True Love

This study guide will help you analyze the text “True Love” by Isaac Asimov. We will show you examples of elements in the text that will be relevant for your analysis. In these notes, we will focus on the summary, structure, characters, setting, narrator and point of view, language, theme and message.

Presentation of the text

Title: “True Love”
Author: Isaac Asimov
Published in: American Way
Date of Publication: 1977
Genre: Short story

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) was an American author and professor and one of the most prolific authors in recent history. Today he is known as a science fiction writer and his most prominent work is The Foundation, a series of sci-fi books.

Excerpt

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Title

The title of the story, “True Love”, suggests the plot is going to be about romantic relationships. However, the story takes a scientific approach to true love as the search for it becomes a matter of matchmaking through an intelligent computer program using algorithms and data: “ ‘I'm tired of improving you in order to solve the problems of the world. Solve my problem. Find me true love.’ ”

At a deeper level, the story is about the way Artificial Intelligence could get out of control and bypass human authority. In the story, Milton allows computer program Joe to bypass regulations to find his true love and makes Joe in his own image. This leads to Joe betraying Milton and getting him arrested so that Joe can meet its true love.