Loneliness

 Contemporary Eastern Literature 

The theme that was emphasized in most of the readings from this week’s interpretations would be loneliness. Loneliness is an unpleasant emotional response to perceived isolation. Loneliness is also described as social pain—a psychological mechanism which motivates individuals to seek social connections.  In all the stories the characters experienced loneliness and seem to seek social connections. 

In ‘’ Diary of a Mad Man’’ The main character thought that everyone around him was trying to eat him and he blocked everyone out and said things that made people not want to go near him. which I would imagine could be very lonely the passage reads ‘’The sun doesn’t come out. The door doesn’t open. It’s two meals a day’’. (Greenblatt 2012, p.1246). This shows how the characters thoughts has locked him away from society. The main character was never alone because he had a brother that really cared about him, but his illness and crazy thoughts made him lonely, and him being locked away was the reality of his actions. 

 In the story ‘’Sealed Off’’ The main Characters Cuiyuan and Zongzhen seemed to be very lonely in their lives even though they had families. They found comfort in one another on a tramcar for a short period of time. Zongzhen was married with children and in this passage, him and Cuiyuan are having a conversation about their problems. It reads “Oh, you don’t know . . . my family . . .” A short cough. “We’d better not talk about it.” “Here it comes,” thought Cuiyuan. “His wife doesn’t understand him. Every married man in the world seems desperately in need of another woman’s understanding” (Greenblatt 2012, p. 1352). Cuiyuan believes Zongzhen needs someone to understand him, Cuiyuan is also lonely having kept herself occupied by her work she never had time for a family or a husband, even though Zongzhen has a family he still felt like he could not connect to his wife, and that he was always misunderstood. That is why it was so easy for them to connect to one another on the tramcar, because of their loneliness.

In the story ‘’Man of La Mancha’’ the main character is obsessed with how he will be portrayed after he dies. He is not spending his time interacting with different people and friends. In this passage he tries to get the reader to understand why he is the way he is, and why he believes what he is doing will benefit him in the end.  ‘’So you need to understand that the advance preparations I’m talking about go far beyond passive procedures to prevent becoming a nameless vegetable or an anonymous corpse; in fact, they have developed into an exquisite, highly proactive state’’  (Greenblatt 2012, p.1748). This is a person who is so consumed with themselves that instead of having his family or friends worry about those things, he has none. That is probably one of the reasons the main character feels he must take care of this situation, because he is in fact lonely.

To teach the theme of loneliness to the students I would have the students read aloud one of the stories and then have a collaborative discussion about what loneliness means to them. Then I would have the students create a skit about loneliness and how to solve it in a real-world situation.

Upon completion, students will be able to:

Describe loneliness through collaborative discussion

Generate a list of solutions to loneliness

Create a skit about loneliness in a real-world context 

The element of pop culture I could use would be having the students watch a Disney movie. The Disney movie that connects to this theme is the movie Soul. There was a guy who spent his life trying to become a musician until he died and did not have the opportunity to live anymore. He started to see how lonely he was and how he allowed life to pass him by, he was so obsessed with becoming a musician that it consumed him. This movie connects with all three stories given in this week reading. Showing this movie will have the students understand loneliness and let it become relatable.

 

Works Cited

Greenblatt, S. (2012). The Norton anthology of English literature. New York: W.W. Norton.