Love and Hate in the Short Story 'Apollo'
Love is a feeling that brings affection, feelings, and respect for a person. An individual has to love someone in order to hate them. As stated in “The Heartbreaking Truth Behind What It Really Means To Hate Someone You Used To Love.”, that you have to love someone in order to be hated. Love is like a magnet, meaning that two people get attracted and start to repeal each other at times but eventually end up getting together. In the story, “Apollo”, Okenwa has a complicated relationship with his parents and Raphael. Okenwa cannot live without loving his parents but, on the other hand, he doesn’t like to see them often. Similarly, Okenwa loves Raphael and sees him as a bother he never had, but also sees as a potential lover and hates him because Raphael does not reciprocate. “Apollo” shows that love and hate cannot exist without each other.
Apollo starts with Okenwa visiting his parents and feeling guilty about not visiting them often. Okenwa’s parents were telling Okenwa about all the old memories and about Raphael. Okinawa's started to feel guilty after hearing the old memories that he ignored his parents and realized that he did not see his parents very often this could be said from his words “Twice a month, like a dutiful son, I visited my parents in Enugu, in their small over-furnished flat that grew dark in the afternoon”. After his parents telling talking about all the old memories, he started to think that his parents were getting old and won’t have much time left with him and eventually would die. This tells that he loved his parents and cared about losing them. Even though Okenwa did not visit his parents a lot he still had a connection with them and was afraid of losing them.
Okenwa’s hate for his parents grew as they started to differentiate between Okenwa and Raphael. Okenwa was sad that his parents never introduced him with Raphael before and he was like a brother he never had. After, Okenwa started to notice that his parents were not treating Raphael good, because when Okenwa got “Apollo”, his parents were concerned about how he was suffering from Apollo and started to assume that Okenwa got it from Raphael. His parents loved Okenwa so much and got so scared that they called the doctor and asked to put eye drops for him. This was so unfair for Raphael because Okenwa’s parents did not call the doctor when Raphael was suffering from the same. Okenwa’s parents did not make effort for Raphael, rather they just gave him eye drops and let him be alone. After seeing how Okenwa’s parents treated Raphael Okenwa was very upset and started to go against his parents because Okenwa loved Raphael and wanted his parents to treat him the same as treating Okenwa.
Raphael was a bother Okenwa never had and they bonded through Kung fu. In the story, “Apollo”, Okenwa and Raphael met and bonded with each other by Raphael joining to do kungfu with Okenwa when he caught him doing the Bruce Lee moves. Raphael and Okenwa started to do kungfu and Raphael started to give Okenwa lessons. While doing kung fu together and spending time with Raphael, Okenwa started to feel for Raphael. Okenwa always tried to be around Raphael and started to get excuses to be with him. Raphael got Apollo which is a minor eye infection and she had to stay in the room. Okenwa’s parents gave Raphael eye drops and let her be alone in the room. Raphael said to Okenwa that he cannot put the eye drops on his own, so Okenwa started to help Raphael put the eye drops three times a day. All this showed that Okenwa started to fall in love with Raphael. Okenwa was disappointed because Raphael felt better and Okenwa did not need to put eye drops for him anymore. Okenwa had no other excuses or reasons to be around Raphael and spend time with him. All this shows how much Okenwa loved Raphael and he wanted a reason to be around Raphael. This also shows that Okenwa loved Raphael more than a bother.
Okenwa’s unconditional love and expectation made him hate Raphael and go against him. Okenwa loved Raphael more than a bother and was expecting to have a relationship of lover this could be told because when Okenwa saw Raphael with a few other girls in the neighborhood he got so jealous and angry. Since Okenwa was upset and unhappy he started to demand Raphael for food and Raphael was unhappy because of him ordering. Okenwa did not expect that Raphael would never show up when he was sick. Okenwa asked Rapheal why she did not come to visit him when he was sick and suffering from Apollo and Raphael said he was not allowed because his’s parents told him not to visit Okenwa. Okenwa and Raphael started to debate on this topic and started to move apart from each other, meanwhile, something came in the middle and Okenwa fell down. Okenwa’s parents saw him falling and asked how did he fall. Okenwa was so mad at Raphael that he lied to his parents and said that Raphael pushed him. Okenwa’s parents asked Raphael to quit the job and leave the house. This shows that Okenwa hated Raphael so much just because he did not come to see him when he was sick and this made him tell lies to his parents.
Overall “Apollo” talks about love and hate coexist and an individual needs to love someone to be hated. It could be told from the story “Apollo”, even though Okenwa did not go visit his parents often but at the same time, he felt bad not visiting, since he loved them and was scared to lose them. Also, Okenwa loved Raphael but hated her because he did not come to visit him when he was sick and later realized that he should not have told lie to his parents about Raphael which also showed that he somewhere still had a feeling for him. As stated by Khurana Simran in “Is It Love or Hate? that love and hate are two sides of the same coin. This saying by Khurana Simran is also implied in the story “Apollo” since both Okenwa’s love and hate flip on and off throughout the story. Raphael is not reciprocating to Okenwa which makes Okinawa go mad and angry and Okenwa’s parents not treating Raphael equally to him when he was sick makes Okenwa hate his parents this also shows the love for Okenwa and Raphael. This story is telling how an individual’s behavior and feelings can hurt somebody or can be loved sometimes.
Works Cited:
- “The Heartbreaking Truth Behind What It Really Means To Hate Someone You Used To Love.” Thought Catalog, 10 Oct. 2017, https://thoughtcatalog.com/natalie-brooke-breazeale/2017/10/the-heartbreaking-truth-behind-what-it-really-means-to-hate-someone-you-used-to-love/.
- Khurana, Simran. “Is It Love or Hate? 19 Quotes to Help You Know.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 28 Jan. 2019, https://www.thoughtco.com/love-and-hate-quotes-2832636.
