“I love you, it’s ruining my life” - Taylor Swift, 2024. Swift sings, in her song “Fortnight” to show how dramatic love can be and how inconsistent of an impact it can have on someone’s life. This idea of the inconsistency of love can also be portrayed in the short story “Eraser Tattoo” by Jason Reynolds and the novel Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds as the author reveals that love can be both beneficial and harmful. In the stories, love was beneficial because it created a strong bond between the two characters. In the short story, the couple, Dante and Shay, were spending their last moments together before planning a long-distance relationship. As Shay was about to leave, Dante said “I love you.” the words “slipped easily from his lips”. Like …show more content…
They had an extremely strong dependence on one another and were grateful for all of the moments they had shared together. They both helped each other with everything and loved each other greatly. These instances of love were both similar because on both occasions, the characters relied on each other and knew how much they cared for each person. Both characters also benefited from loving the other person and their company. With love having a positive impact on characters, it also had a negative impact on the protagonists. In the short story, Shay was burning an ‘S’ into Dante’s arm with an eraser as a way to symbolize them always being together, even though Shay was moving. Dante “clinched his jaw and squirmed. He was doing his best not to quit, to keep his word and go through with this even though he was regretting it more and more each second” (Reynolds 4). Dante was physically hurt to show his love for Shay. Even though Dante will always have Shay’s initial on his arm, showing the sweetness in their love, the immense pain he went through was not worth it. In the book, Will’s older brother Shawn was shot and
Dantes isn’t just being dishonest to these people so that he doesn’t go back to prison, but also to get revenge on them. For instance, Danglars never liked Dantes. Danglars and other men wanted Dantes sent away. Danglars doesn’t like Dantes b...
On the other hand, the Inferno centers on those who turned their back to their “creator” and “source of life” in the fulfilling of earthly desires, and are thus damned for eternity. In between these two extremes is Purgatorio, which deals with the knowledge and teaching of love, as Beatrice and others help outline love for Dante so he can make the climb to paradise and be worthy. For the reader to understand the idea of Dante’s love, one must understand the influence of Aristotle, Plato, and Dante’s “love at first sight” Beatrice in transforming his concept of will and of love in life. In his Divine Comedy, Dante gains salvation through the transformation of his will to love, and hopes that the reader will also take away the knowledge and concept of love he uses to revert to the right path of
This quote symbols all feelings of sympathy and kindness have left Datnes heart as he now get revenge on all those who betrayed him. Dantes wants to be the instrument that hands out the punishment to his enemies.
Living in the present is the first step a couple should take to pursue a healthy relationship. Worrying too much about the what ifs and possibilities of a break up should not become a burden to the relationship. In Kim Addonizio’s “First Poem for You”, the fear of breakups and sour relationships is shown throughout the poem. Scholar Christopher Porre had a similar analysis: “During the fourteen lines of the poem the speaker fascinates her/himself with the tattoos of her/his lover, at times expanding on the specific imagery of the tattoos, at others meditating on the blue ink’s permanence in comparison with love’s tendency to “[turn] to pain” (Addonizio, The Philosopher’s Club Line 12)” (Porre 1).
Love can come at unexpected times, through current situations or through memories, and they will always have that permanent effect on us, just like a tattoo. Because of strange stanza breaks, unusual imagery, and elongated punctuation, the reader can determine the deeper meaning of the poem. The two-lined stanzas signify short-lived loves, and the stanza breaks depict the break-ups and passing of loved ones. The imagery of skulls and the metaphor that love is a tattoo shows that love never deteriorates. And lastly, the poem is only two sentences long, so this shows the fluidity and never ending power of love. Too often people take advantage of love, but what they aren’t aware of is that their experiences with each and every person they have loved tattoo their mind to make them into who they are, much like a tattoo permanently inks one’s skin to commemorate a
Thesis- Dante and Virgil have an interesting relationship that changes throughout Dante’s Inferno. They started off very different and Virgil didn’t care much for Dante. Dante looked at Virgil differently after he had heard Beatrice sent him to guide him. Throughout their travels, their relationship changed as they went through every layer of hell. Something happened in each one that changed their relationship either drastically, or barely at all. Their travels are very intriguing and their relationship is very complex. They become very close, so much that Dante acquires a deep trust in Virgil. They are no longer “just friends.” They are both poets and can communicate very well through words and Literature.
Dante continues to go on throughout The Inferno and meets with Francesca telling her, “you suffer here melts me to tears of pity and pain” (Canto V.113-14) Dante is so overwhelmed in pity he fainted at times. Virgil keeps having to scold Dante, he tells him to stop those feelings of pity towards the sinners. Dante’s character was confused and full of sadness. Concluding, that Dante’s character does not have any admirable qualities. Beowulf did not display mixed emotions such as
Dante felt that having knowledge of the divine love will eventually lead to happiness and get one through the hard times. Even in the inferno, divine love is still present and guides Dante through his battles, fears, emotions and fatigue.
