Neha Mehta: Anguish, Madness, and Vulnerability as Possible Effects of Isolation
AP English Literature
Mrs. Bridget Clark
24 April 2008
Chapter 1: Introduction
The distress that isolation effectuates often can be seen only as an outsider analyzes the dilemma of alienation that the characters endure. This writer takes interest in the emotional and physical effects of isolation after having read a plethora of books with such a theme. Isolation, in this reader’s opinion, drives a character to rely on himself, and thus the character embarks on a journey in which he learns the difference between who he is and who he can be. As a result of this state of being, a character impedes his normal self, and instead delves into feelings of anxiety, madness, and vulnerability. While some characters become self-destructive under such emotions, others show maturity and even valor as they forget their personal situation and instead do something worthwhile.
One who shows signs of mental aberration is, inevitably, perhaps, but cruelly, shut off from familiar, thoughtless intercourse, partly excommunicated; his isolation is unwittingly proclaimed to him on every countenance by curiosity, indifference, aversion, or pity, and in so far as he is human enough to need free and equal communication and feel the lack of it, he suffers pain and loss of a kind and degree which others can only faintly imagine, and for the most part ignore. (Cooley 2 of 5)
Having spoken on the current theme regarding alienation, Charles Cooley efficiently portrays the effects of isolation on man and the extent to which others cannot hope to understand such loneliness. When reading Cooley’s statement regarding isolation, one thinks of modern day isolation, more often diagnosed as depression- something many cannot fully understand.
Perhaps another reason the theme of isolation is so pertinent to the writer is because of the current state of social isolation in America. Sadly, social ties have diminished in the United States as recently as the past two decades. According to Miller McPherson, Americans today have one-third the number of confidants than they had in 1985. What people define as "important" might have changed, or people might not equate emailing or instant messaging with "discussing." The researchers also suggest that changes in work and the geographical scattering of families may foster a broader, shallower network of ties, rather than the close bonds measured by this study (353-354). This loss of support is hard on the alienated individual as he loses a companion to whom he might share a burden. Even the United States vice-president, Humphrey agrees that “national isolation breeds national neurosis” (Humphrey 3 of 7). Maybe McPherson’s research partially accounts for the increase of depressed individuals in recent years. In essence, isolation can be so overwhelming that it may cause depression which is characterized by sadness, irritability, anxiety, and self-harm (“Solitude” 1 of 1).
McPherson’s thoughts were shared by the famous British singer, John Lennon in his song titled “Isolation”. Particularly, six lines from the song stand out:
Isolation/ We’re afraid to be alone/
I don’t expect you to understand/…You’re
a human, a victim of the insane/…We’re
afraid of everyone/…Isolation/. (Lennon)
Here, Lennon describes the effects of isolation as it is wrought on several of the characters in the novels that the writer will analyze. Moreover, Lennon expounds on the fact that he expects others not to understand his predicament.
“For many people, one of the most frustrating aspects of life is not being able to understand other people’s behavior” (“Behavior Quotes” 1 of 4). The topic of this thesis is “anguish, madness, and vulnerability as possible effects of isolation”. However, this writer feels that most people are not able to identify with the behavior of those who are isolated. Instead, they may think, “Why does John not check into a medical clinic?” or “Edna didn’t have to kill herself; she could have talked to someone about her problems.” As a reader, it is not practical to understand thoroughly the characters’ situations and, more so, their behavior in relation to their feelings. It is this writer’s hope that after analyzing several novels with this theme, the reader will be better able to comprehend isolation. Five novels that verify the theme “isolation increases anguish, madness, and vulnerability” are Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, John Gardner’s Grendel, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and S.C. Hinton’s The Outsiders. In the beginning, this writer chose solely to write about isolation as it affects the adolescent male as in Brave New World, Catcher in the Rye, Hamlet, and The Outsiders. However, the effects of isolation go beyond just the male sex. In novels, women and even non-human species deal with isolation as in The Awakening and Grendel. In essence, isolation, in the purest sense, is a universal theme amidst literature, not only does it relate to those of different geographical locations but even those whose worlds are a mere fantasy. Surely, it is frustrating not to be able to understand others’ behaviors, but as Thomas Troward said, “Having seen and felt the end, you have willed the means to the realization of the end.”- which is in itself very satisfying (1 of 1).
