Maggie Nelson’s work The Argonauts is a genre-blending memoir, which at its core explores the imitations of love and language by offering brazen and intense firsthand accounts into the complexities and delights of making a gender fluid family. Traditional aspects of unconditional love, specifically in the nuclear family, are rarely present in this work. Does Nelson believe that love and language have their own limitations? Or is she pushing the boundaries by questioning the definition of “unconditional love” and if there is even such a concept in the modern world? This question is initially exemplified in The Argonauts when it states: “the conviction that words are not good enough. Not only not good enough, but corrosive to all that is good, …show more content…
Nelson proves this notion when she states: “I cannot hold my baby at the same time as I write” (37). By declaring this, Nelson identities that unconditional love has its own limitations, although one may have an ultimate focus in life, the modern world surrounding us conditions our behaviors, we, therefore, must departmentalize aspects of our daily lives. Modern society proves not only contradicting but also impregnable to the practices and ideals of unconditional love, which encourages humans to believe that love conquers all. In turn, the ideal of love conditional love can exaggerate and evolve into a form of resigned acceptance. This notion becomes evident when Nelson states: “I wanted this for my sake, not yours (which meant it was a desire I would need to dispose of quickly)” (51). Nelson’s firsthand account into the complexities and delights of making a gender fluid family examines the reality that unconditional love has the power to limit one’s own desires; these limitations of love and language illustrate the fact that there are conditions in “unconditional love.” Unconditional love is no longer seen as something revered and adored. Even Nelson’s connection to her own desires are not highly emphasized in this passage; there is an apparent gap between unconditional love and its relativity in our modern
He also discusses how love and the desire for commitment play a big part in the argument for and against gay marriage. Stoddard begins his argument successfully with pathos, or emotional appeal, to attain the reader’s empathy for those who have been deprived of a loved one. The story tells of a woman named Karen Thompson, who was basically married, but not legally, to her female partner; when Thompson’s partner was in a critical car accident, her partner’s parents completely cut Thompson off from all contact with their daughter. Had the two women been married, they would not have had to deal with such heart-throbbing pain. This example is effective in presenting how marriage “can be the key to survival, emotional and financial” (Stoddard, 1988, p. 551).
In the LGBT community, they develop intimate relationships in the same stages as heterosexual couples however they resolve conflicts more positively. Due to them being in a relationship with the same-sex partner, they approach roles in a relationship and marriage using egalitarianism. We all give and receive love differently. Knox & Schacht discuss the different types of loves styles a person’s desires from their relationships such as ludic, pragma, eros, mania, storge, and agape. These different love styles also express how lovers can understand and relate to one
Milestone 1: Literacy Analysis Paper: Love means loving someone unconditionally. Loving them with flaws and all. Love is a part of being human. How can you love without accepting the society you live in? Nowlan’s poem
Gaitskill’s “Tiny, Smiling Daddy” focuses on the father and his downward spiral of feeling further disconnected with his family, especially his lesbian daughter, whose article on father-daughter relationships stands as the catalyst for the father’s realization that he’d wronged his daughter and destroyed their relationship. Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” focuses on Mel and his attempt to define, compare, and contrast romantic love, while leaving him drunk and confused as he was before. While both of my stories explore how afflicted love traumatizes the psyche and seem to agree that love poses the greatest dilemma in life, and at the same time that it’s the most valued prospect of life, the two stories differ in that frustrated familial love causes Gaitskill's protagonist to become understandable and consequently evokes sympathy from the reader, but on the other hand frustrated romantic love does nothing for Carver's Protagonist, except keep him disconnected from his wife and leaving him unchanged, remaining static as a character and overall unlikable. In comparing “Tiny, Smiling Daddy” and “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”, together they suggest that familial love is more important than romantic love, which we relentlessly strive to achieve often forgetting that we’ll forever feel alone without familial love, arguably the origin of love itself.
Bell hooks, in chapter 14, discusses the issues that arise while liberating a marriage and partnership during the feminist movement. Hooks explores how important partnership is within relationships, marriage, and parenting. Hooks shows us that while some arrangements have changed, there seems to be some that are held back due to socially constructed problems.