Dante's "Inferno" is full of themes. But the most frequent is that of the weakness of human nature. Dante's descent into hell is initially so that Dante can see how he can better live his life, free of weaknesses that may ultimately be his ticket to hell. Through the first ten cantos, Dante portrays how each level of his hell is a manifestation of human weakness and a loss of hope, which ultimately Dante uses to purge and learn from. Dante, himself, is about to fall into the weaknesses of humans, before there is some divine intervention on the part of his love Beatrice, who is in heaven. He is sent on a journey to hell in order for Dante to see, smell, and hear hell. As we see this experience brings out Dante's weakness' of cowardice, wrath and unworthiness. He is lead by Virgil, who is a representation of intellect. Through Dante's experiences he will purge his sins.
Descending from the first to the second level of Hell, Dante witnesses the transition to greater agony and greater punishment for the damned. Overwhelmed by the sinner’s harrowing cries and the extensive list of seemingly innocent souls given to him by Virgil, Dante beckons for two lovers to approach him, desperate for some sense of comfort. The souls are known to be the historical figures Francesca de Rimini and her lover Paolo, forever trapped in the circle of lust due to their sinful adultery. Through her words spoken to Dante, Francesca shows how she feels she has been unjustly punished and is deserving of others’ sorrow, and Dante, despite his awareness that she is a sinner, pities her. A close reading of this passage is necessary to better understand Dante’s internal battle with showing compassion where it is not deserved and Francesca’s incessant denial of her sins.
... Moreover, such belief in human reason signifies Dante's hope towards a bright society and the pursuit of God’s love as the other part of self-reflection. In conclusion, a great deal of tension and contrast between “dark” and “light” in The Inferno helps us to explore Dante’s self portrait—he fears dangerous desires and sinful darkness, but shows much courage and hope towards life since he nevertheless follows his guide Virgil to dive into horrible Hell. As shown in Canto I, such emotional reaction to dark and light symbols lays a great foundation for developing Dante’s broad and universal traits as his journey progresses.
“There is no greater pain than to remember, in our present grief, past happiness…”(Canto 5) is what Francesca mentioned to Dante and I believed that this is where Dante himself founded that he shouldn’t dwell on the past and this is also where he learned that lust isn’t truly needed in life. That there is love, but lust is an unnecessary part of life. The deeper that Dante would go feel started to change his view towards people. He began to feel pity and sadness towards each and every soul he met during his journey. Once he met Brunetto Latini, Dante explained that he lost himself in a valley and that 's why he was sent there. The Pilgrim explaining himself proves that he was truly on a journey of self-discovery. Once he met Satan himself Dante realized, “the lovely things the heavens hold” (Canto 34) which one of the steps to self-discovery, finding the beauty in
As a result of this, Ari’s mental health starts to rapidly decline, as he believes people fail to see him as human. This mindset, Dante and other characters’ failure to help, is what crumbles most of the relationships Ari has, effectively isolating and separating him from the world. This conflict scares both Ari and Dante emotionally, which leads to their friendship deteriorating and their personalities changing. In addition, Dante’s interests unusually switch after he moves to Chicago, from the arts to drugs, substances and girls. Though this change is never shown in great detail, this is an easy conclusion to come to by understanding the letters Dante sends Ari.
...te become surer of himself and less of a coward. Dante lost respect for some of the shades, at the beginning of the poem he spoke with respect to the shades and pitied them immensely. Towards the ending of the poem Dante lost most respect for the shades and went as far as kicking a shade in the head demanding that the shade answers him. This shows a decline in the value of respect rather than gaining more knowledge in how to be respectful. Excellence is a core value related to personal development and Dante shows in increase in excellence as his journey comes to an end. Over all Dante’s character improves by the ending of the poem. Though he has been through hell he comes out with a new understanding of life, appears less depressed and more courageous.
Shari Lapena’s The Couple Next Door was one of the most popular Canadian fiction books of the late summer publishing season. Released in July 2016, it has remained number one on The Globe and Mail’s Canadian fiction bestseller list into October, making it a continued success rather than a season-specific one. The popularity of The Couple Next Door is special because although Lapena had no established footing in the suburban noir genre and similar books filled the rest of the bestseller list throughout recent weeks, Lapena’s book still emerges the most successful because of its specific niche genre, of which the acquisitions and marketing teams took full advantage while producing The Couple Next Door. By playing into the rise in popularity