EFFECTS OF ISOLATION IN LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION
Literature is a collective body of literary productions as a result of the things we have learned from embracing the knowledge and fancy in writing. The whole body of a literary production is writing upon a specific topic or reference form a specific body of science or any branch of knowledge. It is the class of writings distinguished for beauty and style of expression; it may be as poetry, or history different from scientific and other bodies of knowledge and other works that contain positive knowledge.
Isolation on the other hand is defined as the occurrence of being apart or alone. Humans experience isolation for even once in their lives. In this state, the person being isolated is faced to a world of his own with no one else to count on. However, there is a certain types of isolation that capture the heart of writers and artists. They find isolation as appealing to discuss so they incorporated it in their literature.
Isolation in literature is necessary for the development of the hero and of the protagonist and the societies they belong to. Isolation gives the character the excuse they need to focus on themselves in a very intense manner. Literary isolation is mainly related with the evaluation of character identity and transformation if any.
Characters portrayed in most of the literature are spiritually, emotionally, physically or geographically isolated. This kind of isolation brings different feelings and emotions to the person being isolated. It can either bring peace or disturbance to the person involved.
In this discussion, there will be presentations of different cases of isolation in literature selections. The effects of isolation in literature is described and discussed. We know that doing something will always have a consequence that is either for good or for worse. We will soon find out…
KINDS OF ISOLATION
Being isolated from a person you want or a group you want to belong to is sad. This only means that there is a mismatch between what we want and what we have. This can occur due to location, or because of certain situation or for some other reasons. There are many reasons why we can feel lonely and isolated, and sometimes the reasons are beyond our control.
There are different kinds of isolation. First is geographic isolation, which literally means you are separated from the rest of the world for example in a strange island or if you are the only person around 5,000 square kilometers.
Another is physical isolation wherein you are disabled, frail or elderly, or you just hopped in to a new place where you don not know. When you are in a place where you do not understand the language and everything is so strange to you.
The last kind of isolation is emotional isolation. This happens even in apparently happy families. When there is no intimacy and mutual communication, there is indifference. It often results in the feeling of loneliness and depression.
ISOLATION IN LITERATURE
Isolation can either have a positive or negative affect on humans. Humans are often driven mad by isolation, where their only means of escaping is by death. Others who are isolated develop psychotic tendencies, which cause them to destroy themselves, as well as others. Throughout the history of literature, isolation has an extremely negative effect upon the development of the individual’s character.
“THE LAMP AT NOON”
In the short story “ The Lamp at Noon”, Sinclair Ross portrays the young woman Ellen as a character who is driven mad by her geographical isolation. Throughout this story, Ellen struggles to break free from the poor, barren and hopeless prairie landscape she and her family inhabit. Ellen has little contact with other people. Living in a two-bedroom home and once a month to town with not a penny to spend was not the type of environment Ellen wanted to live in. Feelings of loneliness and isolation surround Ellen, trapping her in an inevitable, hopeless future (Ross, 1988).
Undoubtedly, Ellen’s geographical and physical isolation were not the only components of Ellen’s insanity. Ellen felt emotionally isolated from her husband, Paul. Paul was too preoccupied with his farm to even acknowledge Ellen’s feelings of isolation. Ellen addresses Paul many times, trying to convince him to leave the deserted prairie. Paul does not listen to Ellen. He feels that all he needs to provide Ellen with is clothes and nourishment. It is clearly shown at the end of this story when Ellen is driven into a state of insanity that Paul also needed to show her love and affection. Geographical and emotional isolation warped Ellen’s character into a state of madness.
“LADYBUG, LADYBUG”
The negative effects of isolation can also be shown through W.O. Mitchell’s novel, Ladybug, Ladybug. In this novel, the negative effects of isolation distort character Charles Slaughter into a psychopath. The only time Charles felt loved or acknowledged throughout his life was in the presence of his father. Even though Charles’ father was rarely around, he always remembered to bring him home a present. This gesture made Charles feel loved and cared for. When his father passed away, Charles describes his life as a dark triangle, one he can never escape (Mitchell, 1988). The little portion of self-worth Charles possessed diminished after his father’s death when he was left isolated and alone with his abusive mother. Charles’ mother blamed her son for all of her problems, making Charles feel guilty and worthless. Treating Charles like a commodity, Charles’ mother destroyed his character. The lack of love and affection during his childhood twist Charles into a psychotic character later on in his life.