Thesis Chapter 2: Isolation in Brave New World and Grendel
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and John Gardner’s Grendel both have characters who suffer from anguish, madness, and vulnerability via similar affects of isolation. In the novels, John the savage and Grendel undergo self-destruction and self-harm as they try to deal with their solitude.
The source of John’s and Grendel’s isolation is clearly evident as one analyzes their pitiful situations. In essence, both John and Grendel are victims of their time. Had John been born in an earlier era, he possibly would have been content with life. Instead, John lives in a period in which the social norm is to follow blindly the commands of the Controller and not to use one’s own sense. Ironically, had Grendel been born in a later age (possibly the post-modern period), he too, possibly, would have been content with life. Grendel, however, lives in a period of social unrest and war (McCarthy 1 of 1). Unfortunately, this is not the case, and John and Grendel must cope with their displacement from the social norm of their time.
Throughout Brave New World, the reader empathizes with John’s radical view of the world quite possibly because the reader can identify with John’s “old world” views. Simply put, John’s ideals resemble our own ideals. The modern world is one which appreciates literature and the beauty of life as John does. John believes in literature and its relativity, unlike the Controller, who remarks, “Because our world is not the same as Othello’s world. You can’t make flivvers without steel- and you can’t make tragedies without social instability. The world’s stable now… and if anything should go wrong, there’s soma” (Huxley 220). John further relates his beliefs when he says, “If you allowed yourselves to think of god, you wouldn’t allow yourselves to be degraded by pleasant vices...[and later] You’d have a reason for chastity!” (238). Unfortunately for the Savage, the modern world is ages behind the New World. Thus, the people of the New World, under the controller, Mustafa Mond, shun John’s radical questions and ideals. Seeing as the New people have been brainwashed to a major extent by Mustafa Mond, they do not value the beauty of art, for instance. In fact, Mustafa Mond states his official position when he says, “ ‘You’ve got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high art. We’ve sacrificed the high art’” (264). As a devotee of Ford (or Freud), Mond chooses to follow his ideals. Often seen as an opponent of art, Freud declares
The artist is originally a man who turns from reality because he cannot come to terms with the demand for the renunciation of instinctual satisfaction as it is first made, and who then in fantasy-life allows full play to his erotic and ambitious wishes. (Buchanan 5 of 16)
Being a proponent of beauty, John would vigorously oppose Freud’s statement. John does not fit in with the New World society and its beliefs. When John confesses his loneliness to Bernard, Bernard replies, “If one’s different, one’s bound to be lonely” (Huxley 137).
John’s situation is synonymous with that of Grendel. As mentioned earlier, Grendel was born too early, and this is one reason he cannot find happiness. Grendel verifies the prejudiced view of man when he summarizes, “‘At times, I would try to befriend the exile, at other times I would try to ignore him, but they were treacherous. In the end, I had to eat them’” (Gardner 33). In a sense, the Danes are justified in their “treacherous” actions because heroism was the common goal all men strived for. Naturally, they would pursue Grendel in order to be seen as brave warriors and to be esteemed in King Hrothgar’s eyes in place of making friends with the monster. The men are so blinded by their provincial outlook that they do not see the human characteristics that Grendel exhibits. Grendel notices his own human traits when he realizes, “I was safe in my tree, and the men who fought were nothing to me, except of course that they talked something akin to my language, which meant that we were, incredibly, related,” (36) and later when Grendel hears Scyld’s beautiful poetry, he sees himself as a “ridiculous hairy creature torn apart by poetry,” (44). One aspect that defines humans above anything else is the ability to read, listen, and understand complex thoughts like those composed in pieces of poetry. The art of understanding poetry and conjuring complex thoughts uniquely distinguishes humans from other species. Because the Danish men do not acknowledge the monster’s human disposition, Grendel is socially isolated. In addition, Grendel states that tedium is the worst pain. Grendel experiences absolute boredom; day after day, season after season, the sun predictably travels across the sky; and, to make matters worse, the only friend Grendel has is his insane mother. Grendel relates his loneliness when he relates,
Of all the creatures I knew, in those days, only my mother really looked at me.—Stared at me as if to consume me, like a troll. She loved me, in some mysterious sense I understood without her speaking it. I was her creation. We were one thing, like the wall and the rock growing out from it. (Gardner 17)
In effect, the isolation that Grendel endures is partly caused by his physical difference which makes him an outsider from the social norm.
