my old philo paper

This is a paper i found when i was fixing my room... it got a b+.

The Pains of Reality

We often graze life looking for love. We look for that certain someone to spend our life with to drown in the blissful state of love. Some find them as early as their childhood; some find their love in their late years. Regardless of age or gender, love is something complex. It is so hard to grasp that even Philippe Nemo and Levinas in their discussion of Love and Filiation could only but describe the idea of Love. Even in the theological aspect, love, mostly the relationship that concerns love should be aware of the other person’s otherness. Levinas mentions that “The pathos of the erotic relationship is the fact of being two, and that the other is absolutely other”. Quite often, as human as we are, we err in this and tend to feel that we are one with the other person. In this oneness, we invest ourselves wholly. It is this oneness that brings us to our knees when the reality of otherness is vindicated.

In the three French films: Blue, White, Red, the main theme is the realization of otherness. In Blue, she did not know that her husband had a mistress who also happened to be pregnant with his child. They had a happy marriage, or maybe a “normal marriage” would be appropriate. They were both good in composing music and they loved each other. She loved him too much she had to move to another place from their house when he died. She was broken because she lost the love of her life, her other half. And so she strives to move on amidst the tears each night, living a new life ahead without her husband beside her. However, things turn when she finds out that her husband had a mistress while watching television. This contradicts her perception of who he was, whom she knew him to be—a loving and faithful husband. Them being married together, being joined as one in the eyes of God meant for her, an infinite tie, a connection that they knew each other well, that she was so sure that he wouldn’t do anything like that to their marriage. Any woman, or any person in this matter, would be devastated no matter how strong one is. Questions would then run through your mind like the “How’s” and “Why’s”. You would keep on hearing from yourself that this is not the man I knew and loved. One becomes confused. The feeling of shock and amazement will be overwhelming. These could have gone through her head in those moments of blackness. She was angry, a normal response, but she realizes what she never bothered to know before, that her husband though joined to her in marriage was still another person apart from her. He still had his own choices, his own decisions to make with or without her knowing of it. This type of story is familiar to me as it is close to home, almost cliché really. She realized first, that physically, her husband was not connected to her because he died and she hasn’t. Secondly, that her husband had a mistress and a child, something she wasn’t aware of― not even a hint. She was let down with these realizations confirmed by her series of actions in the film. Her tears, of running away, of sleeping with her husband’s bestfriend, they were all her way of coping with this reality. People try to always revert their pain or maybe at least numb it even for just a few moments. However she realizes; and deals with it.

Maybe this realization was the reason behind why she was so nice to the mistress and the baby. Offering one’s house for your husband’s mistress and child and securing their future is not something you hear everyday let alone actually doing it.

Acceptance of the realization of otherness is important in life, though it might not seem fair it is something we have to live with. There will never be a time when two people can actually connect entirely, much more knowing what they’re thinking about all the time. Yes, there will be times where in you can finish each other’s sentences or have so much in common it might be a wonder where one ends and where one begins. But however lovely it would seem to be one with the person it is just simply something impossible. As Levinas puts it, “the idea of a love that would be a confusion between two beings is a false romantic idea.” Maybe this is why trust should always be hand in hand with love. For the realization of otherness in a relationship is the existence of two separate entities who love each other and relies on fidelity and trust to one another.


Shalimar Salomon
III BS-MCT
Ph102 AAA

- Live like there's no tomorrow. Love like it's your last.