The Innocence Of Love

A first date, a tender touch, a gentle kiss, can all be described as expressions of affection. Innocence often has to do with the fondness and adoration displayed in relationships. The movie, Love Actually, starring Hugh Grant, focuses on different ways of making love work by showing the lives of different people. The film, from time to time, shows a little boy who is falling in love with a girl in his school. He thinks that the best way to win her heart is to become a rock star and so he joins his school band as a drummer. He practices the drum everyday until it's time for the Christmas concert where he plays his best. At first, the girl does not notice him and he is heartbroken and to make matters worse, she's leaving the country. He goes to the airport to find her, and, when he does, he kisses her and lets her know that he likes her. While the film does not tell the audience what happens in the future, it can be assumed that there will be a new love blossoming.

In Gary Soto's "Oranges," the speaker is describing the first time he walks with a girl. He is at the tender age of twelve and this simple act of innocence takes place on a cold, grey day in December. As the two walk together, they stop in a drugstore and, being the typical boy, the speaker "asked what she wanted" (27). When she shows him the chocolate and he realizes that he cannot afford it, he then does a quick barter with the shop lady and exchanges his lone nickel and one of his oranges for the chocolate. The two continue walking - hand in hand - for two more blocks and then stop to eat the chocolate and the orange.

Throughout the entire poem, Soto captures the feeling and power of adolescent love using contrasting imagery and symbolism. The contrasting imagery is expressed in the lines where the speaker peels his orange "that was so bright against/the gray of December"(52-53). The oranges can be used as a symbol to represent the fruits of young love, as that is what the author is seeking to portray.

Besides the age of the speaker, his choice of words and the way that he tells his story clearly illustrates his youth, his simplicity and his honesty. The poem exudes innocence and first time love, especially when the speaker describes the way the girl "came out pulling/At her gloves, face bright" (13-14). During their stop at the drugstore, it is obvious that the shop lady's intent is to help make their love blossom by helping out the speaker with the purchase of the dime costing chocolate. It can be said that children tend to have more pure feelings for one another than adults because their lives are simple and uncomplicated. Could this be the reason that the shop lady helps the speaker out? Is she living vicariously through his blossoming romance? Whatever the reason is, it aids the speaker in pleasing his girl and also further cements the resonating tone of untarnished love throughout Soto's poem.

Anne Sexton's "The Farmer's Wife" describes the relationship or lack thereof between a farmer and his wife. They have been together for ten years and their connection is