Murkiness of Love Tenderness Can Lead? How

¶ … murkiness of love tenderness can lead?" "How many times we will kill for love." "The rare thing herself felt in her breast a warmth that might be called love. She loved that sallow explorer. If she could have talked and had told him that she loved him, he would have been puffed up with vanity." All these settings represent different definition of "love."

The Smallest Woman in the World provides a poetic, at times poignant, perspective of love. Looking closely at the first quotation where the lady felt such perverse tenderness for the smallest of the African women claiming that an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure. She was upset all day, almost as if she were missing something. Here, the woman seemed to have been concerned about the vulnerability of the Little Flower. Her words points at the need for companionship for the Little Flower, and protection as a result of it. The second quotation of love refers to love as a great need that is a source of happiness. The author portrays the extremes that people are willing to go to in a bid to look for love. Here love is manifested in a child and more so from a woman's point-of-view. An example of this is given by the orphanage story of the orphans who hid a dead body from the nun so as to pay with it. The other love quotation is in reference to the feeling the Little Flower had for the explorer. This love was due to the fact that he did not eat her as the Bantu tribes would do in such an instance. Instead he was tender with her and besides she marveled at this type of person she had never seen, his boots, his skin color. This is love manifested in what she admiration.

Question 5

Existentialist perception of life revolves around the fact that individual experiences form the basis of philosophical thinking and that moral and scientific thinking do not exclusively point at human existence, but "authenticity," is critical in the pursuit of understanding human existence. Therefore in Lispector's The Smallest Woman in the World, she reveals her existentialist view on human condition by giving a variety of responses as a result of a discovery reported in the newspaper ranging from the desire to make a pet of Little Flower to total rejection of her. Some readers are scientifically interested in her; others afraid of some element in her. Through these responses the author gives the readers a peak at the responders view on life in relation to the report. The concept of existence preceding essence is a major one in existentialism. This is the revelation that to an individual, the most important fact is that he or she is an independently acting and responsible conscious being. The Little Flower existed and in the remotest area of Africa against all odds. This little being, was comfortable regardless of the prevailing conditions and could afford a smile. To those reading in the newspaper report, this was unbelievable, they all thought of it as an impossibility form the comfort of their dwellings, they could not live there as the Little Flower did.

Examining the end of the story, "Well," suddenly declared one old lady, folding up the newspaper decisively, "Well, as I always say: God knows what He's doing." The author tries to emphasis the disparity between the living conditions and the nature of the Little Flower and the responders of the newspaper report. To the lady, this is one of those things that are beyond human understanding.