One can claim they love someone for an eternity, but if they break up, that eternity is a limited amount of time. Some couples are fortunate to love each other ‘forever’, but others cannot say the same. The novels, This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz and The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan, contain similar views of how two people can bond with each other, but the narrators believe differently about dealing with complications with their girlfriends. The Lover’s Dictionary and This is How You Lose Her both show a loving outlook with their partner yet diverge of intimate action and compromise.
A similarity of the narrator’s views on a relationship is that there is affection present between the couples. The narrator depicts circumstances
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Even through difficult times, the narrator and their partner persevere and continue with their relationship. It can be hard if their significant other is not there with them, so they imagine the love, therefore, they “must embrace the idea of us instead” (Levithan 5). Although they miss their partner, they deal with it. They picture their loved one because they know that their partner will eventually return home. Compromise appears because they envision their loved one and waits until their return. Oppositely, Yunior and Magda do not work things out. They visit Santo Domingo for vacation, but Yunior says “we went back to the United States. Five months later I got a letter from my ex-baby” (Diaz 25). They are unable to make their relationship work, so they break up. Yunior creates chaos when he cheats on his girlfriend, therefore, meeting in the middle becomes difficult. Besides the fact that they got back together, Magda’s feelings are indifferent, and she senses that Yunior does not love her which leaves a small possibility for compromise. The narrator understands what he needs to do to maintain his relationship whereas Yunior does not attempt to make an agreement and assumes matters will mend by
As the story begins, the character of the husband has a negative personality. He lacks compassion, is narrow-minded, and is jealous of his wife’s friendship with a blind man named Robert. His constantly complains that “a blind man in my house was not something [he looked] forward to” (362). The close outside friendship between the narrator’s wife and Robert provokes his insecurities. This friendship has lasted for ten years and during those years, they have exchanged countless tapes regarding experiences they have gone through. Because of this, her husband feels “she [has] told him everything or it so it seemed” (363) about their relationship.
Whereas Oscar’s mutation can be seen by those around him, Yunior’s sort of marinades over time. Like Oscar, Yunior is also a nerd, on many occasions he admits to watching Akira, a Japanese anime with Oscar, and can even read his Elvish writing on their dorm room door “(Please don’t ask me how I know this. Please.) When I saw that I said: De León, you gotta be kidding. Elvish?”(172). This is not the only time in which Yunior inserts his knowledge of Pop culture. Throughout the course of the novel, Yunior references many different genres: from science fiction to fantasy, and Star Trek to The Lord of the Rings. Yunior’s love of things that would typically be classified as ‘nerdy’ is not the only thing that sets him apart (secretly) from Dominican culture. As the novel progresses, the reader can see that Yunior truly loves Lola, one of his ex girlfriends and Oscar’s sister. In fact, he moves in with Oscar during college at the request of Lola. Towards the conclusion of the novel, Yunior also says “I wish I could say it worked out, that Oscar’s death brought us together…[I] alternated between F… Lola and these incredibly narcissistic hopes of reconciliation that I did nothing to achieve”(324). Yunior’s mutant ability, which can only be defined by his actions throughout the novel, is actually disguising his feelings and who he is so that he may blend in with the Dominican concept of what it means to be masculine. After Oscar’s death and being too late to win Lola over, we begin to see a reemergence of Yunior, one who gets married and “don’t run around after girls anymore. Not much, anyway” (326), and that one day hopes to show Lola’s daughter the writings of Oscar’s that he has kept throughout the years. Yunior, at the conclusion of the story, has matured in many ways, much like the way Wolverine matures throughout the X-Men movies, and goes from being a “lone-ranger’ of sorts but eventually joins the X-Men in
A relationship is usually seen between the teller of a tale and the tale that he or she decides to share. Chaucer’s pilgrim, the Merchant, uses his feelings on marriage to teach a lesson in his tale. The Wife of Bathe also relies on her life experience to tell her tale. The two relationships in the tales can then be compared.
Love and affection is an indispensable part of human life. In different culture love may appear differently. In the poem “My god my lotus” lovers responded to each other differently than in the poem “Fishhawk”. Likewise, the presentation of female sexuality, gender disparity and presentation of love were shown inversely in these two poems. Some may argue that love in the past was not as same as love in present. However, we can still find some lovers who are staying with their partners just to maintain the relationship. We may also find some lovers having relationship only because of self-interest. However, a love relationship should always be out of self-interest and must be based on mutual interest. A love usually obtains its perfectness when it develops from both partners equally and with same affection.
