The Cool Girl Hypothesis : Love, Roses, Chocolates, And Big Red Hearts Essay

Chasing Amy is a movie that uncovers the hardships we find within the confusion of love and sex in our lives. Sometimes the line between love and sex seems almost invisible, but the differences and complications of understanding that are quite clear in this movie. The issues presented in Chasing Amy are directly related to the discussions of “Politics of Sexuality” as well as everyday life in our culture.

In this global era of evolving civilization, it is increasingly difficult to ignore the fascinating fact about love. Love is a feeling of intimacy, warmth, and attachment. Love is inevitable and it plays a vital role in human life as Janie uses her experience with the pear tree to compare each of her relationships, but it is not until Tea Cake that she finds “a bee to her bloom.” (106).

We live in a society that has increasingly stomped on love, depicting it as cruel, superficial and full of complications. Nowadays it is easy for people to claim that they are in love, even when their actions say otherwise, and it is just as easy to claim that they are not when they really are. Real love is difficult to find and keeping it alive is even harder, especially when one must overcome their own anxieties and uncertainties. This is the main theme present in Russell Banks’ short story “Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story,” as well as in “The Fireman’s Wife,” written by Richard Bausch. These narratives, although similar in some aspects, are completely different types of love stories.

Love is undoubtedly one of the most frequently explored subjects in the literary world. Whether the focus is a confession of love, criticism of love, tale of love, or simply a tale about what love is, such literary pieces force readers to question the true meaning and value of love. Raymond Carver accomplishes this in his short story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.” As the unadorned setting and the personality of each character unfold, the reader realizes that Carver is making a grave comment on the existence of love. Carver utilizes strong contrast, imagery, and diction to ultimately suggest that love cannot be defined concretely and therefore cannot be defined in words, and because of this, it is better off unexplored.

Laura Kipnis’s “Against Love”, and Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love” ,brings up the issue of what is the definition of love and is love what we think it is. Love has changed in comparison to what it once was, and we now loosely use the term, but what does it truly mean, and why do we buy in to it. Kipnis’s essay develops the idea that this “mature love” is when someone can love and be loved, and she takes the position that this does not happen. Although Kipnis believes mature love is neither a realistic expectation nor a good thing to have, I claim that the idea of mature love is not bogus, because even though it is rare to find, and may even take a few tries, I believe it is possible for people to have this mature love. Unlike Kipnis too, I believe mature love can take on different forms, and doesn’t have to just be so black and white like Kipnis explains it as.

What is love like for you? Caitlin Dewey’s purpose of her story is to explain to the audience a time in her life in which she experienced love, and to inform and persuade the reader about her perspective of online and in-real-life relationships. However, most people think that love can’t exist when the majority of that relationship occurs online. Caitlin Dewey shares with us her experience with love: online vs. real life. Dewey has a strong argument because there really is no way that you can argue or disagree with her story since only she has experienced it firsthand. Caitlin Dewey never actually says that she is trying to persuade the reader what to think about love, but is nonetheless

Diane Ackerman’s purpose for writing her essay “Love’s Vocabulary” is to inform the reader not to underestimate love since love is the great intangible and cannot be defined, but can be felt. The neutral and positive connotation of words such as “monotone” and “delirium” suggest Ackerman’s passionate tone about how love cannot be the same constant emotion that is felt everyday, but a powerful feeling that has many meanings since love is an emotion that is older than humanity itself. Ackerman’s use of figurative language, particularly metaphor and personification, reveal that Ackerman is trying to inform the reader that love is to intangible to be defined in a single word that is often used, which can also connect to her irritating attitude

Diane Ackerman’s purpose for writing her essay “Love’s Vocabulary” is to persuade the readers that love is an unique emotion that we use in such an unorganized manner. This is demonstrated through the connotations of words such as “sloppy”, and “delirium”. The connotative meaning of the word sloppy as used in line 41 indicates that people use the word love to describe how they feel in many different occasions that the word has lost its meaning and the value it makes someone feel when said to them. Furthermore, the connotative meaning of the word delirium as used in line 38 suggests to the reader that love is an exciting and passionate emotion that has be seen and shown throughout history. Her use of figurative language, particularly metaphors