Both John the Savage and Grendel are provoked to commit destruction and harm to themselves and others as a result of their isolation. At one point, John asks Linda, his dying mother, “Don’t you know me?...But I’m John!” (Huxley 204, 205). He proceeds to shake Linda violently, but his act is futile; she dies within moments, The Savage stops to ponder, “‘Linda had been a slave, Linda had died; others should live in freedom, and the world be made beautiful. A reparation, a duty’” (210). Finally, the Savage realizes what he must do. His isolation from his mother and the idyllic world which he wants so much to be part of causes him to rant and rave. John gathers before the people of the New World and, intoxicated by his new duty, urges others to stop using the poisonous soma. Ultimately, John submits to the pressure of the World State society and because he is outraged at his compliance, John hangs himself. Grendel, likewise, harms himself and others in his rage and fury due to his isolation. The monster begins his routine raids on Hrothgar’s kingdom, killing many innocent men purely for pleasure. He calls himself “Grendel, Ruiner of Meadhalls, Wrecker of Kings!”, but he immediately also admits that “as never before, I was alone” (Gardner 80). Furthermore, Grendel is tormented by Hrothgar’s wife, Wealthow, who Grendel states “was beautiful, as innocent as dawn on winter hills. She tore me apart as once the Shaper’s song had done” (Gardner 100). Grendel almost rapes the stunning, pure Wealthow, but his humanity stops him from doing so. Albeit Grendel’s excuse, one can see Grendel as more human than monster when he confesses
I changed my mind. It would be meaningless, killing her. As meaningless as letting her live. It would be, for me, more pointless pleasure, an illusion of order for this one frail, foolish flicker-flash in the long dull of eternity. (110)
These ongoing raids and killing-sprees provoke King Hrothgar to accept the help of the great Geat, Beowulf, Grendel’s killer. In reality, Grendel brings on his own death by means of his brutal actions.
The ultimate deaths of both John the Savage and Grendel is the outcome of their similar isolations. In this writer’s opinion, the end deaths are rather appropriate; the two outsiders can finally find solace in their separation from the world that does not understand them. One might say that John and Grendel should not have died; rather, the societies should have learned to accept them. Of course, that would be the ideal ending, but the reader should keep in mind that both societies were on the extreme side of the spectrum. The New World society is completely brain-washed by the addictive soma; whereas, the Danes of Grendel’s time are too provincial in their thinking. In retrospect, John and Grendel would most likely agree with Edgar Allan Poe when he said, “Thank Heaven! the crisis --The danger, is past, and the lingering illness, is over at last --, and the fever called "Living" is conquered at last” (Poe 1 of 1).
Thesis Chapter 3: Isolation in The Awakening and Hamlet
As found in Brave New World and Grendel, Kate Chopin’s riveting novel, The Awakening, and William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, portray the idea that isolation leads to madness, anguish, and vulnerability. However, The Awakening and Hamlet’s procurement of such feelings are brought on by a different source.
