Definition of Love Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Definition of Love - Essay Example Love is everywhere†¦Our eyes are sparkling; we are shining with beautiful foolish smiles if we are in love.   No one knows whether love exists or not, everyone believes it does exist though it cannot be seen, seized or heard. Love is possible if faith in love exists. Thesis: Love is a phenomenon, which is above our feelings, perceptions, and explanations. It is of ephemeral nature and it is beyond humans' expertise to identify love, interpret it or explain it. It is more common for people to experience it, suffer from it, live through it†¦What is it, actually? Love is†¦ Definition of love To define love one can read Shakespeare, another would rather kiss for the first time†¦ Actually, love can be considered at different levels: from lingual expression to physiological, emotional and psychological contexts (Tibbetts 1979, p. 280). When people say "I love you", what do they really mean? In accordance with the definition from the dictionary: love is  "a strong af fection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties" (cited by Fisher 1998, p. 136).  We would rather focus not only the essence of love but on different types of it. First of all, love can be correlated with the different meanings  of this concept. "There’s romantic love; love between two people, which  is considered to be both intimate and sexual" (Fisher 1998, p. 138). Love is everywhere for me. I love my family, my friends, people and animals in our world. I love reading; I love God and many other things. Actually, I feel that all these forms of love are different and I can clearly feel this difference. Moreover, I feel that love to my beloved person, my mother or my best friend are different types of this feeling. To my mind, the closest synonym to any form of love is "comfort", "coziness", "pleasure"†¦too many other synonyms can be also selected, but I would like to prefer one of these forms of synonyms (Wood 1995, p. 80). People in their relationship trying to find the golden mean. Very often there is a chance to put someone's happiness about your own feelings. It is one of the highest prices paid for happiness. Love to another person can be the greatest treasure in the world, but you have to pay a high price for it. One should love another person above his/her flaws. Not only positive features but also negative features should be loved by a person in case they experience real love. There is a wide range of such things as anger, frustration, selfishness, happiness, longing etc. Love is a broad feeling. Nevertheless, this concept can be hardly described exactly. In accordance with one of the greatest Russian's writers Leo Tolstoy: "Every family is happy in the same way, but every family is unhappy in a different way". The strongest glue for a family is love. If there is no glue than there is no love in this family and it can be hardly claimed that people in the family are happy or if they are family at all. "I think that a famil y is a group of people united not only by blood but also by LOVE" (Huerta).  Ã‚  

The Journal of Helene Berr Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Journal of Helene Berr - Essay Example The book is a compilation of Berr’s diary that took every day of her life during the two years of Jews’ persecution. The book presents persecution of Jews in France during the Nazi era. It accounts for the great suffering of the French Jews during this era. The book shows how the Jews were snatched from the streets and their deportation, and others killings. The book elaborates on the treatment of the Jews during the World War Two. She began writing the diary in 1942 but, the publishing was 63 years after the death of Helene Berr. The author records all the humiliations that the Jews went through in the occupied Paris in the hands of the Nazis. Helene Berr entrusted the diary to the family cook who was to pass to Helene’s fiance.1 Helene Berr was a 21 year old Jew who was pursuing English literature at Sorbonne. She was from a rich Jewish family that was living in France. She lived with her family, which included her parents, elder sister and a domestic worker.2 She was intelligent, brave, loving and passionate about everything that she did and full of talent. There is well presentation of these traits in the book as it flows. During the peaceful times in France, Helene and her family had a decent life that the rich people could afford. Helene had a normal life and socialized with most people in the surrounding society even those who were not of her social class. This is shown by the life she was living by having friends from the school, amateur musicians, her family and how they went for holidays and her maternal grandmother.3 During this time, there were two parts of France; Paris and South France. South was the peaceful state when Paris was unsafe due to occupation of the Nazis. The occupation of the Nazis led to people escaping to the South including Helene’s younger brother Jacques. After the Nazis occupation, life of Helene and that of her family took a new turn in that they could not live in peace anymore. Her father was arres ted and deported. This is where her transformation sets in because she had to join Jewish supporters and relief agencies which were her fifth circle of her life. In these agencies, she became friendly to many people who were the front runners in protecting the French Jews. At the agencies, she helped in saving many lives of the Jews who were threatened by the Germans. They took care of the orphans whose parents were arrested and killed. The friendliness is well presented in the book, because of many friends she had in the English studies department, in Sorbonne. This show how humble she was even though she came from a rich French family of Jewish origin. The book also shows how Helene was caring; this is evident where she suppressed feelings towards her fiance who fled to the South so as to stay with the rest of the family and not to act in a cowardly manner. During this period, Helene took the orphans in an aid organization to nature walks and helped in running the headquarters. Th e act shows how brave she was to stay and identify with the suffering Jews. She was brave enough to put on a yellow star that was used to identify the Jews.4 She develops this change of mind to identify with fellow Jews who were facing persecution. This situation affected Berr’s family life as Helene’s father was arrested and deported. She even stopped schooling and the man she loved fled to the South; this made her lose the things she loved most; her fiance and her studies.5 Helene was a strong person because she survived and lived without the men she loved; her father and her fiance. Helene criticized the French Christians who ignored what was happening to the Jews.6 She advocated for socialism where all people were to be treated in the same manner no