Love is often blinding to the beholder. It controls and makes its victim powerless. In Ai’s “Why Can’t I Leave You,” the speaker realizes her relationship with her husband is not progressing. She knows he prevents her from growing as a human being, but she cannot find the will to leave him. In Dorianne Laux’s “Facts About the Moon,” the author compares the Earth’s weakening gravitational pull on the Moon to the control a mother loses towards her disrespectful son whom she still loves. John Rempel and Christopher Burris’s “Let Me Count the Ways: An Integrative Theory of Love and Hate” connects both of these poems by showing love as an inseparable bond the heart feels regardless of what the brain believes to be best.
In “Why Can’t I Leave You,” …show more content…
Empty love is purely just commitment in a relationship. When the author writes, “[the mother’s] only romanticizing, that she’s conveniently forgotten the bruises [from her son] … ” (44-46), she describes how disrespectful the son was and how his mother still loves him. Laux shows the typical mindset of a mother: no matter what has happened in the past, if something awful happens, the mother will forget about everything except for the well-being of her child. Rempel and Burris state, “... even in an adult relationship, dependence manifests as a plea for nurturance, for the ongoing soothing of one’s felt deficiencies by the loved other” (304). Dependence love is exactly what the mother feels towards her son. The son is her spawn and she relies on him to keep herself sane. Her child is extremely rambunctious; however, the actions she must take to protect and help her son gives her life …show more content…
The article describes this as “... the hallmark of friendship, and such mutuality … self-disclosure, warmth and affection, and understanding and acceptance” (Rempel and Burris 306). Both speakers of the poems find comfort with another person. They show they cannot be without this other person, and will find any excuse to remain in the relationship regardless if it will prevent them from growing as an individual. In “Why Can’t I Leave You,” Ai states, “… with your laziness and the drought too, / you’ll be needing my help more than ever … having found another reason to stay” (9-13). She uses these shallow excuses to convince herself into staying with this man. This relates to the justification the mother in “Facts About the Moon” uses when Laux
In “Why Can’t I Leave You,” …show more content…
Empty love is purely just commitment in a relationship. When the author writes, “[the mother’s] only romanticizing, that she’s conveniently forgotten the bruises [from her son] … ” (44-46), she describes how disrespectful the son was and how his mother still loves him. Laux shows the typical mindset of a mother: no matter what has happened in the past, if something awful happens, the mother will forget about everything except for the well-being of her child. Rempel and Burris state, “... even in an adult relationship, dependence manifests as a plea for nurturance, for the ongoing soothing of one’s felt deficiencies by the loved other” (304). Dependence love is exactly what the mother feels towards her son. The son is her spawn and she relies on him to keep herself sane. Her child is extremely rambunctious; however, the actions she must take to protect and help her son gives her life …show more content…
The article describes this as “... the hallmark of friendship, and such mutuality … self-disclosure, warmth and affection, and understanding and acceptance” (Rempel and Burris 306). Both speakers of the poems find comfort with another person. They show they cannot be without this other person, and will find any excuse to remain in the relationship regardless if it will prevent them from growing as an individual. In “Why Can’t I Leave You,” Ai states, “… with your laziness and the drought too, / you’ll be needing my help more than ever … having found another reason to stay” (9-13). She uses these shallow excuses to convince herself into staying with this man. This relates to the justification the mother in “Facts About the Moon” uses when Laux