The family unit is a theme which has been deemed as extremely vital by most psychologists. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church sees in the family "the first natural society, with underived rights that are proper to it, and places it at the center of social life" (Zenit on Compendium 211). The family founded on marriage between a man and a woman is important both for natural reasons, as the principal place of interpersonal relationships, and for supernatural reasons, as a divine institution (Zenit 1 of 1). Zenit sees the family as a necessary institution for social development. Doctor Verg Bengtson goes even further to say that one’s familial encounters not only provide positive experiences, but also can play a large role in how successful and happy one is in life. As well, Bengtson states, “Multi-generational bonds represent a valuable resource for families in the 21st century and are becoming more important than nuclear family ties for well-being and support over the course of our lives” (Bengtson 1 of 3). As the reader is well aware, family is the unit one relies on for communication of personal problems, advice, love, comfort, and much more. When that family unit becomes jeopardized, chaos reigns in a severe matter. Unfortunately, the before said jeopardy is usually a small misunderstanding; and, regrettably, the re-institutionalizing of that family unit is often difficult and quite often a failure. Those families embracing reunification find that children report less social isolation in terms of the number of supportive figures and their loneliness and social dissatisfaction. Also, Lau notes that reunification is associated with lower mental health service utilization (Lau 1 of 20). As the reader can confidently verify, familial isolation is a hazardous and sad state of being. It is familial isolation that is the core to the oncoming anguish, madness, and vulnerability that Edna Pontellier from Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and Prince Hamlet from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet endure. However, Edna invites the familial isolation while Hamlet curses the very idea. Ultimately, both Edna and Hamlet die from the stress and unfortunate events that befall them.
The ill-fated Hamlet is destined to deal with many undesired events at an early age. Hamlet is soon isolated from his family as his father has died, his newly widowed mother has married his greedy and conniving Uncle Claudius, and the familiar life Hamlet once knew in Denmark is now utter chaos. After the recent death of his father, Hamlet sees and communicates with his ghost and soon decides to avenge his father
[...] Passion's flame Was doused in fear and error, his mind's unease Bred indulgence to the state's disease Ghosts emboweled his earth; [...]. (Shakespeare 2-5)
The critic, Antony Johae, sees in this reference Hamlets "mind's unease," which causes Hamlet to lie, while it corrupts his resolve, and allows the State of Denmark to be further corrupted. "Ghosts" (5) may refer to this unhealthy state of affairs in the affairs of state as well as to the several appearances of the ghost, the thought of which has consumed ("emboweled") Hamlet (Johae 2 of 9). Later, the line including, "Justice despaired" ostensibly refers to Hamlet's continued failure to take his revenge (Shakespeare 165) and, perhaps, to his accidental killing of Polonius (171); it covertly alludes to the prisoner's anguish at the threat to his integrity (Johae 5 of 9). "[...] The turn and turn abouts / Of reason danced default to duty's counterpoint" (9-10), shows Hamlet going around in mental circles, as when he sees his uncle, Claudius, at prayer and reasons himself out of doing his duty and taking his revenge (Johae on Shakespeare 167). The reader quickly recognizes Prince Hamlet’s diminishing state of mind as he is preoccupied with the vendetta against his uncle and as he postpones killing Claudius. Further examples of Hamlet’s perpetuating madness and anguish occur in Act two scene two when Hamlet relates to his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,
…I have of late, but whereof I know not, lost all mirth,/ Forgone all custom of exercises,…,the earth, seems to me a sterile/ promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this/ brave o’erhanging firmament, this majestical roof, fretted with/ golden fire- why, it appeareth nothing to me but a foul and/ pestilent congregation of vapors. … Man delights me not. (Shakespeare 103)
Many readers are likely very familiar with another famous outcry from Hamlet in which he is pushed so far as to consider suicide when he cries,
To be or not to be- that is the question: Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by opposing, end them. (Shakespeare 127)
In essence, when Hamlet’s normal family life is changed, he becomes isolated from what he most cherishes. As Claudius further plots to gain power and secure his position as king, the anguish and madness grows within Hamlet. Ultimately, Claudius’s vicious plot to kill Hamlet succeeds, if not in the way he initially planned.
