What Love Is Not :: essays research papers fc

When I was Thirteen, I couldn’t wait until I was sixteen so that I could drive. Once I was sixteen I couldn’t wait until I was eighteen. I wanted to be considered an adult. When I reached the age of eighteen, I couldn’t wait to turn twenty-one. I wanted to be able to drink and gamble, legally. I am now twenty-two years old, and I wish that I could be a child again. I look back and feel that I grew up too quickly. I think the reason that I grew up so quickly, was due to the fact that I was friends with people who were older than myself. And just like the young boy in the short story â€Å"Araby† by James Joyce, I wanted to be accepted by someone older than myself. The young boy from â€Å"Araby†, wanted to be accepted by an older girl who he thought he loved. Although (in reality) the young boy does not truly love this girl; he becomes deeply obsessed with her. Which would have cost him his childhood; if it weren’t for his realization. Some people live their whole lives and never discover what love really is. And the young boy from â€Å"Araby† hasn’t either. Communication is a vital part of loving someone, and this is something that the young boy cannot do. The young boy demonstrates this when he encounters the older girl who is his so-called love. â€Å"At last she spoke to me. When she addressed the first words to me I was so confused that I did not know what to answer† (Joyce 28). This shows the boys inability to communicate with the girl. He cannot even hold a simple conversation with the girl. When you love someone you have to be able to tell someone how you feel, or at least be Williams 2 able to communicate how you feel through body language. Like flirting. If you do not, or cannot, let that person know how you feel, it is not called love. It is called an obsession. Most people obsess over things that they cannot have. One thing that the young boy cannot have is the older girl. All he can do is obsess over her. He obsesses over to the point that he is almost stalking her. The boy illustrates this to us every morning: Every morning I lay on the floor in the front parlour watching her door.