Charles began to stalk others, attempting to harm them. Though Charles did not want to physically harm others. He only wanted others to experience the same type of emotional pain he endured during his childhood. Charles kidnaps a young child, but does not physically harm her. Instead he captures the child and ties her up. The purpose of this kidnapping was to torment the child’s mother, and make her feel emotionally distraught. Two days later, Charles set the child free. The time hath come to set her free, for thou has carried out my commandment as I behave bade thee do. The whore mother hath been wounded well. For two long nights and days of torment hath the deepest pain and anguish a mother can ever know, her heart is broken. This why the purpose, and hath been accomplished now.
At the end of the novel, Charles committed suicide. Charles felt the only way to escape his isolation was by death. In heaven, Charles would be reunited with his father and renew his self worth. It is clearly evident through the demented character of Charles Slaughter how isolation negatively affects the individual.
Throughout Canadian Literature it is quite evident that isolation has an extremely negative effect upon the development of the individual’s character. The short story “ The Lamp at Noon” displays a woman driven into a state of madness due to her emotional and geographical isolation. WO Mitchell portrays the negative effects of isolation through psychotic character of Charles Slaughter who endures physical and emotional isolation. Individuals experience isolation in different ways. It does not occur to just those who endure hardships. Isolation is a fundamental human fact in which we all strive to break free of or avoid.
“ROBINSON CRUSOE”
This classic story of a shipwrecked mariner on a deserted island is perhaps one of the greatest adventures in English literature. Fleeing from pirates, Robinson Crusoe is swept ashore in a storm possessing only a knife, a box of tobacco, a pipe-and the will to survive. His is the saga of a man alone: a man who overcomes self-pity and despair to reconstruct his life; who painstakingly teaches himself how to fashion a pot, bake bread, build a canoe; and who, after twenty-four agonizing years of solitude, discovers a human footprint in the sand.
Robinson Crusoe was born on the year 1632, in the city of New York. He has a great family though not of that country. His father was a foreigner of Bremen, named Kreutznaer, who settled first at Hull. He got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving off his trade lived afterwards in New York. There he met his wife. He had two other elder brothers, one of whom was a lieutenant colonel to an English regiment (Defoe, 1931).
Being the third of his siblings, he does not have enough attention as his brothers. His aged father is has given him a competent share of home education and designed him for law. But he is satisfied to have simple pleasures of life like going to the sea. His inclination led to strongly oppose the will of his father and against all persuasion of his mother and some other friends. This fatal nature offered the tendency for him to befall into misery.
He arrived in London the 10th of January 1705, having been absent from England ten years and nine months. And there he resolved to prepare for a longer journey than all he experienced, having lived a life of infinite variety seventy-two years, and learned sufficiently to know the value of retirement, and the blessing of ending the days in peace (Defoe, 1931).
“THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON”
The Swiss Family Robinson, a Swiss family has to live on a deserted island after there boat gets caught in a storm and they end up on a shoreline. Lacking food and clothes they use what they have and there surrounds to live. The book is told the Swiss captain/ father and husband; he is like the narrator of the story. He has four boys and a loving and caring wife. While on the island they make a tree house to live in. Although this tree house is only suppose to be temporary, but if they don’t get rescued it could become permanent.
The story is about the adventures of a Swiss family shipwrecked on an uninhabited island. For six months the storm has raged wildly and their situation becomes more dangerous as the hours came by. Driven out, the ship has lost its masts and is leaking. The father is down in the cabin with his sons clinging fearfully to their mother. To all of them it seemed that the end was near. There was no chance to escape either and all they have to do is brace themselves to death. When the father overlooked to the south, he was overjoyed upon seeing a coastline stretching along the horizon. Their hopes were restored (Wyss, 1957).
