Love is a Fallacy by Max Schulman

Love is a fallacy by Max Schulman Love is a fallacy shows the power of materialism and its implications in real life, which may be sometimes sub estimated.   Although at the beginning of the story we may agree with the statements of the main character (the narrator) about fads, through the story we change our point of view and realize the existence of a different reality we weren¶t considering. Even before the ending, we are expecting a different final because of all the events that happen at the middle of the story. In this surprising ending we find out that all the intents of  the narrator to change the girl and ³educate´ her were useless. The important matter then seems to be what we less expected: the fads. In the first paragraph the importance of the fads is shown by telling how the narrator¶s friend was desperate for getting the raccoon coat. Even more, it seems to be more important than studying, ³Like a fool I spent all my money for textbooks, and now I can¶t get a raccoon coat´ (p.1). This is strange because supposedly a university student should be more worried about studying and getting good grades, but no, the important things are the material things. Then the fact of trading a girl for a coat shows the importance importance that the character gives to it. He doesn¶t even think it much when he decides that the coat is more valuable than the girl. He prefers forgetting about her than forgetting about the coat. Then, the narrator tries to show that he could teach the girl, for this was very important for  him. Even when Polly was very pretty, he cared more about the inside than the outside appearance. But, what happens is definitely unexpected. She does learn all what he taught her, but at the end«. He didn¶t have a raccoon coat!   All the time he spent with her trying to get to a point where he could see that she was intelligent, didn¶t matter at all because he didn¶t have a raccoon coat. This shows that a girl would prefer a guy that trade her for a raccoon coat, than one who says to love her, just for the fact that the first one has the coat. This is definitely materialist because through the story we see that value is set on things and objects, not in people or  their thoughts and beliefs. Mariana Ríos Grijalva