Feelings of Loneliness and Alienation, Essay Example

Introduction

Literary works always bear some message, a part of the author’s intent, and some experience that people transform through the prism of their lives and leave it in the distorted, but maybe enriched form. The essence of interpretation lies within the scope of personal intelligence, attention during the reading process, and an amount of background information that guides the reader on the way to discovering the hidden topics, motifs and themes. Reading poetry is surely different; the poem is read at one breath and leaves much space for imagination and interpretation afterwards, on the way to conceiving it and finding the ideas that are in tune with one’s heart. However, one can appreciate the poem for its rhyme; another will note the beautiful stylistic devices, while the third person will find the idea very appealing to his or her inner state of mind.

There are some common themes and conflicts discussed in various genres, by authors and poets divided by centuries and even millenniums. Nonetheless, they do not lose their topicality and importance, being revisited by thinkers and readers again and again. The topic for the present paper is the theme of alienation and loneliness in the works of Raymond Carver (“Cathedral”), Lawrence Ferlinghetti (“Constantly Risking Absurdity”), and Toni Cade Bambara (“The Lesson”). These are two short stories and one poem; they were written within a fairly small period of time, the poem being the latest work produced in 2008. All of them are dedicated to various settings, issues and characters, but they have the unifying motifs that will be discussed in the present work.

The General Overview of Three Chosen Works

Short stories are read differently from the poetic works. As Di Yanni (2007) noted:

“We read stories for pleasure; they entertain us. And we read them for profit; they enlighten us. Stories draw us into their imaginative worlds and engage us with the power of their invention. They provide us with more than the immediate interest of narrative – of something happening – and more than the pleasures of imagination; they enlarge our understanding of ourselves and deepen our appreciation of life” (Di Yanni, 2007, p. 21).

The words are fully true about the short stories discussed in the present work. The first one, titled “Cathedral”, is a powerful tale about the unknown experience of a man who draws a cathedral with a blind man coming to visit his wife. From the very beginning of the story the narrator who has no name and no characteristics, feels awkward about the blind man’s arrival as he does not know anything about Robert and sees the fascination of his wife, making him jealous. The man’s fears come true when Robert comes; he feels alienated and eliminated from their talks.

However, as soon as the wife falls asleep and two men start talking, the TV story about various cathedrals serves as an incentive for a shared experience those two men feel. When the husband starts describing the cathedral, he feels that his efforts are really miserable, so Robert offers him to draw that cathedral. While drawing, the man feels that Robert’s hands follow the movements of his pencil, and then Robert offers to draw with eyes closed. This is the culmination when the narrator understands that he may see with his eyes closed, and he may feel something fundamentally different from his conventional feelings. This is the moment of unity of two men, one of who is deprived of the most basic human ability, his eye-sight, and at the same time it is a moment of understanding how different people are and how miserable they are in their isolated worlds. The feeling of Robert’s openness and immense curiosity despite his blindness strike the narrator when he realizes how much is concealed from his limited world. The worst is that the person who created those limitations is the narrator himself.

The second story is about the group of young African-American girls who are taken to an expensive toy store by Miss Moore, the intelligent woman living in their neighborhood. The narrator is the young girl Sylvia who appears rather limited in her life vision and racially prejudiced (she likes to harass Indian children and take money from them) (Bambara, 1972). Miss Moore talks to children about the toys they want to buy, and tries to show how impossible it is in their class. A toy boat costing $1,000 is much more than a conventional African-American family spends on food annually; this fact strikes the young children after their visit. The idea that Miss Moore tries to explain to children is that they should not put up with the current situation, and they should fight for the equal place in the USA with rich white people. However, despite the fact that at the end of the discussion Sylvia’s friend Sugar understands the topic of the lesson and speaks about that, Sylvia feels ashamed of accepting that lesson and decides to think the situation over alone.

The third literary piece, the poem “Constantly Risking Absurdity”, is dedicated to the expression of a desperate position of an artist; the poet shows how they all balance on the edge of an abyss, trying to show the Beauty in their works, and how they risk to be absurd, if the reader or viewer does not understand their intent. The poet tells about the artist’s loneliness and constant endeavor on the way of artistic creation, and shows that nobody can understand a truly genius person and the effort he or she makes to become heard. It is even not about understanding by the audience, but about understanding of the art and the beautiful by the artist who may succeed and accomplish his/her aim, or fail and become absurd.

As one can see, the topics raised in three works are loosely connected, if not to say that they are not connected at all. The stories take place in different settings and have absolutely different heroes. However, the stories have some unifying components. They include the feelings of alienation, misunderstanding and loneliness that accompany the main heroes. All three main characters realize their division from other people and accept it in a different way, which will be discussed in the next section.

The Feeling of Loneliness and Alienation

The topic of alienation is clearly felt in all three works. It unites the characters throughout their interactions with other people and makes them feel lonely and misunderstood.

The present quotation shows how the author places the poet above the heads of his audience, thus separating him from all other people physically, which metaphorically has a stronger meaning. The ‘high wire of his own making’ indicates that it is the destiny of the poet chosen voluntarily; hence the loneliness and alienation become even bitterer because of the free will of the poet. Being a genius means being lonely in the whole world; a person whose aim is to conform with the opinion of the majority will never be able to create a masterpiece. Thus, the character of Ferlinghetti is a tragic hero who risks his life for the eternal Beauty that may never reveal its face to him, or may make him a great personality adored by masses.

