards what is hers. Derricotte battles intense feelings of wanting a white looking child amongst a world where not being grateful for what she has is seen as hatred towards her son. She looks at the face of her black child and is filled with animosity for what he looks like and what he will become. This is where the motivational factor comes into play, and where the lines of love and hate really become blurred. Does she hate her child because of how he looks? or Does she love her child because she wants him to become better than what he is destined for? She is motivated by love to want him to become better than what she believes is possible for him, yet she displays hate in the sense that she is hurting the child for what he is, and also for what he has no control over. According to Rempel this grandmother is displaying both intense feelings of love and hate. Loving what is hers, but hating what it will become. Therefore, this poem supports the theory that love and hate are …show more content…

The two in the poem do not value one another whatsoever. “As I try to leave you again” (Ai 7), is the theme of this poem. The two really have no reason to stay with each other, for one states, “I think with [his] laziness...” (Ai 9), dwelling on the negative aspects of the relationship, continuing to try and find other reasons to stay with each other. Ai’s poem describes a intimate relationship between lovers. However, in a sense, this relationship is more complicated than what Derricotte speaks of. Derricotte describes a familial bonding in which the “lover” is tied down more with commitment and responsibility, in other words being less likely to leave the child or fall out of love with him. The love in Ai’s poem “may have a definable endpoint...that is the total annihilation of the other” (Love and Hate 301). The two mentioned in the poem are in a constant battling whether to stay or to go. There is is this constant struggle whether the relationship is worth enduring or if all ties should be cut. Critics may argue that this is a form of love that is unstable and unsure, but when we look at all the aspects of love, this relationship does not fall into the margins. This love, as some would call it, has an

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