Hard Love : Tough Love Relationships

Flannery O’Connor introduces her reader’s too unique short stories. They are “Good Country People” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, having too similar characters in different setting, but with the same symbolic meaning. The comparison between Hugla from “Good Country People” to the grandmother in “A Good Man Is Hard to find” is interesting, because they both suffer the same fate. In every short story O’Connor has created a intellectual individual who comes to a realization that their beliefs in there ability to control their lives and the lives of other are false. They enviably become the vulnerable, whereas they assumed it would be different. O’Connor has placed two misguide characters, that deem themselves to be manipulative and compulsive. At the end up of each short story they become vulnerable. Hugla from “Good Country People” and the grandmother from “A Good

Love between two genders is one of the most common themes in writing. In literature, love is often praised, appreciated and cherished. Another common theme in writing is the looming specter of inequality between men and women, which has been strongly depicted throughout history and is still worryingly present in the world today. It is extremely interesting to realize that though love is treasured and valued, in most cases, it takes both genders to create love, and those genders are often separated by inequality. Both these themes coincide well together; the clash of love and gender inequality is interestingly captivating. In John Updikes A&P and Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants, both stories send a conclusive message to the reader that equality between both sexes in love and attraction is almost impossible; one gender will always be more powerful than the other.

Relationships have shaped humanity since the beginning of time. From Adam and Eve to Romeo and Juliet to Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, relationships influence culture and fuel the imaginations and passions of many. Perhaps the most important aspect of a relationship lies in what it brings long-term: the continuation of our species. For all these reasons, relationships constantly appear and reappear in culture, music, and literature. However Charles Dickens and Betty Smith do not focus the effect of relationships on the bonding of two people together, but rather the full development and maturation of one individual’s identity. In their respective novels, Great Expectations and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Dickens and Smith explore how relationships impact a person’s identity and the importance of caution in selecting a lifelong partner.

The first time he kisses Ryou, he thinks let me drag you down with me. He's stuck in the liminal stages between self-recrimination and self-adulation, of I tread where none did before, Alexander and Caesar and Napoleon all, and I almost destroyed what I had left of what was mine, and Ryou's responding caress is his consent, proof that he's already there, wherever down may be.

All my life I have valued so dearly men who never lay a hand in anger against women. I feel like it’s a huge disrespect and the exact opposite of anything like love. Therefore, when Westley slaps Buttercup I was appalled. How dare the “hero” of the book do such a thing? It wasn’t until much later that I realized this was part of Goldman’s satire to the concepts of love and heroism. At the end of the book I had finally grasped the idea that love can be very strong, but never perfect. Westley and Buttercup’s love came slowly. For an example, Westley said, “I’ve been saying it so long to you. You just wouldn’t listen. Every time you said ‘farm boy do this’, you thought I was saying ‘as you wish’, but that’s only because you were hearing wrong. ‘I love you’ is what is was, but never heard and you never heard.” In my small experience of love, I know it can be very beautiful but sometimes also frustrating. I can directly put this lesson into play in my teenage

Authors across time have used various relationship models in their works of writing in order to communicate their beliefs about love. By examining the relationship between two unlike brothers in his short story, “Sonny’s Blues,” James Baldwin communicates his belief that the idea of love can save people. Jhumpa Lahiri, in her short story “Hell-Heaven” also shows that the idea of love can save people, but by the end the characters are only truly happy where there is acceptance. Both Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues” and Lahiri short story “Hell- Heaven” while culturally different, use the trials and tribulations of their characters to prove that the idea of love is a saving force.

Barbara Kingsolver wrote “Stone Soup” “which is taken from High Tide in Tucson: Essays for Now or Never, published in 1995”. Some views she conveys in her essay are these. Kingsolver explains that not all men are the prince that you fall in love with a “live happily ever after,” he may be very feminine and be more like a princess. On the other hand, you may have looked in your box of crayons. You pick out a color that your parents may not approve, even though you see the good of this person. She is very passionate in her writing. She shows a considerable amount of emotion. Which is not bad, this will make you think about your own relationship. It will also make you think of how you treat others. Therefore,

