Pretty girls Quote by Helmut Krausser
““At some point during the summer of 1944 she started wearing two plaits instead of one, and sometimes wore her hair loose. It was … indescribable. That hair, a dark firefall, a molten mass, I would have given everything—everything!—to run my fingers through it, to have a taste of the girl, nothing else was important, you could have shown me thousands of similar creatures or even brought them to me, she was the one I wanted, no one else, only her, and wholly, entirely, with everything. And yet: my love could have lighted on any girl, on any one of all the pretty girls this side of death.””
About This Quote
A narrator recollects a girl's striking hair and his all-consuming desire for her, then admits his love could have fallen on any pretty girl, exposing love's arbitrariness.
In simple terms: His intense desire for her is nevertheless interchangeable.
Key Takeaway
Question the uniqueness of your own attractions.
Themes
obsession
beauty
desire
youth
memory
arbitrariness
Mood
nostalgic
intense
melancholic
Type
literary
reflective
When to use this quote
- unrequited love
- nostalgic reflection
- analyzing obsession
- writing about desire
Key Concepts
romantic fixation
contingency of love
aesthetic ideal
Questions to Reflect On
- Why does he insist only she matters while admitting any girl could be loved?
- What does his focus on her hair reveal about desire?
A Different Perspective
Self-awareness does not erase the possessiveness of his gaze.
