Love and Selfishness in Love in L.A. by Dagoberto Gilb Essay -- Love i

Love and Selfishness in  Love in L.A. by Dagoberto Gilb    "Love in L.A.," written by Dagoberto Gilb, is a story full of irony and multiple themes. The story is set in Hollywood during the summer time. Written in third person objective, "Love in L.A." guides the reader along through the story as opposed to an omniscient point of view.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The story begins with Jake driving on the freeway. He is so enraptured by his daydream of better possibilities that he ends up smacking the car ahead of him. Jake considers driving away but instead he stops and finds out that the owner of the Toyota he hit was a beautiful girl. From there, Jake switches into his smooth talker role with Mariana. Jake then tries to con her by saying he doesn't have any insurance and assures her that he will pay for it. As he drives away, he sees Mariana behind him writing down the license plate numbers that he stole from another car.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The main characters in this story are Jake and Mariana. Jake is a stagnant and flat character. Throughout the story, he shows himself as a somewhat lazy and rather overly conceited kind of guy. When Gilb describes how Jake, "considered driving past the Toyota." and how, "he considered giving a real phone number but went against that idea and made one up," it gives the reader a sense of how sleazy Jake is. In the end, he has not changed but yet seems even worse and more like a con artist. Mariana is more of an enigma then Jake since the author does not go into great detail about her, there is little characterization to go on. Generally, Mariana is a stagnant character because she is a normal girl with the same suspicious tendencies as most other human beings.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   "Love in L.A." contains many symbols ... ...d Russel Crowe, the couple get together and break up numerous times simply because of their mutual fear of intimacy and commitment. Another worthy example of this fear of engagement is the 1999 movie Love Stinks, starring French Stewart and Bill Bellamy. French Stewart's girlfriend demands that he marry her but he refuses to do so. This is obviously due to his definite fear of closeness and commitment. Another attribute of human nature, displayed in this story, is the tendency to be selfish. When people try to evade taxes, it is because they want all their money for themselves and thus are acting avaricious. Another example of this is when people do not donate to charity. This shows an abundance of stinginess as well as greed. Essentially, "Love in L.A." addresses two main inherent qualities of human beings, the want for love and the constant capacity to be selfish.