Love and Separateness in Literature

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the concept of love and separateness found in the short stories "The Magic Barrel" by Bernard Melamud, "Maria Concepcion" by Katherine Ann Porter and "Feathers" by Raymond Carver. The paper describes how each author portrays love within their story and discusses the complexities surrounding this particular human condition.

From the Paper:

"The authors know as well as any that the popular idea of romantic love embedded in western cultural consciousness does not exist. Despite this understood truth, the myth remains and its debunking continues to inspire great art. Carver, Malamud and Porter do not suggest universal truths; their vision is one of relayed experience. Carver in Feathers betrays himself through the intimately written details of dysfunctional marriage. This closeness is also suggested in Malamud's The Magic Barrel; his sly witticism as to Jewish customs and the bookish young man who rejects them suggests intimate recollection. Porter may not have grown up in a village, yet the perfectly rendered emotional states of love spurned in Maria Concepcion imply she writes what she knows. As mentioned, the writers do not expound answers to love's real meaning. What they have done masterfully is explore the complexities surrounding a human condition - the pursuit of love to express physical passion and to ease loneliness. Taping into a great universal influence, this flows though art and life like an undersea current."

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