Unconditional Love

Chang, Elliott

Per.5, Floto

8/31/11

Unconditional Love

To love unconditionally is to love someone or something regardless of any beliefs or one's actions, the concept closest to true love. Acts of unconditional love is very seldom and unseen or unnoticed. By incorporating unconditional love into Samuel, Steinbeck effortlessly expresses the true meaning of unconditional love using examples such as Samuel's relationship to his sorry excuse of a horse Doxology and his barren land.

When Samuel had arrived in Salinas Valley, he arrived later than most people. The "green" land was all taken up and bought so Samuel accepted the land where no one dared to spend their money on. "But the acres were harsh and dry. There were no springs, and the crust of topsoil was so thin that flinty bones stuck out...Even in reasonably good years there was so little feed that the cattle kept thin running about looking enough to eat.(9-10)" Samuel represented such a god like figure cause of his accepting and humbleness of a personality. He was never embarrassed or ashamed of anything. He had many talents and using what he had was what he did best. When having a conversation with Adam he clearly states that you can't make a pig a horse, but a pig very fast.

Samuel's relationship with his horse was true love; unconditional love. "I have never in thirty-three years found one good thing about him. He even has an ugly disposition. He is selfish and quarrelsome and mean and disobedient. To this day I don't dare walk behind him because he will surely take a kick at me. When I feed him mash he tries to bite my hand. And I love him" (303). Through the flaws, through everything, he loved his horse.

An example of true love here would be nature itself. Something we don't seem to notice in the world. Such an obvious and ominous example yet we take it for granted all the time. "The Earth supporting and nursing a tree, the Sun's rays falling upon all things and the beauty of the Moon passing silently overhead(anonymous). " Nature or "Mother" nature, we seldom look at being an example of unconditional love. Every fruit she gives, every invaluable thing out there she gives without any conditions, but we don't notice. If we were to ever model or follow as a true example of unconditional love, Mother Nature should be our role model.