Running Head: DOES TRUE LOVE LAST FOREVER? 1
Does True Love Last Forever?
The Meaning of Romance in Modern America
Alanna Roszina
ENGL 1101 VZ
Georgia Southern University
11/17/2014
Does True Love Last Forever?
We all want to fall in endless love. Why? Because that experience makes us feel completely alive and we want it to last forever. The assumption "true love is forever" deals with the struggles, passion, and search for the soul mate love entails (p. 331). Catherine Latterall (2010) writes, "Our culture places a great emphasis on the idea of true, lasting, monogamous relationships and the importance of needing stability in such relationships" (p. 332). In "Against Love," Laura Kipnis argues that love is difficult and even though you are in love, it sometimes is not meant to be. On the other hand, Bell Hooks uses a personal narrative in "Baba and Daddy Gus" to show from experience that love can last.
After reading essays from both Hooks and Kipnis, their arguments have led me to the assumption that true love is forever and that marriages can last.
The main arguments the author makes in "Against Love" are more against marriage and fidelity then they are against love. The article expresses ideas about love and marriage that are different from most views and go against societal norms. Laura Kipnis (2010) argues that modern marriage does not work for most people as she gives the statistic, "Fifty percent of all marriages end in divorce" (p. 364). She also argues that marriage doesn't seem to make Americans very happy, because they keep getting married and remarried. Modern ideas are that marriage and relationships take compromise and work. Kipnis writes, "A 'happy' state of monogamy would be defined as a state you don't have to work at maintaining" (p. 364).