You’ll be mine and I’ll be yours. Everything will be perfect until one screws up, but what if no one screws up? Yes, if no one screws up you made it to the finish line of a “happily ever after”. Love is such a crazy thing, one day is alive and growing and the next is fading until it completely dies. Everyone will have their own view on love, but love is vague, for one knows about today but not about tomorrow. In her critique of love, “Against Love,” Laura Kipnis offers a judgmental version of what constitutes “real love”. She questions whether we truly desire love, or rather, are conditioned to. She asserts that social forms accustomed us to pursue a love life so that we are entertained and wanted. But everyone has a different opinion on the matter. In his short story, “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love,” Raymond Carver tells the story of four different individuals in which he explores the perceptions of love by referring to their beliefs and experiences. One of the four characters, Mel, seems to have an unclear perspective on love himself as he questions his love life and asserts that everyone is entitled to look for love when is missing. If Mel was to have a conversation with Kipnis they would agree and disagree on certain ideas, for they both are able to understand the complexity of the matter. Mel would agree with Kipnis that society forces one to feel like a failure when love dies and that people move on because society expects us to, as he questions his

Love makes us do crazy things. It makes us become people we never thought we were. Love gives us an ultimatum about our life. Love is a powerful bond and wicked curse. When we love, we love hard. We will do anything for love and to be loved. In “My Sister’s Marriage,” Cynthia Marshall Rich presents the different views of love upon similar yet different characters. Two sisters, who share a loving yet manipulative Father show the different ways love affects us. Sarah-Ann and Olive have many similar and different relationships with love, their dreams, and their traits.

Two women, who have both been emotionally damaged, react towards love in differing manners. One refuses to acknowledge it and replaces the concept with the idea of lust by maintaining only fleeting sexual encounters. The other takes an extreme route of obsession that underlines every part of her everyday life. While these women approach the same topic in contrasting ways, there is a stronger common ground between them. These women let their approaches to love depreciate their self-image and self-worth. Susan Minot’s “Lust” and Maggie Mitchel’s “It Would Be Different If”, illustrate the identity damage that failed young love caused in their short stories.

While people are often able to identify when they feel the emotion love, love itself seems to defy definition.  In her polemic “Against Love”, Laura Kipnis argues that love cannot exist as traditional expressions of love such as marriage, monogamy, and mutuality.  However, in her argument, she defines love incorrectly by equating love to expressions of love. This definition lacks a component essential to understanding the abstract concept of love: emotion. Recognizing love as emotion helps us realize that, contrary to Kipnis’ argument love by nature transcends all expressions of love. Love is subjective and exists in any and all forms. In her argument that love cannot survive as conventional expressions of love, Kipnis ignores the nature of love as emotion in favor of equating love to different expressions of love. Love is a force which exists above expressions of love; a true understanding of love can only come from an assessment of how individuals, not societies, respond to the emotion.

Synopsis Gone Girl, published in 2012 by author Gillian Flynn, is a thriller in its own. Later, in 2014, a film adaptation was released, directed by David Fincher, bringing all the creativity left in the novel to life. Nick Dunne, a writing teacher, comes home on the day of his fifth wedding anniversary to find his wife, Amy Elliot Dunne, is nowhere to be found. After conferring with the police, Amy is officially listed as a missing person. It is later decided that Amy had been murdered due to the scene, though no body was found.

Today, romance is one of the most popular genres to watch on television. Unlike most, romance is a genre where the plot revolves around the love between two main characters as they experience the highs and lows of love. “Common themes that revolve around romantic movies are kissing, love at first sight, tragic love, destructive love, and sentimental love” (Taylor). These themes appear in many historical films and the pattern still continues in modern films as well. Watching romantic movies has a giant negative influence on the viewer's analysis of what love and relationships should really be like. These films give the wrong impression of reality when it comes to dating, marriage, having children, and even how to manage a relationship in

Love can be a strange and wonderful thing. Some will have their first kiss at the end of elementary school, and some will only start dating once their adults. Some can fall for a childhood friend they knew all their life, and some will be awe-struck by a stranger passing by. Some will marry their high school sweet heart, while some others settle down much later in life. To say love is complicated is an understatement, and trying to understand it can by quite puzzling. Luckily, there are always people who have firsthand experience willing to share a snippet of their wisdom. Both Robert Herrick and Barbara Greenberg try to caution naïve virgins about love in “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” and “The Faithful Wife” respectfully. While one poem incites young people to make the most of their freedom, the other warns of the dangers of marrying too quickly. Both works use a number of various techniques and also share a few in common.