The Swiss family miraculously survived the shipwreck and builds paradise on an island populated by an impossibly rich array of plants and animals. This heartwarming tale portrays a family struggle to create a new life for them in a fantastic island. In their life, they control their own nature. In their adventure they have found several discoveries, dangers and surprises.
Isolation brought them a sense of endurance and willingness to survive life. This led them to be creative and think of initiatives in order for them to live. Though it is risky they still find ways to struggle and survive, never giving up and never losing hope.
“THE OGRE”
The Ogre is the story of a French mechanic whose bizarre habits (eating raw meat, photographing and tape-recording children) would send most people running from his company, but Abel Tuffauges is an innocent who is slowly sucked into the German war machine. His adventures take him deeper into Germany, into the imaginative wilderness of his youth, and deeper into the past, illustrating the contrast between the French and the German cultures. The story is framed with wonderful mythological images, from the story of St. Christopher to a blind moose that visits Abel in Canada- a secluded cabin in the German hinterland (Tournier, 1972).
“The Ogre” is a story of a of a French mechanic named Abel Tiffauges, living during the end of 1930′s, who one day injures his right hand.
The first part of the book is the most fascinating; as it deals with this multi-dimensional character’s past and present by the way of one year’s worth of diaries which he starts writing with his left hand after the previously mentioned accident. By the end of the segment this strange character of Abel Tiffauges with his peculiar habits and personality feels extremely real and deep, hence securing the feeling of reality of the whole artistically written book. Finally, the part ends as Tiffauges stops writing after the beginning of the war between France and Germany.
Then followed by Tiffauges’ journey through nazi-Germany, first as a French soldier, then as a prisoner of war, and finally a ranger. It shows an intriguing transformation of the character when Tiffauges ends up being a SS-officer and an instructor in a Hitler-Jugend training facility.
Step by step this first reluctant character grows more and more fascinated with anti-Semitism and the complex scientific assumptions about racial differences. The segment is dark and unsettling, as the character is divided into two, when he can’t separate reality with what he’s been thought.
Finally, Tiffauges’ had his journey to chaos, as he experiences enlightenment that leads to his understanding of his inner evil and eventually to self-destruction.
“NEVER CRY WOLF”
“Never Cry Wolf” by Farley Mowat, is a plea for understanding and preservation of the wolf that is being harried into extinction by humanity. Mowat’s philosophy is that it does not pose a threat to the wildlife and, in fact is a danger or a competitor of any consequences to humans. In 1973, the Canadian government’s wildlife services assigned Mowat to investigate the rumor about the hoard of bloodthirsty wolves are slaughtering the arctic caribou. Mowat is dropped alone on the frozen tundra, where he begins to live among the howling wolf packs and study their way of life. He found out things like the wolves were not like those in the legends but in fact are compassionate to the caribous (Mowat, 1987).
Isolation, in terms of influence still remains prevalent. Isolation affected Mowat’s methodology of study; he recognizes isolation as his ally. Once assigned in this futile and desolated tundra his task flourishes with great resolution and interest. Because of extreme isolation, with very little room for distraction, Mowat communicates new discoveries of the wolves and through time he reveals that wolves are fellow creatures with an equal right to live.
“DEATH ON ICE”
“Death on Ice” by Cassie Brown is a compelling reconstruction of the disaster in which 78 sealers died. It tells how the captains of the ships did not consider the men in their decision, they were based they were based on whether they could get seals or not. The men were sent across the ice to get the seals and find their own way to stay outside without perishing. What they did not know was that a horrible storm was blowing their way. As it turned out their ship was not able to catch up with them to get on board so they had to stay out all night in the blizzard.
Most of these men perished when they made a mental decision that they were not going to survive. As soon as this decision was made they gave up and fell to the ice and died. But the survivors made a decision that they were not going to die and they managed to survive till they got help. Some of their group leaders were faced with the danger did not know what to do, so their members have to fend for themselves. When this happened the true leaders come forward and convinced some people to live. When one of these leaders gave up the whole group got gloomy and lost their sense of hope and died.