The novel “This Is How You Lose Her”, by Junot Diaz, consist of multiple short stories that connects with the main overall story and character. All of the story, except for one, is narrated by the main character, Yunior. Yunior was once a bookworm but began leading down the path of uncertainty, and multiple love affairs that many times ruined his relationships. Although the story has some focus on his family affairs, everything would always tie back to love lost. One chapter focused on his families struggle to live in the US. It exemplifies that every human being does not like being alone. Yunior definitely had a thing going with Ms. Lora. Theoretically, the relationship that Yunior had with her had put a strain in his lust for a “secret” type
Love, however, is not the only factor that creates and maintains a relationship. Love has the power to bring people together, but can also break them apart. In addition, it can lead to irrational decisions with terrible consequences. In this short story Margaret Atwood shows the powerful effect that love has on people’s lives. At first glance, the short stories in "Happy Endings" have a common connection: all the characters die.
... as they present pure fantasy, and the lovers have one foot in each world; they experience desperation in the face of harsh realities, but meanwhile they learn and change as a result of their fantastical dreams. The allusions used in each world illustrate the differences between them and bring them together simultaneously. All of the myths and legends referenced have similar themes and origins, but each is interpreted differently by the speaker; the lovers speak of mythological figures much like themselves, the mechanicals attempt to do the same with little success, and the fairies reference gods and goddess who toy with the fates of mortal lovers. Such striking similarities echo the ever-present theme that in love, we are all the same. Whether we fancy a donkey, a meddling fairy, or a friendly Athenian, in love there is beauty, hilarity, and irrationality in excess.
In the short story “The Cheater’s Guide to Love” by Junot Diaz, the author pinpoints on the Yunior’s life as a writer and college professor who is also struggling with his romantic relationships. The short story is filled with his experiences of using women for his beneficial needs and how it negatively affects him. It focuses on Yunior’s downfall through life after the destruction of his relationship with his fiance. The diction includes the narrator’s hateful consideration of women and a paradox of his own endeavors which prevent him from pursuing a meaningful relationship, but he grows to realize that he treats women awfully and his ex did the right thing by leaving him due to his untruthfulness.
As we read, we form a bond with Yunior. In doing so we move to another level, the political one Diaz wants to express. Thus, in “knowing” Yunior, Diaz’s cause also becomes important to readers, exposing the American dream for what it is: an illusion.
Without the guidance of a father figure Yunior had to make his own life decisions. In contrast Beto who did have a father figure in his life stayed in school and can also be considered a foil character of Yunior. Both Beto and Yunior had similar lives when they were younger, they are both Dominican living in the same neighborhood with roughly the same income levels. The one difference between the two characters is their family dynamic. As seen at the start of the story Beto “hated everything about the neighborhood” (Diaz 504) which is why he was excited to go to college whereas Yunior believes he “wasn’t like [Beto]” (Diaz 504) and wanted to stay. Beto had a dad who is the breadwinner of his family whereas in Yunior’s family his mother is the breadwinner as their father left them. Diaz may be highlighting the importance of a father figure in this story as the two characters, Yunior and Beto, have vastly different futures. In their adolescence both character lead similar lifestyles of being trouble makers and committing petty crimes, the one difference being that Beto cared about school while Yunior did not. This may be due to Beto’s father suggesting that he should get a good education is he wants to be successful in the future. But Yunior not having a father figure and lacking maternal guidance which will be discussed later in the essay, does not care about his future and education instead he
Love is a concept that has puzzled humanity for centuries. This attachment of one human being to another, not seen as intensely in other organisms, is something people just cannot wrap their heads around easily. So, in an effort to understand, people write their thoughts down. Stories of love, theories of love, memories of love; they all help us come closer to better knowing this emotional bond. One writer in particular, Sei Shōnagon, explains two types of lovers in her essay "A Lover’s Departure": the good and the bad.
Brockmeier’s short story represents a damaged marriage between a husband and a wife simply due to a different set of values and interests. Brockmeier reveals that there is a limit to love; husbands and wives will only go so far to continually show love for each other. Furthermore, he reveals that love can change as everything in this ever changing world does. More importantly, Brockmeier exposes the harshness and truth behind marriage and the detrimental effects on the people in the family that are involved. In the end, loving people forever seems too good to be true as affairs and divorces continually occur in the lives of numerous couples in society. However, Brockmeier encourages couples to face problems head on and to keep moving forward in a relationship. In the end, marriage is not a necessity needed to live life fully.
to disconnect from each other and their cultural values. Yunior, the narrator, explains how he and his family were immigrants from the Dominican Republic. The lived in New Jersey and were invited to a party in the Bronx in New York City. The father creates disconnection in the family because of his strong connection to his cultural values. His culture taught him to be patriarchal, promiscuous, and authoritative. These qualities, in excessive use, destroyed his family furthermore Yuniors childhood.
In this essay I would like to emphasize different ideas of how love is understood and discussed in literature. This topic has been immortal. One can notice that throughout the whole history writers have always been returning to this subject no matter what century people lived in or what their nationality was.
This poem has captured a moment in time of a dynamic, tentative, and uncomfortable relationship as it is evolving. The author, having shared her thoughts, concerns, and opinion of the other party's unchanging definition of the relationship, must surely have gone on to somehow reconcile the situation to her own satisfaction. She relishes the work entailed in changing either of them, perhaps.