The theme of loneliness as a voluntary act is also clear in “The Lesson”; the main character called Sylvia is dooming herself to illiteracy and poor living just because she was born in a poor black district. She swears and does not want to participate in the lectures of Miss Moore, preferring to have a pleasant pastime doing nothing, or playing bad, dirty tricks with Indian children, or in the church (Bambara, 1972). The girl does not have any illusions about her position in the society, as she does not know another life besides the one she has. This is why she does not want to communicate with Miss Moore – she does not want to see the desperateness of their position, the abyss existing between black and white people in the USA in the 1970s. The fact that Miss Moore is literate irritates Sylvia, and she protests the very fact of her intrusion in the girls’ lives. Maybe Sylvia is the most thinking girl in the group, and she understands that there is no way out, so the fact of plain awareness will not save them from miserable existence.

However, the visible changes happen with the whole group along with the visit to the store. The first change occurs when Sylvia feels ashamed to come into the shop because she knows it is for rich people. She recollects the most shameful tricks they committed with Sugar (the one in the church) and realizes that here she feels something different. She understands that there is no place for her in that shop, as she will never have the money to buy any toy there. Here is Sylvia’s sense of alienation that is shown in the body’s resentment to the fact that she has to come into the shop for rich white people:

“So me and Sugar turn the corner to where the entrance is, but when we get there I kinda hang back. Not that I’m scared, what’s there to be afraid of, just a toy store. But I feel funny, shame. But what I got to be shamed about? Got as much right to go in as anybody. But somehow I can’t seem to get hold of the door” (Bambara, 1972).

The lesson is understood well by the whole group; they start to understand that the prices for toys are enormous, and their whole family can buy food for a year. This is the aim of Miss Moore – to show how unfair the world is. Sylvia understands that, but she does not want to share that realization with anyone, even Miss Moore who helped Sylvia understand. She feels disconnected not only with the world of rich white people, but with her neighbors, friends and others. Her protest against the world in which they live is spread on everyone around, which shows the deep social problem of African American segregation from the mainstream American society that existed several decades ago. Sylvia decides to think over the experience alone, thus accepting it but remaining a loner by nature: “We start down the block and she gets ahead which is O.K. by me cause I’m going to the West End and then over to the Drive to think this day through” (Bambara, 1972).

The main character of “Cathedral” is alienated from the public as well; he has no name and no characteristics through the story. He smokes marijuana and drinks many cocktails, thus showing that he leads a dissolute way of life indicating his disenchantment. There is no mention of children in his family, so it is possible to assume that two married people of an average age, not yet old, but not young anymore, live a humble life with work and fun limited to cocktails. The man shows his unwillingness to communicate with new people because he is satisfied with his conventional style of life (empty and thoughtless). From the very start the main character voices his dissatisfaction: “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me” (Carver, 1981). The way the man talks about that means that he is not a communicative one, and even the fact that the blind man was dear for her wife did not rise any feelings of duty or dignity in him.

The narrator does not show any interest even to his wife and her perception of him, which means that he is alienated from her as well. The episode about their listening to the tape on which his wife tells the blind man, Robert, about the narrator, shows how little the man worries about her thoughts. He agrees to listen to the tape not because he is curious what she tells Robert about him, but because she wants him to listen. So, even starting to listen and being interrupted, the narrator is not intrigued with the continuation: “But we were interrupted, a knock at the door, something, and we didn’t ever get back to the tape. Maybe it was just as well. I’d heard all I wanted to” (Carver, 1981).

The change does not seem to happen to the narrator even after Robert’s arrival; he feels weird about having a blind man in the house. His reactions can be felt in his talks about the TV set, his doubts about cathedrals and Robert’s knowledge about the most common terms (Carver, 1981). Nonetheless, the attempt to describe a cathedral in words does not work, which shows how little that man ever thought about them. He realizes that he has been taking them for granted, as all other things that he could see in his life. He never appreciated the treasure of eyesight and felt miserable about having a plain life and being jealous about his wife’s friend. When he starts to draw, he opens to the thirst for knowledge Robert has, and he starts to understand that his alienation is an empty sound compared with the loneliness of Robert in his black world.

The narrator realizes how much exists in the world besides plain seeing; he realizes the richness and depth of the surrounding world that has been neglected and despised by him before: “My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything. “It’s really something,” I said” (Carver, 1981).  This is the moment of revelation that the narrator felt being next to a disabled person who has not lost the interest in life, who did not decide to get incarcerated in his home and continue feeling miserable about being blind. Robert was an example of fierce wish for life, which the narrator lacked. Hence, the concluding part shows the unity of two men with diametrically different life principles and wishes, the way life opens a new shade of meaning for those who already lost it.

Conclusion

The theme of loneliness and separation from all other people is present in all three works reviewed in the present paper. Bambara describes the conflict of one little but already wild and violent girl with the whole society that excludes her and does not give her any opportunities for existence with dignity and fairness. The narrator of Carver feels disconnected with the whole world, and even his wife, leads shallow existence and does not start to appreciate the simplest things and the artistic beauty before a meeting with a blind man deprived of any opportunity even to see it. The poet in the Ferlinghetti’s piece of writing feels lonely in his own way, being a servant of the Beauty and rising above all heads of his audience. Hence, one can find the unifying notes and reasons for loneliness people feel: either because of personal dissatisfaction with life, or because the life does not let the person enjoy it, or for the sake of making other people’s lives better.

References

Bambara, T.C. (1972). The Lesson. Retrieved September 6, 2010, from http://cai.ucdavis.edu/gender/thelesson.html

Carver, R. (1981). Cathedral. Retrieved September 6, 2010, from http://www.misan thropytoday.com/cathedral-by-raymond-carver-weekend-short-story/

Di Yanni, R. (2007). Literature, reading fiction, poetry, and drama (Ashford Custom 6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Ferlinghetti, L. (2008). Constantly Risking Absurdity. Retrieved September 6, 2010, from http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/constantly-risking-absurdity/