Question

Refer to Explorations in Literature for a complete version of the narrative. Which quotation from "First Love" by Judith Ortiz Cofer best refines the theme that love does not come easily to everyone?
A.) “…as we stood chanting our farewells in Latin, he looked straight across the room and into my eyes!”

B.) “…I had, of course, in the great tradition of tragic romance, chosen to love a boy who was totally out of my reach.”

C.) “My secret love sat across the room from me looking supremely bored.”

D.) “I believed myself still invisible to him in ‘nothing’ status as I looked upon my beloved.”

Answer 1

“…I had, of course, in the great tradition of tragic romance, chosen to love a boy who was totally out of my reach.”

Answer 2

Answer:

The quotation from First Love, by Judith Ortiz, that best refines the theme that love does not come easily to everyone is B:  “…I had, of course, in the great tradition of tragic romance, chosen to love a boy who was totally out of my reach.”

Explanation:

I chose this option because these lines illuminate the fact that, many times and for many people, love isn't always easy to find or even easy to live with. The speaker in this sentence from option B, lets us understand that she has made a bad choice, again. According to what she says, she is used to making bad decisions about Love. This is something common for her, from what we can learn from the excerpt. This time, she had chosen a boy who was totally out of her reach, and this situation shows us how common it is to find people that have no luck in finding someone to love who loves them back, or how difficult it is sometimes to choose the best option when we know that our hearts don't follow our heads. I mean, sometimes, we fall in love with someone that is definitely not the best choice for us, but we still do. In these cases, maybe we should ask ourselves why we always like people who don't like us back and are not the best choice for us.  This is a big theme, and there are lots of reasons why we can be making bad decisions, but all this tells us how common it is to find people that feel love is complicated for them.