Katherine Anne Porter: The Necessary Enemy

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This activity contains 3 questions.

Explain what Porter means by love, “Romantic Love,” and hate. Why does she believe that hate is a “necessary evil”?

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

Near the end Porter writes, “The refusal to acknowledge the evils in ourselves which therefore are implicit in any human situation is as extreme and unworkable a proposition as the doctrine of total depravity; but somewhere between them, or maybe beyond them, there does exist a possibility for reconciliation between our desires for impossible satisfactions and the simple unalterable fact that we also desire to be unhappy and that we create our own sufferings; and out of the sufferings we salvage our fragments of happiness.” How do you interpret this passage? How do you respond to it?

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

This essay was written at a time when divorce was becoming more common but not nearly so prevalent as it is today, when many experts are decrying its effects. What are your thoughts on marriage and divorce? Have they been influenced by Porter in any way? Why or why not?

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

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