Relationships must be handled with care, if they are not maintained properly, they can end in serious circumstances. Relationships are a very essential part of life. People rely on their relationships with others everyday for comfort and support. However destruction of the relationship is almost guaranteed if not approached delicately. This is evident in Gene and Phineas’s relationship in Harper Lee’s, A Separate Peace, and also through Doodle and his brother in James Hurst’s, The Scarlet Ibis. Gene and Phineas’s relationship becomes overtaken by the massive amount of mistrust and jealousy that Gene has for Phineas. This is also the case in Doodle and his brother’s relationship, when

Ernest Hemingway grasps the intimacy and authenticity of human relationships, in his book, “In Our Time.” The book consists of short stories following the lives of different individuals. Few of the short stories include The End of Something, Mr. and Mrs. Elliot, Cat in the Rain, and The Doctor and The Doctor’s Wife. Through these short stories, relationships between male and female characters, lack meaningful intimacy. There is a disconnect amongst these couples. Hemingway redefines intimacy and what it means. Intimacy goes beyond sex; it is a bond between individuals. He is depicting two forms of intimacy through his characters. One form of intimacy is emotional intimacy, which is portrayed in the male characters. The other form would be sexual intimacy. Thus, Hemingway is changing our perception of intimacy; it is not only found in male and female relationships, but also in friendships. The bond between the male characters is more meaningful and stronger than the female and male relationships.

In this essay I will be exploring and contrasting the relationships of two characters. These characters are Stephen Wraysford of Sebastian Faulks' romantic yet graphically violent novel "Birdsong" and Victor Mancini of anarchic social commentator Chuck Palahniuk's "Choke." "Birdsong" darts between the early 1900s and the 1970s, although Stephen does not appear in the latter dates, and his story is accounted by his granddaughter Elizabeth. "Choke" is a contemporary novel, based in America in the late 20th/early 21st century. In both novels, there are strong messages about relationships, and how they can contribute to the development of a person. While both books may share similar messages, there are massive differences. The main point of

What if he's your prince but you're not his Cinderella? What if's could make or break any relationship and it is quite sad that some people would really risk a relationship just to check if the grass is really greener on the other side. Some people would keep on playing with rocks when there is already a diamond right in front of them, but that is human nature we can't be contented.

Tolerance is a key to any relationship. No matter how hard one might try to convince themselves they have unquestionable love for their partner and view every one of their flaws as perfections, tolerance is what is at the center of every one of those successful relationships, whether it be romantic or platonic. In the novel Jimi & Me the reader is given a personal insight on the happenings of Keith James’ family life in a constant-flowing monologue by our main character Keith. We see as he makes new relationships as others crumble down around him from this trait of tolerance or lack thereof. Though the audience is presented a diverse palette of connections surrounding Keith, it does not prevent the story from dragging from time to time. Sometimes, when reading Jimi & Me, it would feel just as effective to skim through the book as it would to thoroughly read it; the characters in are predictable, the main character is annoying, the writing style could be juvenile at time, and the conclusion of the story was wrapped up all nice-like with a little bow on top.

Men worry less about doing an injury to one who makes himself loved that to one who makes himself feared. For love is secured by a bond of gratitude which men, wretched creatures that they are, break when it is to their advantage to do so; but fear is strengthened by a dread of punishment which is always effective.

Romantic language in literature has been used for ages to express authors' feelings for another human being. This language has been developed through out the years to create ways in which different types of romantic emotions can be expressed in writing. From the breath taking romantic novels of today all the way back to the first writers of the Bible and the romantic books of Song of Solomon and Psalms, romantic language has not only been used to express human emotions but also the role of these emotions in the culture of the times. There have been numerous authors who dared to go beyond what their society would have viewed as politically or morally correct. Anne Bradstreet is one of these authors;

I have been doing a great deal of thinking about the relationship of vulnerability and love. Believe it or not, you are the most vulnerable when you are experiencing love. Years and years ago, I used to believe love was simply an elusive feeling, more of an ideal than a reality. Love was simply a fascination that you felt at the beginning of a relationship but never achieved in a way that was portrayed in the movies or in romance novels. In hindsight, I believe the “love” that I felt was merely a combination of physical attraction, a fondness for the girl’s personality and the security of being in a relationship. What I have since learned is that true love requires an additional ingredient more powerful than any other factor: vulnerability!