Now, add moving to a new neighborhood and all these already tough times become intensified immensely. Prior to the move and puberty, Cheyenne was a normal young lady who loved to play soccer and got along with her parent’s. But in a whirlwind of newness all her innocence and acceptance of herself, fly’s right out the window. Perhaps Cheyenne could have handled puberty with more grace, but adding the move and not making new friends quickly left Cheyenne feeling as if she had no options. She lunged into the first group that accepted her and in order to maintain these friendships she had to walk the walk and play the role.
The author uses Hannah’s personality traits to show the theme of the story of never lose hope in the most difficult times. For example, the narrator, the speaker of the story, “Early the next morning, Hannah began looking for the ivorybills and quickly discovered what a daunting task finding the birds was going to be. It was no wonder Mr. Tanner has gotten confused. There were no vacancies in the birdhouses”(Smith 27).
Hannah has chosen to isolate herself from society and neglect her surroundings. This ignorance allows her to separate herself from the normalities someone of her age would live with, leaving a life revolving solely around piano. She disregards her friends and family, which portrays her level of ignorance. Furthermore, as Hannah progresses through her youth, she begins to realize all the things she misses due to the way she lives. As she becomes more aware of this, an urge builds up inside of her to “break [her] promise to Tante Rose” (4).
As the girls grow, they begin to act on their desires, making decisions that cause them to feel guilty. After Hannah is caught riding a bicycle, she is filled with shame. When Tante Rose confronts her, Charlotte says, “I had no answer for Tante Rose. I stood staring at her, feeling worse than I had ever felt in my life” (Horton, 38). In a similar manner, when Charlotte is informed of Miss Hancock’s death, she is shocked, saying, “when I heard it, I felt as though my chest and throat were constricted by bands of dry ice” (Wilson, 191).
As Sukarno once said, “The worst cruelty that can be inflicted on a human being is isolation.” In Night by Elie Wiesel, Anna Karenina, and The Old Guitarist by Pablo Picasso, the protagonists all struggle with isolation. Elie, Anna, and the old man are isolated from society because they are different than everybody else and unworthy of being included, which results in depression, death, and misery. Elie Wiesel, a Jew removed from his home and relocated to Auschwitz, is an outcast and is isolated from the rest of society because he is considered different. When Elie first arrives to the death camp, he describes his surroundings as “empty and dead” (Wiesel 47).
The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda once described the emotional suffering that can be caused by the absence of someone in our lives,“Absence is a place so vast that you will pass through its walls and hang pictures in the air.” In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, abandonment plays a large role in affecting the creature created by Victor Frankenstein. Victor has an unending thirst for knowledge that leads him to animate a creature made of dead body parts, when the creature is brought to life Victor is immediately disgusted and leaves his creation. The creature who is left on his own eventually kills all of Victor’s family and his friend. The creature’s violent behavior is due to the anger he feels from the lack of nurture he receives from his creator, however one could argue that the cause was his innate evil.
In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, both of the main characters undergo physical and emotional isolation. This enforced or chosen solitude causes Frankenstein to become over-ambitious and harbor secrets from his family and friends, leading to his demise. In the monster, isolation turns to misery, which causes him to become vengeful against his creator and all the world. Through these examples of total isolation, Shelley shows that when people have no connection to others in the world, their worst characteristics and flaws are brought out. Victor Frankenstein was the first character to show a major flaw while in isolation.
Does Isolation Really Affect You? Joseph Roux, a French priest, poet, and philologist states, “Solitude vivifies; isolation kills”. Solitude is the state of being alone, while isolation is to remain alone or be apart from others, whether it’s emotionally or physically. Physical isolation is when people distance themselves from any physical contact from humans, while emotional isolation is when they shun something emotionally.
Mary Shelley, in her book, Frankenstein, has a reoccurring theme of isolation, in which she isolates the main character, Victor Frankenstein, from the rest of society in order to create a creature. Likewise, the creature that is created is also isolated from the rest of society as he is rejected from his creator as to his appearance. The theme is present throughout the novel as it reinforces Victor’s downfall from a normal boy to a grown man intrigued with creating life as he slowly becomes a madman that everyone soon fears. Isolation causes a loss of humanity as it affects the mind and body. Isolation from society does not teach social interaction, causes regret about oneself, provides one with negative feelings, and causes regretful actions.
The members of the Buendía family often find themselves feeling -or acting- lonely in the world, whether the solitude is insignificant or expressive, self-made or forced, depends on the person. For Colonel Aureliano, his solitude is physically expressed as he alienated himself from the world for much of his days to make the golden fishes. Sadly, his isolation even gets to the point where the family “thought of him as if he were dead” (Marquez, 263). But his total confinement was voluntary and reflects how, after the revolts, he really wanted to just be left alone. Another character who is found in physical solitude is Rebeca.
Although he comes with friendly intentions, the Monster is treated violently and with contempt, essentially being forced into his alienation to survive and becoming the “monster” he is already thought of as a result. The Monster’s actions are a response to the treatment he has received from others, everyday villagers and Victor alike. With little known about his origins and no way to explain himself, there is no hope for the Monster to assimilate himself. This is present in other characters of the novel as well, for example, Richard Walton, who has self-alienated in order to gain distinction and knowledge. The Monsters origins and appearance develop these themes of alienation throughout the novel, themes that are further developed by other characters and play an important role in delivering the message of
They ways in which they are affected by this abandonment proves that isolation has grave effects on human interaction and social development. One way that the theme of isolation negatively affecting social development is presented in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is through the character’s separation from their creators. The creature is abandoned by Victor, his creator, as soon as he awakes.
Martel links isolation to loss of humanity, a harsh reality evident in the world today. Those who have been isolated from society often carry out incredibly inhumane acts; the loss of community and connection to others can lead an individual down a dark path that eventually causes their humanity to
Schlink’s narrative uses techniques to enhance the reader’s sympathy for flawed characters through using motifs and symbolism to show Hanna’s vulnerability of illiteracy, characterisation, and imagery to raise feelings of sympathy for Michael, as to how he was mistreated throughout the novel. Narration, tone and juxtaposition were also used to evoke feelings of sympathy for both Hannah and Michael after the tragedy of Hanna ending her own life. Although the narrative is constructed to only see the firsthand perspectives of the protagonists, this induces the reader’s empathy as it allows them to clearly see the thoughts and feelings of the characters. Schlink has used a variety of these literary techniques to appeal to the reader’s sympathy and allows the reader to understand the complexity and the way in which power and authority in certain situations can corrupt a
Hannah was a very hard worker and by working night and day she became very good at playing the piano. Hannahs talent was shown in the story when it was said that “[she] was playing the music of Beethoven and Liszt with proficiency’’(1). Therefore all these statements show that Hannah was a very devoted ignorant and hard working girl at the start of the
