Sunday, April 15, 2018
A Love Story
In "A Love Story" There are a series of brief stories near the end w/ headings that are kind of hormones and other receptors that play a part in the female body. What are these headings for? What do these various stories have to do w/ the main story that the narrator is telling? Did the wife ask her husband to go outside and check for intruders or did she just kick him out? When she lets him back in, why do they decide to leave the door open?
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The headings for the female receptors are an indicator for certain signs going on in the married couples relationship. These various stories being told has to do with a woman telling stories about what is going on in her own life, and what she thinks about other problems going on in her life. She is giving her perspective on what she feels about what is happening to her in the moment. The wife tells her husband to check for intruders, in the moment when she heard the noise. When she lets her husband in they decide to leave the doors open, because she is not afraid of what is out there, she feels that it is no longer necessary to have to leave it open, because she does not think anything is out there to hurt them, and that they are safe.
ReplyDeleteGood, Matthew, but why is she no longer afraid?
DeleteI think the stories inside the main story are pretty cool. In fact, they have more plot than the rest of the story does. It's fun to read these stories, partly I suspect, b/c the author had fun writing them. There are even some moments that are strangely moving in the stories despite their brevity, like the woman w/ the double mastectomy lifting her shirt for perverts. Or maybe moving isn't the right word. Disturbing? It's complicated. As I write this, I realize that what the author is writing is a series of thematically linked micro fictions (stories that are a few hundred words). She talked about this at her reading, that sometimes she writes stories that are failed stories but when she combines them w/ others, they become successful.
ReplyDeleteThe headings for these stories are descriptions of the wife and husbands journey(marriage). The wife had started to have second thoughts about her husband not wanting to harm her like the rest of the world. So, the wife kicked the husband out of the house due to her fear of danger the outside world brings. But as she realized that both of their love dissolved her fear, she accepted the outside world for what it is. The door was left open and the thought of safety had been the only thing on her mind.
ReplyDeleteIn Hunt's "A Love Story", each of the females the protagonist creates in her head are labeled with the hormones and receptors of the female body. They all share the feelings and stories of what womanhood is like, bringing them all together. Even with all the different plots to each individual story, the unnamed mother and wife sees them all as apart of her because of how perplexing the female body is in many instances, especially creating another life form. With the way the story is told, I think the wife has kicked out the husband because she needed to make room for all the other women in her head that she thought to life. I don't think she felt like her husband was understanding or appreciative, so she sent him on his way, making it his cough the whole time. Once she lets her husband, Sam back inside, they leave their door open, because now she has her protector and she finally feels safe.
ReplyDeleteI feel the headings are things that are concerns for the wife in the story and some of them are towards herself, marriage and her kids. The wife talks a lot about how she feels that she's older and that she supposed to be a well rounded mother and wife yet she thinks of these younger men and the possibility that her husband is cheating on her. All the headings are receptors that have something to do with reproduction, sexual functions or health. I think they decide to leave the door open because those worries she had are gone and she feels secure with her husband.
ReplyDeleteSam and his wife haven't had sex for a very long long time. 8 months of not having sex is very impressive. I think since Sam didn't meet the needs of her wife and that they both lived in a remote area, she had to meed her needs in a different way which was "Chatroulette". The wife may have looking for someone that can meet her needs. Instead of her husband.
ReplyDeleteI felt like the various stories were those that helped her come to terms with her other beings and woman in general. in each story the woman find a sort of confidence and acceptance. i think purpose is something each story threads beginning to end.
ReplyDeleteI think they leave the door open to basically accept what may come. this sense of if its going to happen it will happen. I loved this concept because she illustrates the couples reluctance but their confidence by fulfilling the action.
During Samantha's hunt reading she had mentioned shes always changing her stories even after its published. a love story was revised in the dark dark after being published in the New Yorker.
I found this cool because i think the details added was the perfect touch to being able to comprehend the material.
I think the different headings leading into different stories are all aspects of the wife's life. They're a collection of her fears and experiences- things she's experienced, and things she's afraid to experience. I think she's trying to picture her life after her husband is killed by the imaginary intruder. A big thing about the wife is that she has a lot of fears. When she and her husband decide to leave the door open, I think it's a symbol of her letting go of her fears- that there's nothing out in the dark that's going to hurt them.
