My Life with the Wave - Essay Example

What the story tells us is that love may defy reason and fight all odds but when they start fighting each other and disagreements come to the surface, lovers will start looking for reasons to stay in the relationship. Octavio Paz employed a rich allegorical tale which likens a woman to that of a wave. It then tells of the story of two creations that fell in love and fought for their love against all odds. In essence, it tells of the life of two lovers who had to leave everything behind just to be together.

The wave left the ocean and her friends to be with the man while the man had shunned his social life to be with the wave. The man’s situation of being so occupied with the wave to the extent of forgetting his friends and family is gleaned from his statement that, “I had neglected my affairs. Now I began to visit friends and renew old and dear relations.” Apparently, the man had strained if not broken his contact with his friends otherwise, there would be nothing that needs mending and renewal of relations.

The author’s use of rich allegorical symbolism has the effect of engrossing the readers on what would happen next. While reading a passage, I can’t seem to wait for the next lines. Paz has so dramatically painted a liquid picture of a woman who is both delicate and complex and at the same time fiery and cold. The wave literally springs into life and takes the form of a lovely woman who seduces the man with her beauty and grace. Then there were the times when she would swing into a fiery and destructive mood where she is pictured as gnawing and gnashing.

These mood swings were described as “certain nights her skin was covered with phosphorescence and to embrace her was to embrace a piece of night tattooed with fire. But she also became black and bitter.” Paz painted a very vivid picture with his words. It is so surreal that I can almost hear the woman breathe. But like most whirlwind romances where lovers defy common reason, the force that keeps them together would always come to a slow and then to a halt. If the lovers had a friendship or common interests to hold them together when the frenzy of love, at first sight, frizzles out, then they would still stand firm.

But if their relationship has nothing to hold on to except the wind of instant attraction and love that has died down, then they would eventually fall apart. Suddenly, the laughter is replaced by sobs and the joy is replaced by pain. Paz described this falling out in terms of physical changes where “Charged with electricity she carbonized all she touched; full of acid, she dissolved whatever she brushed against. Her sweet embraces became knotty cords that strangled me.” The story for me is a very touching love story pregnant with emotions.

However, there are other scholars who find an even deeper meaning into the symbolism of the wave and her relationship with the man. For example, Diane Thiel has found a more profound interpretation of the short story where she likened the wave to that of the creative mind. According to her, the story tells of the creative process where the artist takes home a piece of what he sees outside as a source of inspiration.