"This is a novel about love in all its forms.
What does Paul learn about love from his various relationships in the novel?.
In the "rites of passage" narrative Maestro by Peter Goldsworthy, Paul learns about "love in all its forms". Through his relationships with his parents, his girlfriend then wife Rosie and his piano teacher "maestro" Edward Keller, Paul learns what love is. During his life journey because of his relationships, he learns how to give love, receive love and how love and all of its attachments shape lives. .
One of the ways Paul learns "about love in all its forms" is through his relationships with his parents and their relationship with each other. Paul's parents, Nancy and John, shared a common thread of music but that was where there similarities ended "apart from music they had little in common." Paul's parents were like chalk and cheese, "and yet how happy they always seemed, in spite, or perhaps because of it." Paul's parents loved him unconditionally. However Paul had a different view, He felt that he needed to live up to their high expectations because they were so over confident about his talent. "You are going to be better than me. Much better." Paul's parents were overconfident about his ability, they always boasted to others about how fantastic he was, "a wonderful talent." His parents through their love for him and their own self-satisfaction over played Paul's abilities. That was one of the reasons why Paul was never able to reach his full potential. .
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On the other hand, Paul's piano teacher Herr Keller taught Paul about a different kind of love, a stern love. "You expect to much" was Paul's cry during his teenage years when he did not fully understand the hard love that Keller offered him. Keller, through his life experience had the understanding that love was painful. He blamed himself for the death of the two people that he loved, his wife and son. Keller no longer showed the kind of warm love that Paul received from his parents and Rosie.