ReplyDeleteI think these headings are for the lack of sexual intercourse her body is having so shes replacing one need with another. If her body cant physically feel the pleasure then her mind wonders to the depths of her imagination or even fantasies. But she also wants more than just the bare minimum and it showed us that she wants more of a emotional connection as well. She wants a piece of her own stories, a combination of lust and a deeper connection, not just sexual but the whole package.
ReplyDeleteSam hunt explains it perfectly why they leave the door open, its not to be foolish but to not have any guards up for each other its is as if the door symbolizes their disconnect.
These headings of the brief stories are possibly explaining certain situations going on in her life subliminally as these stories are occurring in her head. these headings help explain what is going on in her marriage.these stories do help as they are the mini connecting pieces to the main story.the wife asked the husband to go check for the intruders although in one of her stories she made it seem as her husband Sam was doing more than checking for the intruders because the way she was describing him it seemed like he was becoming something else.in my perspective she leaves the door open because she was finally not afraid of what ever noises or movements she heard out there as we could conclude that through her thoughts in her short stories. The wife's name wasn't mentioned
ReplyDeleteThe headings of the story are her trying to really describe what shes feeling with marriage and herself as a person. She is not just a wife and a mother but much more than that. These stories are different from her actual life. I feel like her overthinking was her biggest flaw throughout her life. At the end she finally told him how she felt and the reason for her actions, like sending him out before he decides to leave her. They leave the door open at the end because now they're more open with each other and not closed up. At least that's what I believe the husband feels since she opened up to him and she feels more safe opening up to him.
ReplyDeleteI'm personally confused as to why Samantha Hunt decided to label the headings of each brief story as different hormones and other receptors. However, I believe the narrator is comparing herself to other women that share or have worse problems than her, and in the end she feels for them because they all have a spark dying within them. The narrator says, "I think of the women I collected upstairs. They're inside me." (180) meaning she sees a part of herself in them and has decided to keep them forever with her like a hormone or receptor. I may be far off but that's my interpretation.
ReplyDeleteThe wife's intention seemed to have been to kick her husband out of the house by using hearing a man coughing outside as her scapegoat. She may have been afraid of the sound but she's more afraid of loving a man she believes is cheating on her and doing many other negative things just because they haven't had sex in eight months. She threw her husband out at the chance she had. The husband and wife leaving the door open at the end of the story symbolizes that although they want to fix their marriage, they're allowing anything from the outside enter their lives because they already know how bad and ugly their situation is and they rather not try to fight off any evil like they have before.
The headings of the stories for me are a representation of different situation the woman is going though. The various stories being told are symbolizing her life from her point of view expressing some of her fears, as well as how does she looks at her self as a female. She also describes what she is currently going through. the wife tells her husband to check on intruders because of the coughing noise. When she lets her husband come in i think they decided to live the door open because they both realized that although they did not know what things are going to happen and are coming along, they are there for each other.
ReplyDeleteShe seems consumed by the idea of defining the self. That through her stages of life shes become several "things" based on their relation to the people around her. The fears becoming something tangent to a previous state like "turning a butterfly into a caterpillar." because i think it impresses on her some measure of loss or de-evolution. Yet she also rejects the definitions of her current state when she asks her husband if he knows who she is and proceeds to list the aspects of herself that she previously tried to validate like mother and wife. She knows what she was, and what she is, but not what she is going to be and the passage of time inevitably forcing the change of her situation becomes something she must address at all costs. To abandon everything she knows and leave the door closed or open the door and accept where it may lead. She chooses to open the door, and to open herself to the love of another in this turbulent moment when her internal priorities are shifting and she doesnt know exactly where they may lead as certain as a mother knows how a child must eventually leave the nest. I think the use of the chemical indicators comes into play because as the bodies biological motivations come and go she also changes with that variable. She chooses to leave to leave the door open as well once the husband comes inside. This seems to be some symbolic gesture of the barriers we create for ourselves only serve to constrict what we may experience in the long run. No longer inured to her past ideologies that separation will create some control, comfort, or alleviation for her current situation she accepts him for all that he is in the moment and accepts the nature of the darkness beyond the door, the unknown future and all it holds for them both.
ReplyDeleteThe headings in those various stories identifies as problems in n her life. I think those stories about women are in her mind and they are her. I think those situations happens a lot in married life. As you grow older, you are trapped and can't go back who were before. Just like the main character, she doesn't want to be seem as a "wife" or 'mother".
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