'Lust And Love In Standing Up For Janey'

One of the most influential musicians ever once said “Don't blame me, love made me crazy, if it doesn't, you ain't doin' it right”(Taylor Swift). She accurately describes that values such as being in love or what might be misconstrued as lust can drive a person crazy. Lust and love, two words that are typically seen synonymous with each other, are persistent values that drive the lives of the characters in the short story ‘Standing up for Janey’. This story shows the romance between janey and milt, or lack thereof. It is a complex one-sided relationship which involves a jealous close friend named Bonnie. These characters have very different rooted values and this causes a secret of Janeys to be put on Bonnie's shoulders until she can no longer

It is clear to see how she only cares about love to advance herself and more importantly her quality of life, she only cares about a perfect fantasy that best suits her. Secondly, looking at Milt you can see his genuine love for Bonnie and his willingness to walk over to better the other person. You can see that Milt is so in love with Janey that he is willing to deteriorate himself to make his life better. Thirdly you can see that Bonnie wants to have love in her life but this leads her to settle for a lustful perfect desire of a life that she can't have, this drives her jealousy towards Janey. This is where a common misconception of love vs lust, bonnies says she wants to be loved but in reality she wants a love that will benefit her best and is a fairytale storybook situation. Consequently, the character traits in the short story ‘Standing Up for Janey’, depict how the differentiated values between lust and love are derived directly from an individual's inherent virtues, which influence their everyday

Near the beginning of the story, Janey is very wary about her relationship with Milt and she expresses this during a conversation with her close friend Bonnie. During this conversation Janey talks about her perspective on love and she says that, “We assume love is singular... That it’s exclusive. Why do we do that?” (Selecky 96). In this quote Jane's attitude towards love, her saying that it shouldn't just be confined shows that she wants more from relationships than just to be tied down, she wants to experience a greater quantity of love from multiple people so she can feel more fulfilled in herself. This drives her to keep her relationship not singular and ends up cheating on Milt. Additionally, Janey's values come to light during a conversation between Bonnie and Milt’s sister. Milt's sister expresses her concerns to Bonnie after Janey forces Milt to buy expensive wedding rings for both him and Janey, when she knew that Milt wanted to have a not as extravagant wedding and focus more on the aspect of getting married then the formalities that come with a big wedding. Milt’s sister told Bonnie, "Your good-hearted Janey told my little brother that he had to spend three-thousand dollars on each wedding band." Don’t try to tell me this is simply about love.””(Selecky 102). Janey's greedy personality and her drive to always want more