Essay on Short Stories

Submitted By heatherguercio
Words: 1032
Pages: 5

Some people have very strict boundaries when dealing with how far they will go for love. Some people do not go out of their way at all to save a relationship. On the other hand, some people will go completely out of their way and do extreme things in order to save a relationship and keep someone they love. In What We Talk About When we talk About Love, A perfect Day for Bananafish, and A Rose For Emily, the characters in the stories go far to preserve the love that they feel. Sometimes this love can even make the person or people naive about how far they are going and naive about the situation as a whole. In What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver, Terri, one of the main characters, used to be in a relationship with a man that beat her. Even though he beat her she still believes that he loved her. She is naive and maybe in denial of the true fact due to the fact that she loved him. She longed for happiness but I believe she was settling. She thought that was the only love she could find or deserved. The “happiness” and the “why not?” pertain to this topic. In quote #1 Terri talks about the situation saying that she did not know what to do with a love like the one she had; she had to deal with a husband that beats her. This pertains to “commitment” in the collage. She might have felt as though she has a commitment to him and that is why she does not know what to do with the love she has. She felt like she was stuck with him. Terri was also naive about her relationship. Quote #2, Terri talks about how she believes that Ed, her ex husband, really did love her even though he beat her. Terri goes lengths, dealing with this physical and mental abuse for love, to save her relationship. In A Perfect Day For Bananafish by J.D. Salinger, the main character, must understand and stick by Seymour even though he is mentally unstable for love. In quote #3 the women’s mother expresses her worry for her daughter due to the wellness of Seymour. The girl sticks up for Seymour and/or does not see how sick he really is. The girl also avoids the conversation. I believe she is tired of talking about it and she, as Terri did, is settling because she believes that this might be the only love she can get or deserves. This as well pertains to the “why not?” and “happiness” is not found in this story. She struggles through this hard relationship and stays strong, putting up with Seymour’s mental disability to save their love and/ or their relationship. In quote #4 it is shown to the reader an example of Seymour’s disability. He obviously has something for Sybil that is not appropriate and it is shown to the reader what his wife has to put up with on a daily basis. In A Rose For Emily by William Faulkne, Emily goes great lengths to “keep” the one she loves because in her past someone who loved her left her by passing away. In quote #5, it explains Emily’s resistance and denial that Emily has towards her father’s death. This pertains to “The End of Excuses” that is in the collage. Emily finally has to realize that this happened. Her father is dead. She stopped telling her self excuses as to why he was not there and finally admitted to the fact that he is gone. This is the first of Emily’s problems she faces with loved ones. Due to her life-changing loss of her father, she does everything she can to keep the next person she loves; her husband. She tries to accomplish “happiness” and she feels like keeping those she loves close to her is the way to