Love, Guilt, and Loneliness

There is a central theme of relationships in all three of the works: Louise Erdrich’s “Love Medicine,” William Carlos Williams’ “This is Just to Say,” and e.e. cummings’ “l(a.” It may not be clear at first glance that there is a similarity among them, but there definitely is one present.They all resemble different types of relationships but the feeling of being connected with something or someone else is prevalent in all of the works.

In “Love Medicine,” the narrator, Lipsha Kashpaw is brought up by his two grandparents who he loves dearly. However, in their old age his grandparents seem to be growing apart and his grandfather has taken interest in another woman. In attempts to bring them back together he seeks to get the hearts of two birds that are in love. After having no luck in hunting a pair of birds he buys two turkeys for his grandparents to eat. His grandmother eats her heart with ease but his grandfather chokes to death while eating his. Love is one of the strongest human emotions and in old age it does not fade away. His grandfather comes back as a ghost to his grandmother, showing he does not want to be parted from her. The human relationship between two people is one of the most natural things we experience and a romantic relationship is what can be clearly seen in his short story.

A more bland, yet still human relationship can be see in “This is Just to Say.” The speaker of the poem is telling another person how he ate the plums that were in the icebox. He apologizes to the person because he believes that they were being saved for breakfast, yet he is not too sympathetic for he really enjoyed them. The speaker of this poem is expressing the human emotions of greed and guilt. He saw the plums in the icebox and ate them even though he had a feeling they were being saved. But because of the relationship he has with the other person he feels guilty about eating them and wants to apologize for it.

The poem, “l(a” may not be referring to a human relationship, but it refers to a feeling that all humans experience. In its abstract form the poem describes the falling of leaves, but explains the oneness each leave falls. They do not fall in pairs or in groups; they fall and come to the ground all by themselves. Oneness is another emotion that can be felt by all humans, the feeling of being one with ourselves. However, this can lead to loneliness, like the loneliness that was felt by the grandmother in “Love Medicine.”

Human emotion is one of the most powerful things that we each experience and they can all be seen in each of these works. Whether it is the power of love such as between the grandmother and grandfather in “Love Medicine” or the power of greed and guilt as in “This is Just to Say” or the power of oneness and in a sense loneliness that is seen in “l(a” as well as “Love Medicine.” As humans we put emotion into everything we do and it is an essential part of who we are.