A Comparison of Love in Beloved and Secrets and Lies

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The Absence of Love in Beloved and Secrets and Lies

Love is arguably the most powerful emotion possessed by mankind; it is the impalpable bond that allows individuals to connect and understand one another. Pure love is directly related to divinity. Without love, happiness and prosperity become unreachable goals. An individual that possesses all the desired superficial objects in the world stands alone without the presence of love. For centuries love has been marveled by all that dare encounter it. Countless books and poems have been transcribed to explain the phenomenon of love, but love surpasses all intellectual explanations and discussions. Love is not a definition, but rather a thought, an idea. This idea, the idea of love, burns inside us all. Instinctually, every soul on Earth is addicted to love. An addiction, that unless satisfied will contribute to the downfall of an individual in a society. If one does not, or is not loved, one can not prosper among a society where love is an essential ingredient to joy and happiness. Love produces healthy relationships that in return produce healthy and secure environments for all its participants. Love allows the connection of two people; it is love that completes an individual.

In Toni Morrisons Beloved, and the motion picture Secrets and Lies, incomplete characters are illustrated and analyzed. The incompleteness of these characters is a result of the absence of love. In the text of Beloved and Secrets and Lies, Sethe and Cynthia are characters whose roles portray the rueful outcome of an individual that is incapable of possessing love in its purist form. Sethe or Cynthia can not correctly express love because neither of them were loved as children. Only ...

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...duce her own brother. Cynthia is self-evidently terribly affected by the paucity of love in her life. Morris later explains his sister as a victim of someone “who didn’t receive any love.” (Secrets and Lies)

Love is the controlling factor in the lives of every individual, and as portrayed in the novel Beloved and the film Secrets and Lies love is not always pleasant. Characters from both texts find themselves incapable of expressing love, and therefore destroy several potential healthy relationships. Overall love can be considered divine just as easily as it can be considered evil. Sometimes the idea of love is lost somewhere, and those who can not manage to find an alternative source of emotion, must endure the pain and suffering of a loveless life.

Bibliography

Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Penguin Group, 1987.

“Secrets and Lies”

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