Ind Aff

Infatuation for love is a spell that can be broken in instant of discern. In the story “Out of Love in Sarajevo”, the main character is delusional about being in love with her college professor, Peter Piper. Contrary to her belief prior to her revelation, she was just obsessed with succeeding academically, thus outdoing her sister Clare. The opening setting of the story provides a hint to what the main character’s emotions were and how she would experience an unexpected life-changing decision: “it had rained in Sarajevo, and we had expected fine weather” (172). The fine weather in other words, would represent the ongoing love charade between her and Peter, which she was too blind to notice. The rain symbolized purity and an awaiting new beginning. Sarajevo is the town known for the crime of passion (that she, too, is guilty of) committed by Princip and it would be the key to her epiphany. She was blinded by lust, up to the point which she comes to her senses and transforms from insecure to confident. She unknowingly buried herself in a pile of false notions. “Ah, but I loved him.” (172). She was unaware of what was really taking place; it was far from love. Her professor-student romance with Peter was unnatural but in her mind it was perfect. She mentioned her dependence on Peter for her academic future, without taking the time to really analyze this absurd image of love. She responded to Peter in ways that were out of balance and he even lacked consideration for her. Peter claimed that she wasn’t on his level, “he said I had a good mind but not a first-class mind” (172) and being her clueless self, she did not take any offense to it. They obviously didn’t have much in common and whenever they did have a conversation, it was long philosophical discussions and it would end in disagreements. The only release she felt from the frustration after their ramblings was found in the endorphins produced during sex. As disturbing as that was, she endured it