Critical Analysis Week Three, Blog One (A Complicated Kindness, Miriam Toews) 3/3 of the Novel

“Love, like a mushroom high compared with the buzz from cheap weed, outlasts grief. It does. Love is everything. It is the greatest of these. And I think that we all use whatever is in our power, whatever is within our reach, to attempt to keep alive the love we’ve felt.” (Toews, A Complicated Kindness 321)

With this quote, Miriam Toews is determined to mark the outcome of Nomi’s personal development. When Nomi says this witty and insightful remark, the reader notices the progression of her outlook on the meaning of life and the true importance of understanding what really matters in life.

Nomi proves herself peaceful, accepting, and mature. The quotation cries out coming of age – the dominant theme in the novel, and liberates the reader from Nomi’s previously pathetic attitude toward her problems.

This quote was chosen to model Nomi’s growth and development as a character as she finds herself staring into the eyes of the novel’s theme. She both illustrates her ability to understand the importance of love in life and the essence in which she does whatever is within her reach to keep alive the love that she’s felt.

The reader comes to a more compassionate reasoning of why Nomi has reflected and longed for her mother and sister to come back into her life. Nomi, like every other human being wants to love and be loved. She knows that one of life’s most powerful sentiments is love and with experiencing love comes the more difficult act of keeping love. She pours out her heart in this quote and gives the readers a chance to feel how she feels.

Toews creates an image of love overpowering grief. She says so in a clever approach, comparing it to drugs. By doing this, Toews connects the adolescent readers’ knowledge of drugs to a deeper meaning of love and life and the purpose of them for each individual. The readers are then found questioning their own attempts of lasting love, love prevailing sorrow and their overall understanding of love in life.