Loneliness In Teju Cole's Open City

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In human nature, fear is a big part of how we act, but there is one thing that we are the most afraid of, loneliness. People are often social people, and when you take out the possibility of talking and communicating to someone, you will feel a kind of sadness. There are people who are absolutely fine with being lonely, but most of the human population will not be able to stand it. In Teju Cole’s book “Open City”, Cole creates a character that represents the sadness and fear of being alone. Loneliness is something that we can never get over, the main character in Open City, Julius, was forced to deal with the fact that he was indeed alone, without anyone there to comfort him, and even if he had found someone, it would not last long, and the only thing that Julius wants, is to able to be free. Julius definitely feels lonely, and it is something that he has confronted, and I felt like that in one of his sentences, he has said how he truly feels. “On the days when I was home early enough from the hospital, I used to look out the window like someone taking auspices, hoping to see the miracle of natural immigration.”(Cole, 3) This sentence describes how Julius wants to be, he sees these birds, moving from place to place, and deciding where they should go, and to go through with it. This really describes Julius because …show more content…

“It is dangerous to live in a secure world.” (Cole, 200) Julius realizes that living in peace is the opposite of safe. He realizes that because they are always so calm and not worrying about disasters, if something does happen, they would be unprepared for it. This relates to Julius because he was so used to talking with so little people that once the people that he talks to disappears, he finally feels alone, and not knowing what to do.Julius once was happy, but happiness is something that can get lost in an