Lust by Susan Minot Essay

In the mid-1920’s, there lived a young man named Tom in the rural area of Tennessee. He was the most popular man in his village because of his muscular body and his killing looks. He was handsome, smart, and muscular. Additionally, he was self-centered, hurtful, and lusty. In the town, every girl was attracted by his good looks and each one of them wanted to date Tom. He started dating the girls one by one, but once he had romanced with one girl, he would break up and move on to the next girl. Tom did not want responsibilities so he did not get married, instead, he wanted pleasure so he continued dating the girls. One day came, where he had dated all the girls in the town and still had the thirst of lust.

The poem “Seniors” by Alberto Ríos tells of one man’s experiences with imaginary girls. During high school students are go through puberty and are experiencing bodily changes and changes in feelings as well. But what change this poem mostly goes in depth with is the increase of sexual feelings towards the other gender in the perspective of a male. The narrator talks about his classmates, he provides us with a glimpse of what it means for males to develop sexual feelings. However, once the narrator starts talking about himself is when the poem begins to unfold. You understand that the poem is mostly about masturbation, Ríos argues that an imaginary girl is as good as if not better than having sex with a real girl.

"They turn casually to look at you, distracted, and get a mild distracted surprise, you're gone. Their blank look tells you that the girl they were fucking is not there anymore. You seem to have disappeared.(pg.263)" In Minot's story Lust you are play by play given the sequential events of a fifteen year old girls sex life. As portrayed by her thoughts after sex in this passage the girl is overly casual about the act of sex and years ahead of her time in her awareness of her actions. Minot's unique way of revealing to the reader the wild excursions done by this young promiscuous adolescent proves that she devalues the sacred act of sex. Furthermore, the manner in which the author illustrates to the reader these acts symbolizes the

Courting in those days was not the romantic affair it generally is today. Freewill for women didn’t exist during these times, as they were usually sold to the highest bidder, the way an antique vase might be at an auction. It was not so much about the characteristics of a particular suitor that made him an attractive candidate for a husband, but instead the amount of money he could pay a young lady’s father. Some even less fortunate women were captured during combat and lived their life in what would be considered today, a nonconsensual common law marriage.

Though both characters seem to seek empty relationships, Jake, from Dagoberto Gilb’s “Love in L.A.” seeks them to fulfill his own self-interest; while the female narrator from Susan Minot’s “Lust” enters into them because it is what she believes is expected of her, showing the motivations for the actions of these two characters are very different. Both short stories vary in setting and character motivation, but nonetheless, the characters from both pursue relationships which are virtually meaningless to themselves.

Having blossomed from a child into a well-developed young lady, Rachel begins her new teenage ways of “paying too much attention to boy” (150). In the eyes of her grandmother, the worse aspects of her new behavior is labeled as being like her mother, but Rachel exploring her sexuality with males is a result of her loneliness and the lack of sense of self. Through grandmother's hate towards Nella; half of herself had been unconsciously rejected, and it in the novel Rachel says in regards to her sexual touching from John Bailey that he had made all of what is really me feel really good.” (150) These are cries of help from a young lady desperately trying to find someone who loves her as her in the all wrong ways, and this gets further displayed

Anticipation is another thing that keep people thinking and on their toes about lust and what is to come from it, a lot of people prefer the build up to the actual act itself. Five ways that deformed desires contradict our own rationality are: humanity, support only privileged

The reader is engaged by the story but very aggravated by the narrator’s lack of redeeming qualities. A normal plot has an introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution into only a few paragraphs. The story had several conflicts in our narrator’s boyfriend, Raheem, assaulting her, stealing from her, and cheating on her, but these conflicts aren’t resolved. Instead, our delusional narrator simply accepts that she “can’t keep him on no short leash” and that she should “do [his] homework, wash [his] clothes, lend[him] money, anything…” just as long as “he keeps being [her] boo”. The last straw is when she sees him cheat on her with another girl and simply accepts that she’s not worthy of him, allowing him to cheat without doing anything.

McClintock begins by telling her story of the first time she tries to find porn for women. McClintock walks into a magazine store looking for women’s porn magazine, but is left empty handed. McClintock sees many men leafing through magazines with “images of spread-eagled women” (111), but similar magazines for women aren’t found. McClintock doesn’t give up hope and asks the woman at the counter for help, and when the woman gives her a strange look she realizes that “the denial of female desire is…a global erasure” (111). This erasure of female desire is later furthered by a different experience she has in a sex emporium (McClintock). In this experience, the female dancer finishes her act, and approaches McClintock, the only woman in a room of males,

She is a strong human being. She tries to fit in with the men. She wants to feel equal to them. She even refers to herself as a “chap.” She approaches men and converses with them as if gender barriers do not exist. But this is not the problematic part about her. People believe that her lust is an issue (Saleh). Critics think that since she is a woman, she should be settled down with one man instead of having sex with many different men. They think her behavior is immoral. But they hardly consider Brett’s psyche whatsoever. Brett’s husband would make her sleep on the floor and would “tell her he’d kill her.” He even “slept with a loaded service revolver.” Brett had to constantly fear for her life because of this hateful man. Because of this trauma, she has lost the ability to trust men (). She has to keep her guard up constantly and instead of waiting to find a good man to come along, she gave up. She could not find a man who man could satisfy her emotions but that does not mean she should not let anyone satisfy her physically. Condemning her is inconsiderate. Calling her a whore is ignorant. Even if she were not traumatized by her former husband, degrading her for having sex would still be wrong. A man has sex with numerous women and no one would care. A women has a lot of sex and she is a slut. But truthfully, a woman having sex just makes her a human

Love and Lust If love is a small wave on a peaceful and sunny lake, then lust will be a roaring wave on the sea, billowy and tempestuous. The famous play Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, is a great example of the themes love and lust. The plot of the play is about a family feud and their children's "love" story. Some people think that the most important point of the play is the family feud, but they neglect the important issue of Romeo and Juliet's foolish love.

Two women, who have both been emotionally damaged, react towards love in differing manners. One refuses to acknowledge it and replaces the concept with the idea of lust by maintaining only fleeting sexual encounters. The other takes an extreme route of obsession that underlines every part of her everyday life. While these women approach the same topic in contrasting ways, there is a stronger common ground between them. These women let their approaches to love depreciate their self-image and self-worth. Susan Minot’s “Lust” and Maggie Mitchel’s “It Would Be Different If”, illustrate the identity damage that failed young love caused in their short stories.

The film Dangerous Liaison, directed by Stephen Frears remains just about faithful to the epistolary novel, Dangerous Liaisons, by Choderlos de Laclos. Stephen Frears does "betray" the novel towards the end of the film but, it makes the ending that much more better and enticing. The film represents what the epistolary novel only hints at us readers. The novel is composed of letters where we only get a sense of the characters thoughts and emotions. The film tries to put those words into action but only showing one version of each scene. It is different in which the writer of the novel is using words while the film maker is using pictures to describe what's happening.

“Determination becomes obsession and then it becomes all that matters, slowly ruining you.” –Jeremy Irvine. In the short story Lessons of Love by Judith Ortiz Cofer, the endearment that the narrator has for her crush is overpowered by her obsession for him, later leaving her helpless. Through the short story Lessons of Love, Cofer emphasizes on unreliable love and reveals that there will always be people who take advantage of love and ones who feel so overpowered by their love that they are willing to do anything for it. The narrator in the story is honest, trustworthy and innocent before she meets her crush; her obsession for her crush changes her to a dishonest person who lies and has lost her innocence. Cofer portrays the narrator’s obsession

It wasn't until the 1600s that multiple partners were seen as the "wrong" thing to have.