Cycle of Love

“They did it, my parents did it, now I will do it won’t I, arms outstretched, not to hold you, just to keep my balance, sleep walking to that armchair,” (10).

The narrator is talking about the mindlessness of marriage. The “they” is the narrator’s grandparents, suggesting that this cycle is something the narrator has not just witnessed from their parents, but from another generation as well. The addition of “won’t I” reveals the narrator’s hesitation or doubt about getting married, thereby falling into the cycle. “Arms outstretched” implies that the narrator is going towards an embrace, but they tell us that this isn’t to hold “you” but instead to keep their balance. This suggests that the narrator views marriage to be an individual act of balancing, not mutual support between two people. “Keep my balance” implies that falling, thereby failing, at marriage is a possibility. Perhaps “keeping my balance” is the narrator’s way of revealing that they believe marriage to be very difficult and consuming. The choice of “sleep walking” implies thoughtlessness and lack of understanding behind what getting married means. The narrator is revealing their opinion that people get married for insubstantial reasons. The armchair is a symbol for monogamy and growing old with one person. The narrator has revealed that they have been with a multitude of people, and though they were with those people for varying stretches of time, not a single person has yet to stick around for a relatively significant amount of time. Additionally, the narrator has revealed that many of the people they have been with have been married, which supports the idea that the narrator does not believe in marriage and the monogamy that it entails. In general, the entire sentence reveals the narrator’s hesitation or dislike for the institution of marriage.