Literature is indicative of society and one of the most enduring elements is the notion of love and relationships. There are distinct stages of love for different stages of life. Author T. Coraghessan Boyle's “The Love of My Life” is not meant as a romantic love story, but as a story based on the premise or idea of love. The story is really based on the selfish acts of two privileged teens that commit an atrocity that not many people can understand: neonaticide or more commonly referred to as infanticide. A life taken before it even had a chance to begin. A child murdered for no other reason than she was an inconvenience, a means of population control and a non-person to the two people who should have loved her the most. What would …show more content…
He consoles her by saying that she should not weep, as her sighs will result in the death of other”. Although Boyle does not go into the details of the poem itself, it appears as if he has used Donne's work to stand in for the catalyst of Jeremy and China's relationship demise. Chakraborty states “in a very apprehensive tone he [Donne] appears to be implying that when set apart on “diverse shores” they will mean nothing”. Boyle captures this thought as well when he wrote “the last thing he said to her, just as they were pulled apart … you told me to get rid of it”. Death has come. The death of the couple's relationship with the death of the …show more content…
According to Stephanie Pappas, the Ancient Romans who had no means of birth control, apparently used infanticide as a means of limiting family size. Researchers discovered a cache of bones and “based on the fact that measurements of the long bones of the arms and legs suggested that all of the babies died at the same age, right at the time of birth” has led them to believe that the bones were all from victims of neonaticide. Pappas also reported that “ babies weren't consider human upon birth, but that they gained humanity over time, first with their naming a few days after birth, and later when they cut teeth and could eat solid
The notion behind loving someone is simply a very complicated and esoteric in nature. People often describe a certain chemistry, as in a certain attraction, needed between two individuals who are in love but Barbara Fredrickson is able to coordinate the definition of love on the basis of chemicals. Barbara Fredrickson is able to provide the definition of love on the deductive reasoning based on chemistry, biology, and neurology explained in Love 2.0: How our Supreme Emotion Affects Everything we Feel, Think, Do, and Become. As Barbara explains "With each micro-moment of love, then, you climb another rung on the spiraling ladder that lifts you up to your higher ground, to richer and more compassionate social relationships, to greater resilience
In the story “Carnal Knowledge”, by T. Coraghessan Boyle, Jim is the main character who loves to eat meat. He would love nothing more than to enjoy a dinner of “Beef, mutton, pork, venison, dripping burgers, and greasy ribs”. (1107) However, Jim’s cravings for “Kentucky Fried or Chicken McNuggets” were no match for Alena Jorgensen. (1108) Alena is an obsessive animal rights activist whom Jim met while laying on the beach feeling sorry for himself. When a person has feelings of depression and loneliness it can be very easy for another person to come into their life and change their whole persona.
Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 in Florence, Italy, into a moderate wealth household. In his late twenties, Dante Alighieri wrote the Vita Nuova around 1292, during a period when he began studying philosophy and intensified his political involvement in Florence. Dante held multiple significant public offices in Italy. In 1302, at the age of 35, Dante was exiled from Florence by the leaders of the Black Guelphs, the political faction in power at the time. During this time, Dante wrote Inferno. Throughout both Inferno and La Vita Nuova, Dante develops the story through the use of themes such as love’s motivation, the conflict in god vs man, in which he demonstrates his strong religious influence, and the power of storytelling, in which he also
Their love was eternal and his death was the worst moment of their everlasting
The Wife of His Youth is a short story written by Charles Chestnut that highlights the difficulties experienced by the mulattos (people of mixed white and black races) during the 1890’s. One of the biggest difficulties experienced by the protagonist, Mr. Ryder, was deciding which race to closer associate with when it came time for him to select a spouse. Because Mr. Ryder was a mulatto, choosing to marry a darker woman would emphasize his darker qualities and choosing a whiter woman would emphasize his whiter features. Charles Chestnut utilizes the use of poetry in The Wife of His Youth as a means to give the reader insight into what Mr. Ryder is attracted to in Mrs. Dixon, as well as using the poetry to instigate Mr. Ryder’s actions with his former wife. This
With the idea of a love that is forbidden it is looked down upon and can cause problems for the people who have fallen for its’ hidden desires. In the short story “Drown” by Junot Diaz, the main character Yunior is conflicted with his sexual preferences due to how his community would react to him being a homosexual. In the short story the “The Lady with the Dog” by Anton Chekhov the main character Gurov finds love with a younger woman while still being married, despite the idea of even being with another woman at that time was strictly forbidden. Whereas Gurov and Yunior are different as Gurov handles a relationship due to having multiple affairs, while Yunior is confused about his relationship with his friend because of his homosexuality,
The Lais of Marie de France is a compilation of short stories that delineate situations where love is just. Love is presented as a complex emotion and is portrayed as positive, while at other times, it is portrayed as negative. The author varies on whether or not love is favorable as is expressed by the outcomes of the characters in the story, such as lovers dying or being banished from the city. To demonstrate, the author weaves stories that exhibit binaries of love. Two distinct types of love are described: selfish and selfless. Love is selfish when a person leaves their current partner for another due to covetous reasons. Contrarily, selfless love occurs when a lover leaves to be in a superior relationship. The stark contrast between the types of love can be analyzed to derive a universal truth about love.