EFFECTS OF ISOLATION
Isolation can be pictured in the characters being seen in most of the literatures either classical or contemporary. The isolation experiences of the characters lead them to different paths. Some of the characters led their lives to destruction due to feeling of depression and loneliness. Others had a time of enlightenment during the isolation period and led their lives to a better path.
Physical isolation is a state of detachment due to particular situations. What we term as ‘generation gap is an example of physical isolation between the youngsters and the older generations. This creates a gap between the young and the old ones for there is a big difference in these two age representations.
Characters in literature are also affected by physical isolation. For some cases, there is isolation of a mother from a daughter/son and vise versa. There also exist isolation form friends due to different reasons of friendship. Isolation of races, like the blacks from the whites, Christians form other religions. There is also isolation of classes, the poor from the rich.
Geographical isolation is so popular that many people have already experienced it. When you are stuck in a place where there are no inhabitants but you, or you are lost in a place where you do not know and you have no company with you. The issue here is on survival, whether you will survive or not. This is like the case of the adventures of the Swiss family stuck in an island with fierce animals and no habitation of people. This is presented in a way of an adventure and struggle. What is really risky is that when you are stuck alone and all you can think about is negative emotion since you feel you do not have anyone to count on.
Emotional isolation is the most difficult issue to tackle. No matter what you do an emotionally isolated individual is really hard to deal with. There is a big difference of being alone from being lonely. Being alone is not always a bad thing. Being able to gather thoughts for the next stage in life and recover from your downfalls or a great change can be good. Periods of being alone allow us to stock, make changes, to our thoughts, our values, our surroundings and ourselves. This is the time to chuck out old ideas and feelings about our lives and plan for the next stage. When a person is alone, he can think about things that he never thought about before and make him work harder on the task. Being lonely and sad, however, could be unhealthy.
When people have been isolated they do not see other people for a long time can lead to make a person stronger or weaker. In a life and death situation, it can give them extra will to live that a person did not have before. It can make him stronger and become his ally or it can beat him.
The sadness factor in the phase of isolation is very important. It is related to other factors but it is the most critical one. Emotional isolation is sometimes considered graver than physical isolation. The person suffering from this may have externalizing behavior and feelings. This is caused by the person’s dependent attitude. He/she now developed the feeling of rejection and aggression.
ISOLATION AND EXILE IN LITERATURE
Some writers isolate themselves from society, as they write away in the upper room. This behavior can sometimes be construed as madness or strangeness… Along the same lines, writers have created some of the most remarkable marginalized character, those men and women who stand apart from society.
Italian writer Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) is famous for his work “Divine Comedy” and others. He was also active in politics during his times. He lived in exile for the last years of his life.
Polish writer, Jósef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski commonly known Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) is known for “Heart of Darkness,” “Lord Jim,” and other novels and short stories. Crazy John and the Bishop in “Home and Away,” he writes, “Throughout Irish writing, a lonely outcast hungering for freedom revolts, usually unavailingly, against the censorious social order. The rebellious is almost always solitary – one reason perhaps why it is in the short story, rather than on the more communal, companionable terrain of the novel, that the struggle is so often staged.
Dracula in the literature is very popular. Historical and fictional stories about Dracula are widespread including Vlad Tepes and Countess Bathory.
Another character is Frankenstein produced by Mary Shelly in 1816. The book was published in 1818. The story of Victor Frankenstein and his monster has been made into plays, movies and comics. It has captivated our imagination and affected our tales of monsters.
LITERATURE CITED
Brown, Cassie (1971). Death on Ice. Toronto: Canadian Publisher.
Defoe, Daniel (1931). Robinson Crusoe. New York: The Dial Press.
Mitchell, W.O. (1988). Ladybug, Ladybug. McClelland and Stewart.
Mowat, Farley (1987). Never Cry Wolf. Toronto: Canadian Publisher.
Ross, Sinclair (1988). Lamp at Noon and Other Stories. New Canadian Library.
Tournier, Michel (1972). The Ogre. Doubleday Publishing.
Wyss, Johann (1957). The Swiss Family Robinson. Grosset and Dunlap.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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