Fromm describes the value of secure attachment, explaining that to a baby, “mother is warmth, mother is food, mother is euphoric state of satisfaction and security” (Fromm, 38). As they grow, children learn how to love and be loved through this relationship. The experience of being loved as a baby is described as a “passive one” because “there is nothing I [the baby] has to do in order to be loved” (Fromm, 39). Love, as a child may have learned about it, can only be received and “cannot be acquired, produced, controlled”, but the “capacity to love” can be developed; this is usually displayed in children starting at age eight (Fromm, 40). In a healthy learning journey, children come to learn that “love is not primarily a relationship to a specific person; it is an attitude, an orientation of character which determines the relatedness of a person to the world as a whole, not toward one “object” of love” (Fromm, 46). Children will seriously struggle - especially in regards to their ability to love and be loved - if they are deprived a comforting, present caretaker in their early years of
A family is something a person considers as his/her own. One often identifies themselves with their kin. If one were given to their parents in such a socialist society as the one described in the novella, one would have a “ biased” love for the people who created and...
In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, love proves to be a dangerous and destructive force. Upon learning that Sethe killed her daughter, Beloved, Paul D warns Sethe “Your love is too thick” (193). Morrison proved this statement to be true, as Sethe’s intense passion for her children lead to the loss of her grasp on reality. Each word Morrison chose is deliberate, and each sentence is structured with meaning, which is especially evident in Paul D’s warning to Sethe. Morrison’s use of the phrase “too thick”, along with her short yet powerful sentence structure make this sentence the most prevalent and important in her novel. This sentence supports Paul D’s side on the bitter debate between Sethe and he regarding the theme of love. While Sethe asserts that the only way to love is to do so passionately, Paul D cites the danger in slaves loving too much. Morrison uses a metaphor comparing Paul D’s capacity to love to a tobacco tin rusted shut. This metaphor demonstrates how Paul D views love in a descriptive manner, its imagery allowing the reader to visualize and thus understand Paul D’s point of view. In this debate, Paul D proves to be right in that Sethe’s strong love eventually hurts her, yet Paul D ends up unable to survive alone. Thus, Morrison argues that love is necessary to the human condition, yet it is destructive and consuming in nature. She does so through the powerful diction and short syntax in Paul D’s warning, her use of the theme love, and a metaphor for Paul D’s heart.
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.
Anne of Green Gables is the story of a young girl named Anne who is living as an orphan at the turn of the twentieth century. At the age of eleven she is sent to live with a middle-aged brother and sister on their Prince Edward Island farm called Green Gables. All though at first unwelcome, she goes on to win the hearts of her hosts, and become a young woman of character and promise. Anne of Green Gables was written by L.M Montgomery in the year 1908. The book and its characters are fictitious, as the story was created in the imagination.
The Notebook (Cassavetes, 2004) is a love story about a young couple named Allie Hamilton and Noah Calhoun, who fall deeply in love with each other. The Hamilton’s are financially stable, and expect for their daughter Allie to marry someone with the same wealth. Noah on the other hand works as a laborer, and comes from an underprivileged family. Throughout the film there were several negative behaviors, and interpersonal communications within the context of their relationship, which relates to chapter nine. This chapter explores relationships, emphasizing on affection and understanding, attraction, and the power of a relationship. The focus of this paper is the interpersonal conflict with Noah, Allie and her mother, Anne Hamilton.
Robert Nozick’s Love’s Bond is a clear summary of components, goals, challenges, and limitations of romantic love. Nozick gives a description of love as having your wellbeing linked with that of someone and something you love. I agree with ideas that Nozick has explained concerning the definition of love, but individuals have their meaning of love. Every individual has a remarkable thing that will bring happiness and contentment in their lives. While sometimes it is hard to practice unconditional love, couples should love unconditionally because it is a true love that is more than infatuation and overcomes minor character flaw.
“Great” is a word that you have most likely heard very often in your lifetime. You may have heard a teacher tell you that you have done a “great job!” on your homework assignment, or have been told that you are destined to do something great with your life. You might have even asked yourself questions such as, “what makes a great leader?” or “what makes art great?” In this case, I have come to ask myself what the greatest work of American literature is. Each person has their own idea of what great is and no single work of literature will ever be critiqued exactly the same by everyone who reads it. To me, a great work of literature is one that is able to relate to a person in one form or another. A Nigerian novelist by the name of Chinua Achebe
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.
One theory argues that love is not merely a feeling, but rather a mirror of what we have seen displayed for us, throughout our lives, in the form of parent interactions (Fehr, 1988). This is often referred to as prototype