MIKE MINELLO Love in The Elephant Mans Life The novel The Elephant Man by Christine Sparks tells a melodramatic story of a man who’s appearance is so startling, it prevents him from experiencing the essential love most people experience in life. John Merrick is robbed of his childhood when his mother abandons him. He is also degraded and disregarded as a human being when he is put on display as part of a “freak …showed first 75 words of 944 total…

…showed last 75 words of 944 total…other children who have experienced maternal love. As a result they may be without self love because they feel as if their mother does not love them or that there must be something wrong MIKE MINELLO 4 with them. Merrick is very lucky to have a friend like Treves who accepts him as he is and he is also very lucky that he never looses faith in his mother. “She had come for him at last”. (278)