When I am lonely for boys it’s their bodies I miss. I study their hands lifting the cigarettes in the darkness of the movie theaters, the slope of a shoulder, the angle of a hip. Looking at them sideways, I examine them in different lights. My love for them is visual: that is the part of them I would like to possess. Don’t move, I think. Stay like that, let me have that.
Interpretation
The quote reflects a deep appreciation for physical beauty and a longing for connection.
In this quote, Margaret Atwood expresses a complex longing for boys that transcends mere companionship. Instead, it highlights a fascination with their physical forms and the beauty found in their movements and postures, suggesting that her affection is rooted in a visual admiration rather than emotional intimacy. This longing captures a desire to possess and hold onto fleeting moments of beauty and presence, emphasizing the intricacies of attraction and desire.
In practice
This quote is perfect for a discussion on the nature of attraction in a literature class.
If I am good enough and quiet enough, perhaps after all they will let me go; but it’s not easy being quiet and good, it’s like hanging on to the edge of a bridge when you’ve already fallen over; you don’t seem to be moving, just dangling there, and yet it is taking all your strength.
I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it. Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance. If it’s a story I’m telling, then I have control over the ending. Then there will be an ending, to the story, and real life will come after it. I can pick up where I left off.
What else can I do? Once you've gone this far you aren't fit for anything else. Something happens to your mind. You're overqualified, overspecialized, and everybody knows it. Nobody in any other game would be crazy enough to hire me. I wouldn't even make a good ditch-digger, I'd start tearing apart the sewer-system, trying to pick-axe and unearth all those chthonic symbols - pipes, valves, cloacal conduits... No, no. I'll have to be a slave in the paper-mines for all time.
We love each other, that’s true whatever it means, but we aren’t good at it; for some it’s a talent, for others only an addiction.
I've learned quite a lot, over the years, by avoiding what I was supposed to be learning.
Knowing too much about other people puts you in their power, they have a claim on you, you are forced to understand their reasons for doing things and then you are weakened.
Insanity laughs under pressure we're cracking_x000D_ Can't we give ourselves one more chance_x000D_ Why can't we give love that one more chance_x000D_ Why can't we give love_x000D_ Cause love's such an old fashioned word_x000D_ and love dares you to care for_x000D_ The people on the edge of the night_x000D_ And love dares you to change our way of_x000D_ Caring about ourselves_x000D_ This is our last dance_x000D_ This is our last dance_x000D_ This is ourselves_x000D_ Under pressure
They were stars on this stage, each playing to an audience of two: the passion of their pretense created the actuality. Here, finally, was the quintessence of self-expression-- yet it was probable that for the most part their love expressed Gloria rather than Anthony. He felt often like a scarecly tolerated guest at a party she was giving.
In the end, love wins. It does win. We know it wins. When a person dies, love isn’t turned off like a faucet. It is an amazingly resilient part of us.
For, just as in the beginning it is formed by desire, so afterwards love is kept in existence only by painful anxiety.
And so this young one, this young one whom I had so loved, I had to forsake, no matter how broken my heart, no matter how lonely my soul, no matter how bruised my intellect and spirit.
To keep your marriage brimming, With love in the loving cup, Whenever you're wrong, admit it; Whenever you're right, shut up.
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