She Of The Mountains

Is love an emotion we feel naturally, or is it something that needs to be learned? Is the idea of loving someone a journey in which you grow together, or is there really such a thing as ‘love at first sight’? Vivek Shraya’s narrative She of the mountains and bells hooks’ perspective novel all about love dive into the ideas and definitions of love. Shraya’s novel She of the mountains explores how love is something we learn through experience, how our definition of love can be moulded and changed through those experiences, and how they are correlated to our individual identity and self-love. hooks’ all about love blames society for our reasoning why love fails and how we fail to have a sense of individual identity because of the idea of love

Combining a Hindu mythology reimagining with a bi/queer individual who seeks to explore both his sexuality and his idea of love while trying to remain within the barriers of society creates a refreshing, organic view of what love is. Shraya explores how although our general idea of love remains virtually the same throughout experiences in our lives, it is our search for identity and who we are that changes what we will accept in loving relationships. As the protagonist grows within the ideas of societal norms, he finds himself confused and lost as to what he is as both a body and a soul. ‘No one else was attracted to both boys and girls. His desires must be wrong.’ (Shraya, p. 23.) Having no sense of identity in combination to what society says is the norm disables his ability to love himself. He is insecure, withdrawn and confused as to what or who he is supposed to be. He is unable to love himself, and still be true to himself within the ideas of what society expects of him. Shraya poses the idea that when you are confused about who you are, you are unable to truly grasp the ideas of love around you. The narrator misses out on the opportunity to make friends in high school because he has his own insecurities to guard his heart and the ability to love others. The book touches on his high school experience, and I noticed that his high school friends were never mentioned in the novel after he had graduated; this conveys the image that when someone is insecure and unable to love themselves, they limit the ability of other peoples love to come into their lives. From this section of the book, a reader can take away that the when someone is confused or uncertain of their identity they are unable to truly identify with others and therefore are unable to open up to love and relationships. This does not mean that we are never going to be able to love, but that we need to understand ourselves, our morals, values and our