Love has many definitions and can be interpreted in many different ways. William Maxwell demonstrates this in his story “Love”. Maxwell opens up his story with a positive outlook on “Love” by saying, “Miss Vera Brown, she wrote on the blackboard, letter by letter in flawlessly oval palmer method. Our teacher for fifth grade. The name might as well have been graven in stone” (1). By the end of the story, the students “love” for their teachers no longer has a positive meaning, because of a turn in events that leads to a tragic ending. One could claim that throughout the story, Maxwell uses short descriptive sentences with added details that foreshadow the tragic ending.
Love is just a man-made construct created to justify our decadence. Human are hedonistic animals: we always seek pleasure. Truthfully, we are inherently selfish, caring for only our own well-being, and even if we say we love without costs, we love because it gives us the utmost pleasure: the pursuit of happiness.
The Progress of Love by Alice Munro Plot: Woman gets a call at work from her father, telling her that her mother is dead. Father never got used to living alone and went into retirement home. Mother is described as very religious, Anglican, who had been saved at the age of 14. Father was also religious and had waited for the mother since he first met her. They did not have sex until marriage and the father was mildly disappointed that the mother did not have money.
There exists no power as inexplicable as that of love. Love cannot be described in a traditional fashion; it is something that must be experienced in order for one to truly grasp its full enormity. It is the one emotion that can lead human beings to perform acts they are not usually capable of and to make sacrifices with no thought of the outcome or repercussions. Though love is full of unanswered questions and indescribable emotions, one of the most mystifying aspects of love is its timeless nature. Love is the one emotion, unlike superficial sentiments such as lust or jealousy, which can survive for years, or even generations. In the novel The Gargoyle, the author, Andrew Davidson, explores the idea of eternal love between two people, a union that spans over centuries spent both together and apart. Davidson, through the use of flashbacks, intricate plot development and foreshadowing, and dynamic characterization, creates a story that challenges the reader’s preconceived notions regarding whether eternal love can survive even when time’s inevitable grasp separates the individuals in question.
Infanticide is not unique to humans. It is practiced by many mammals including some primates. The main difference between human and animal infanticide is that infanticide in humans is performed by the parent(s) of the child while in the case of animals it is usually a male suitor (Caldwell and Caldwell, 2005, p. 208). In pre-modern societies infanticide was done instead of abortions as it allowed for sexual selection, it was much more effective than pre-modern contraception, and it did not require any special skills or esoteric knowledge (Caldwell and Caldwell,2005, p. 205). Infanticide has a history as a method of population control. It is more frequent to throw away girl babies. This may be because of dowries or other cultural reasons. Infanticide seems to occur primarily when it aids one parent, both parents or additional children to survive better or if when the infant has little chance of survival.
Written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the novel Love in the Time of Cholera deals with a passionate man's unfulfilled love and his quest of more than 50 years to win the heart of his true love. It's without question one of the most emotional depictions of love, but what separates it from similar novels is its suggestion that lovesickness is a literal disease, a plague comparable to cholera.
T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” tells the speaker’s story through several literary devices, allowing the reader to analyze the poem through symbolism, character qualities, and allusions that the work displays. In this way, the reader clearly sees the hopelessness and apathy that the speaker has towards his future. John Steven Childs sums it up well in saying Prufrock’s “chronic indecision blocks him from some important action” (Childs). Each literary device- symbolism, character, and allusion- supports this description. Ultimately, the premise of the poem is Prufrock second guessing himself to no end over talking to a woman, but this issue represents all forms of insecurity and inactivity.
Their love surpassed the hatred in which the families endured for generations. In the end, they both ended up killing themselves, for one could not live without the other. This story is a perfect example of true love.