Wislawa Szymborska won the Nobel Prize in 1996. “True Love,” (Szymbosrska) illustrates how society looks down on two people in love; two people in love do not care what society thinks. A society can be described as a group of people uniting under common beliefs. This poem shows how two individuals go against a group norm and the conflict it generates.

            “What does the World get from two people who exist in a world of their own?” (ll3,4) Two people cannot make a difference, especially in a world where only they are affected. Individuals should be working towards a common goal and try to better society as a whole rather than themselves. If an individual is not sacrificing himself to the group and just bettering himself then it will have no positive impact on society. “It had to happen this way- in reward for what? For nothing.” (ll 7, These two individuals that have found true love have done nothing to help the people within their community. They have turned their backs. Love does not result in having needs met to further the population. It has no reward. “Doesn’t this outrage justice? Yes, it does.” (l. 11) While people are trying to better society there are two people that are not trying. They are instead being egocentric and selfish. It should be a crime. They should not benefit on the progress that we make; while they do nothing. Groups of people have formed negative outlooks on love which are accepted by the majority. “Stereotypes- and there is no doubt that they were shaped by patriarchy and that we have inherited them with patriarchal culture- prevent us from seeing things as they are; moreover at times they run couter to common sense.( Karwowska)

            Love makes individuals not care what society thinks. For the two people love is too powerful for them to try and hide. “Couldn’t they at least try to hide it, fake a little depression for their friend’s sake!” (ll15, 16) They should try and hide it to protect themselves from the negative views of society but they won’t hide it. They don’t care to and don’t want to try and hide it. Love makes the couple so caught up on their selves that their friends do not matter to them. They are in their own world, a world which revolves around the two of them being content with each other’s happiness. “And their little celebrations, rituals, the elaborate mutual routines- it’s obviously a plot behind the human race’s back!” (ll 19, 20, 21) These two people have developed their own reasons to celebrate. Every aspect of their celebration has to do with each other. What these two have created is as important if not more important than what their society practices and celebrates as a whole. “Cultural knowledge is seen as necessary neither to account for the nature of individual knowledge nor to evaluate its adequacy. (Million, 33) Culture does not need to be written to be understood. These two people in love are not using the knowledge.