His face contained for me all possibilities of fierceness and sweetness, pride and submissiveness, violence, self-containment. I never saw more in it than I had when I saw it first, because I saw everything then. The whole thing in him that I was going to love, and never catch or explain.
In Alice Munro's "Lives of Girls and Women," the narrator reflects on a person's face that embodies a complex mix of emotions and characteristics. They perceive fierce and gentle qualities, pride and humility, as well as a duality of aggression and calmness. The narrator acknowledges that from the very first encounter, they recognized the fullness of what this person represented, a blend of feelings they would come to love yet find...
