The short story “Long Tom Lookout” by Nicole Cullen is a great American short story that tells the tale of a woman, Laura, who is an “abandoned” wife to a man, working the oil rigs of the Gulf. The story tells us about her hardships with being alone in the world and the problems with her husband, Keller. A constant theme in the story, running from your problems, makes up whom Laura is. She runs from her husband and moves to Idaho from New Orleans hoping to find better days, finding out it only gets worse when her main problems catch up to her. These problems not only being an autistic son that isn’t hers, but yet a child bore by the woman in which Keller cheated with. But by taking this boy, Jonah, with her to a new life in Idaho, Laura finds more and more complications in finding her place of solitude. Complications forced by fleeing you altercations. Indeed, is it true that running from your problems only leads to more; in Laura’s case even more so. Not only does she then try to run from the boy, but she is also running from herself by not being able to face her main fears, and ultimately forgetting to establish what she wants in life. Being on Long Tom Lookout only irritates her wishes and emphasizes the theme of her problems between herself, the bastard son that isn’t hers, and her no good husband. The theme of running from your problems is an …show more content…
While reading the text, the theme of running away from your problems grasps the reader, and how evidently running is the worst thing you can do when looking for a life of solitude. In Laura’s case she runs from her lost relationship with her husband, her so called “motherhood” to a child that isn’t hers, and ultimately everything she wants and needs in life only to dig her grave