Mrs.

Short
English 9H, Block 7
June 6
th
, 2014
Love
In Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook, the protagonist says the first time you fall in love,
it changes you forever and no matter how hard you try, that feeling just never goes away.
(Sparks) Love is often likened to a rose. The appearance of a rose is flawless and perfect. Upon
closer inspection, one can see the thorns which are like the pain and sadness love can bring.
Love is a compromise, hesitation, accusations, and in some ways painful. Life experiences
contribute to the way love is shown. Love is a force of nature that causes people to act in
unexpected ways, as shown through John Greenes novel, The Fault in our Stars; Edgar Allen
Poes poem, Annabel Lee; and Rose Magrittes painting, The Lovers.
In John Greenes novel, The Fault in Our Stars, love causes a teenager with cancer to
act in unexpected ways. In the novel, one of the main protagonists says and only now that I
loved a grenade did I understand the foolishness of trying to save others from my own impending
fragmentation: I couldnt unlove Augustus Waters. And I didnt want to. (Greene 214) The
protagonists cancer has caused her to be afraid of getting attached to others because she knows
that eventually she will have to leave them. Love has caused the protagonist to forget about her
inevitable death and to actually love again. The protagonists actions are controlled in a way that
she would never have expected. Later in the novel, while on vacation in Amsterdam, the
protagonist thinks to herself Anne Frank, after all, kissed someone in the Anne Frank House,
and that she would probably like nothing more than for her home to become a place where the
young and irreparably broken sink into love. (Greene 202) The protagonist is at first hesitant to
have her first kiss at a place where people hid from Nazis. Love causes the protagonist to find a
moment of joy in an otherwise desperate existence. Love is able to happen in even the most
unusual places. Anne Frank found love in an otherwise dire situation. It allowed her to be happy
in a dismal time. The protagonist was also able to act in a more positive way because of her love.
Through the protagonists openness and ability to love again, love causes the protagonist to act in
an unexpected way.
Edgar Allen Poe also shows that love causes one to act in unexpected ways in his poem,
Annabel Lee, which discusses a beautiful, painful memory about a mans long lost love. The
speaker says the angels not half so happy in heaven./ went envying her and me-/that was the
reason /that the wind came out of the cloud by night,/ chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
(Poe 1) The love between the speaker and Annabel Lee is so strong that angels in heaven were
envious enough to kill her. Angels are supposed to be happy and kind. The speaker and Annabel
Lees love has indirectly caused them to become jealous and to kill Annabel Lee. Towards the
end of the poem the speaker says and so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side/ of my
darling bride, /in the sepulcher there by the sea, /in her tomb by the sounding sea. (Poe 1) The
speaker wants the reader to know that a little thing like death is not going to separate him from
Annabel Lee. The speakers love for her is so strong that he goes and lies down with her in her
tomb every night. Love causes the speaker to dedicate a little part of his day to go lay at his
lovers tomb. The speaker has an unusual way of mourning because normally one would visit a
deceased loved ones grave, not necessarily lay by their grave. Angels harming Annabel Lee and
a lover lying by his loved ones grave show how love can cause one to act in unexpected ways.
Finally, love is depicted in the form of art. In Magrittes painting entitled, The Lovers,
a couple is captured kissing. While the painted snapshot captures a typical romantic moment,
upon further inspection of the art, one can see that the faces of the couple are covered, and that
the room is dimly lit. (Magritte). Love is blind at times, and a couple can feel as if they are not
really seeing the person they love. To further develop and capture the experience, the author
illustrated the couples clothing as fancy and placed them in a dimly lit room. (Magritte) Love
can be between any two people. One can presume that the couple is secretive and blind to whom
they really are as individuals. The picture shows how love can cause people to be together even
if they are not supposed to be together. Love is shown as a force that controls people in
unexpected ways by a couple kissing in a dark room with masks on their faces.
Rose Magrittes painting The Lovers, Edgar Allen Poes poem, Annabel Lee; and
John Greenes novel, The Fault in Our Stars show that love is a force of nature that controls
peoples actions in unexpected ways. In John Greenes novel The Fault in Our Stars, love
causes a teenager with cancer to be open and let other people love her. In Edgar Allen Poes
poem Annabel Lee, love causes angels to kill a woman and a lover to lie at his companions
grave. In Rose Magrittes painting The Lovers, love causes a couple to kiss in a dark room
with masks covering their faces. They thought of love causing one to act in unexpected ways can
be quite disturbing, but love cares what becomes of you because we are all interconnected.
Love honors the sovereignty of each soul. Love is its own law. (Deborah Anapol)