As many of you have noted, at issue in "Flowers for Algernon" is a basic life philosophy--Is it better to have loved and lost or never to have loved at all? For some people ignorance is bliss, while others prefer to take chances. What philosophy most closely correlates with your attitude toward life?
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I think that the better to have loved to have lost than to never have loved at all isn't a great thought, specifically because you never come off with a feeling that was better than before, the feeling that your whole life is better for those few days/more amounts of time. I again feel like this isn't good because never loving at all lets you focus more and give you more opportunity to do more things, because, the one uote that i think is the most important, is that, "When you close one door, you open another"
ReplyDeleteI believe that on the one hand it would certainly be much more painful to have loved and lost, but you may feel as if you are missing something if you have never loved at all. Who am I to judge? I won't say that one is better, and that the other is not. I don't pretend to state a fact where to answer the question it is simply a matter of opinion.
ReplyDeleteI think it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all, because you have the experience of loving. I think the same way with letting cats outside of the house. I believe that they would rather live a good life, than to live longer. I think at certain points in life, ignorance is bliss, even though you would want to know everything that is being said about you.
ReplyDeleteWow...that's tough. If you love and lose, you might mourn the rest of your life since you know what it feels like to be loved. If you don't ever love, you might yearn all your life to be loved. I can't really identify with either. Is there a third choice?
ReplyDeleteCharley should not have gotten the operation because he was so upset when he lost it. He should have respected himself the way he was, and not wanted more. But on the other side, if I were him and I was so dumb that people laughed at me, I would want more too. I can't imagine what it would be like to have a life like Charley's.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Bea for most of it, but don't really think that we need a third choice. You must go for it if you really want to but beware because at the end it could all go away before you want it to.
ReplyDeleteI think it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all because if you never loved at all you would always feel like you need something more in your life. If you have loved and lost, at least you have something nice to remember about your life. It is kind of like taking a vacation to a tropical island and then losing all your money, at least you experienced it.
ReplyDeleteIt really depends.
ReplyDeleteIf I live a great life with someone I love and than loose them for the last decade of my life, than perhaps it will be better than no love at all.
But if I love someone a lot and loose them with a long life I will live, than I guess no love is better...
...what can I say? This is the type of question that people really need to put some thought into...but now that I REALLY think about it, I would rather have love that I will loose than have no love at all.
-Melanie
That's one of the hardest questions that has ever been asked to me in 12 (technically) years on Earth and 6 years in school. If you love than lose it might result in your life tumbling down like a little shack in a 9 rated earth quake. But if you had never loved, you had missed out on a special feeling you probably will never have another shot at in your life. But seriously, like Henry, who am I to judge the answer?
ReplyDeleteTo answer the second question, I'd prefer to take chances. I mean, seriously, look at the Kentucky Derby!! That man's horse had driven 24 hours across the country and the jockey faced chances of total humiliation because of the fact he could of come in last by a long shot and always be made fun of. And yet he WON the Kentucky Derby. The Atlanta Hawks beat D-Wade and the Heat! I mean there are so many opportunities when you just try and not just let it pass!! Why can't the world understand that??
I think it is better to have loved and loss opposed to never loving at all. Why would someone want that curiosity of what it would be like to love in their mind? Bliss seems to come with the thought of love, so an empty heart will conceivably lead to a loss of bliss! Good for Charlie, that he went along with the "operashun." Even though he was slightly oblivious to the fact that it could make him feel horrible in the end, he still knew that he was going to have the chance to be what he always wanted to. If I came face to face with a chance to be, lets say, a professional musician, I would take the deal. Even if, in the end, I come to be a lonely has-been, I would have still had the chance to do what I love...
ReplyDelete-Emma