A Strange Love Affair
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“A Strange Love Affair”
Love affairs had been around for a very long time. In 1968 Jan Myrdal wrote a story called ” A Strange Love Affair” This story is about a man facing a dilemma, and how he should handle the situation that he ran into. In 1947 he was going steady with a women name B. and was very much in love with. He states that B. would not let him sleep with her. In December of that he left to Belgrade. When he came back to Sweden he married another girl. In February 1949 he went to Stockholm by train from Herrljunga. Met B. Having met again they both realized they were very much in love with each other. He then followed her to her room and now she wanted to give herself to him, as she expressed it.
Suddenly he remembered that he had not washed his feet for several days. There was reasons why he hadnt done so. He had hitch up through Sweden,had spent the night at the country jail of Herrljunga,and had been put on the train to Stockholm. It was the middle of winter and it was cold. He was afraid that his feet stank and which would not correspond to the image that he wanted B to have of him. He try to find a way to escape from the situation. The fact that his feet stunk did not strike him until B had started to undress. He could not find anything more convincing to say than that he seemed to love the girl that he was married to.
But why the big change? Why now? Why didnt she hesitate to sleep with him now? Did she feel lonely? Women back then were very reserved and were taught morals and how they should act around men as well. They where also taught values and how they should respect one another. Women had to act with very high standards. When he wrote the story in 1968; he was trying to teach his readers to be less promiscuous and have morals. During this era in 1968 there was a lot of free love movement with no sexual limits. There was also the Vietnam war and the beginning of the civil rights. People were challenged of the traditional values and lost their morals. People didnt care if you were married or not. Hey if someone was willing to join the party, there was nothing wrong with it, as long as everyone had fun and enjoyed it. People in that time accepted those wrong doings and went along with it. Also remember that the war was going on as well. Men and women probably did not see their wives and husbands and felt lonely and took advantage of the situation.
In this day in age in 2012 chivalry is completely dead. Most morals are out the window, sexual escapades are at the all time high. There is porn on the internet and videos then ever before. Teenagers are more sexually active than ever before, teenage pregnancy is also at a all time high. Being monogamist is practically unheard of. Same sex marriages are already legal. The morals we had back then were valued and put into practice, as time goes by we are loosing more and