Essay/Term paper: Love, what is it good for?

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Miscellaneous

Love in today"s world has been strongly effected by the

social and artistic factors of the past. The question of how

has the social environment, in which love is taking place,

effected the people that are in love. In stories like Romeo

and Juliet, the social environment is the major aspect of the

main character love life. Because of their feuding families,

their love almost did not exisist, but at the same time, if their

families where not in this situation, their love might not of

been inspired in the first place. Problem"s like this show up

in hundreds of fiction and true life stories all of the time. The

only difference between the love between Romeo and Juliet

and other scenarios such as West Side Story, and Splendor

in the Grass, is that these social situations make the story

interesting, therefore, a wonderful love story. In the story,

West Side Story, there is a huge social disagreement

between two New York City gangs, the Jets and the

Sharks. The Jets are primarily a white territorial gang that

has been sworn to defend there street from a Puerto Rican

gang, the Sharks. This social difference had made these two

groups sworn enemies of each and there fore there, it was

known that there was to be no interaction between the gangs

unless it was expressed in hostility. At a dance on night that

both of the racial groups were attending, Tony, a Jets

veteran, had his eye caught by a young girl, Maria, who

happened to be the younger sister of the Sharks leader,

Benardo. Both of the gangs where outraged because Tony

had crossed the social line because his love had ruled out the

idea of fighting the Sharks because it was not acceptable.

Therefore, these two people in love, directly inferred with

the social environment during the time that they were living

in. In a different sort of social aspect of love, Splendor in the

Grass is an excellent example of how a social environment

may be related to people in love. Bud, the main character in

the story, is from a rich family in the Midwest. Bud"s

girlfriend, Deanie, is from a family with less money, who

think the world of Bud, but look down at a sexual

relationship between the two lovers. The play starts off with

the two high school seniors very committed to each. They

spend most of their time together and would enjoy times of

being together alone. As the play moves on, many factors in

Bud"s life make their relationship more and more

complicated. Such as Bud"s father Ace, encouraging his son

to put things off for a while until he had the chance to finish

schooling at Yale. There was also a mental block of Bud"s

sister by Bud because of extra curriculum activities which

she participated in that confused Bud and angered him at the

same time. Deanie, at the same time, was torn up over the

lost relationship, because of social pressure from her and

parents and because of a broken heart. Later in the play,

these factors end up taking such a heavy toll on the

characters, they end up completely separated. The painting

Dance by Renoir could be used as a good example of how

love could be related to the social environment. This piece

appears that the subjects are almost taking a chance on each

other with something as complicated and at the same time,

simple as one dance. The subjects almost seem to have an

unexplainable bond with each other even though they could

be so different. Since it expresses a spur of the moment

feeling it has the ability to directly inspire love, which makes

it a good example of love effected by the social environment.

On the opposite end of the argument, Huey Lewis and the

News in the song Power of Love said, that love is not

always a major part of a social environment. "Don"t need

money, don"t take fame, don"t need a credit card to ride this

train. It"s strong and it"s sudden and it"s cruel sometimes, but

it just might save your life, that"s the power of love." This

quote shows that love does not follow trends or get greedy,

it is just something that is always there regardless of it"s

environment. This shows that a social influence does not

always have to be present in a relationship. The social

environment of a couple in loves will most likely be

influenced by the atmosphere. In West Side Story the

characters where held separate by there racial background

and a feud between gangs. Splendor in the Grass had social

pressures which made love not capable of existing between

it"s characters. In the painting Dance there was a pushing for

a person to act in a spur of the moment fashion. Finally

Power of Love which insisted that the social environment did

not effect a love in progress. All of these examples shown

give off a hint of social interference which directly effects

those which are in love in that certain romance.