Lives can be spent viewing something you can choose to interact with but never do. Lives can be spent questioning yourself and what could have been. The way tragedies such as the separation or even the death of a loved one can be difficult. Sometimes it will feel like you have nothing to contribute, that everything you built up in your life was taken away. You will feel exiled from everyone else, alone in a room full of people. You don’t know anyone, so you either sit or stand there awkwardly. Opportunities for happiness will arise, but you’re too afraid to say the right words. The only real company you’ve ever known is the thoughts inside your head full of lists and stories. Only you understand your own self and your conflicts, even those who you’re close with have a hard time understanding your concepts.
Leopold Gursky and Alma Singer are in these exact positions in The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. They are both in positions where they are looking for meaning and purpose. Leopold is an old withering man wanting to be seen in a way that doesn’t tatter his reputation further. Alma is trying to find out the significance behind her name which had come from her parents’ favorite book. Through the paths they must take, they will find what they have been looking for and find satisfaction in what they will both discover.