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till we have faces
Selfish Love vs. True Love
“Till We Have Faces” shows many wonderful examples of true and selfish love. Primarily this is seen in the relationship between the main character Orual and her sister Psyche. The book contrasts the significance of Orual's self-centered love versus Psyche's selfless sacrificial love and how each type of affection affects the way they treat one another. Through their relationship we learn how to better show love to others in our own life and how to avoid the me monster.
This book displays many illustrations of both “selfish love” and “true love”, and the way in which they are different. Orual, the main character, provides us our example of “selfish love” in her love for her half-sister Psyche. Orual offers us reason to believe this when she is speaking with Psyche before they sacrifice her, Orual says to Psyche, “Is it nothing to you that you leave me here alone? Psyche; did you ever love me at all” (pg.73). Orual feels that since Psyche doesn’t always put her first in their relationship, then Psyche never truly loved her. However Psyche is a fantastic case of “true love” in this book because she shows her sister her love through the way she is willing to risk everything for Orual. Psyche’s love is pure unlike Orual’s. For example Psyche says to her sister, “Oh Orual- to take my love for you, because you know it goes down to my very roots and cannot be diminished by any other newer love…” (pg.165), Psyche demonstrates to us that her love for her sister is even greater than her love for her husband, and she would be willing to do anything for Orual. These two types of love, selfish and true, are significantly diverse from one another. Selfish love is being devoted to caring only about oneself, concerned primarily with one's own benefits in the process of feeling a tender, passionate affection for another person. Oruals love for Psyche is selfish, although she does love Psyche and always will, she still puts her own interests before the

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