In Kate Chopin’s, The Awakening, Edna Pontellier’s crisis is spurred by a different medium. Edna feels that she needs familial isolation to satisfy her inner emotional and sexual longings. She chooses to set a brick wall between herself and her wealthy businessman husband and young children. One can sense Edna’s shift in two instances: the scene when Edna first swims into the sea and when Edna has a heated conversation with Madam Ratignolle. In the first scene, Chopin relates Edna’s enthrallment when she writes,
A feeling of exultation overtook her, as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and her soul. She grew daring and reckless, overestimating her strength. She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before. (Chopin 47)
In the second scene, the reader finds a frustrated Edna explaining,
I would not give up the unessential. I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself. I can’t make it more clear; it’s only something which I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me.” (Chopin 80)
In doing so, Edna finds that she has awakened her soul; however, this awakening eventually leads Edna to fatally disconnect herself from the rest of the world. The critic Donald Dingledine states that while Edna is vacationing at Grand Isle, a resort on the Gulf of Mexico (Chopin 12), she travels one day to the Cheniere Caminada, where her passion for Robert is first awakened, and they spend a strangely mystical afternoon together that ends with their being told island myths by Madame Antoine, a native of the island. In isolation, Edna's experiences at Madame Antoine's seem positive, for they lead her to question her existence as a wife and mother; yet […] the island adventure in The Awakening takes on a greater, heretofore overlooked significance that reverberates throughout the novel Dingledine further alludes to the suggestion that Edna's inability to experience a cultural awakening and communal re-integration contributes heavily to, and is perhaps the main cause of, her much-debated fate (1 of 9). Alone with Robert at Madame Antoine's, Edna falls into a deep sleep on a "snow-white" bed; when she awakens, she asks Robert,
How many years have I slept? . . . The whole island seems changed. A new race of beings must have sprung up, leaving only you and me as past relics. How many ages ago did Madame Antoine and Tonie die? and when did our people from Grand Isle disappear from the earth? (Chopin 85)
Dingledine concludes that
Edna's fairy tale, fancifully wiping out all community and history, merely perpetuates, albeit through myth, the youths' escapist and isolationist ideals. Chopin, it will be seen, does stress the need for an enabling myth of love, yet it is one that accentuates the importance of all that Edna wishes to escape. (2 of 9)
Later, when Edna invites several selected guests to her home, the reader realizes her inability to be satisfied, though she has freed herself from prior obligations (as a mother and wife). Edna’s feelings emerge while at the dinner table, "…but as she sat amid her guests, she felt the old ennui overtaking her; the hopelessness which so often assailed her" (Chopin 145). Dingledine also agrees; “How positive or complete can Edna's awakening be if, inside, she is alone and without hope, even among a group of personally selected "friends"?” (2 of 9). Now verifiable, the reader is able to see Edna’s reasons for anguish, madness, and vulnerability. From the beginning, she isolates herself from her children and husband; and initially, she seems happy. However, as her awakening progresses, Edna isolates herself almost completely from everyone and soon loses hope. Such an onset of loneliness and inability to satisfy her inner longings to get away from her destined Creole life is sure to drive Edna to surrender herself.
Though Hamlet and Edna’s situations are very different, both center on familial isolation. The reader most likely sympathizes with Hamlet’s situation because of his position in the matter. As Claudius weasels his way into kingship by marrying Hamlet’s mother, Hamlet grows mad as he plots to kill his uncle. Sadly, Hamlet finds that he can not even trust his childhood friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern at one point. A mixed outcome results from Hamlet’s plan. Claudius dies, as does the Queen and even Hamlet himself. Though, Hamlet is able to avenge his father, he, unfortunately, is unable to protect the former family unit he cherished. Edna Pontellier, on the other hand, is a character who is not easy to sympathize with. In essence, Edna’s greed to find herself leads to her demise. As she deliberately pushes her husband and children away, she became more concerned with her new awakening. Ultimately, this awakening is more a curse than a blessing for Edna. She is unable to cope with her feelings of anxiety and depression. This writer believes Edna is selfish in that she commits suicide without concern for her family. Richard Bach once said, “The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life,” (Bach 1 of 17). Because Edna and Hamlet are unable to maintain the family, they are incapable of feeling the respect and joy Bach refers to.
Chapter IV: Isolation of the Adolescent Male Within The Catcher in the Rye, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and The Outsiders
J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders offer an accurate glimpse into the human developmental stage of adolescence through the rather obvious common link among the three books; the lone, adolescent male figure is the central aspect of each story. Though each story has its own unique plot and perspective on life, the force of the different circumstantial isolations is a heavy and dominating element that, in part, makes the stories ones to remember.
Deviation from the norm almost always causes one to feel highly uncomfortable; for Holden Caulfield, Harry Potter, and Ponyboy Curtis, this sensation is expounded upon as each novel relates a somewhat similar isolation to each adolescent. Holden portrays the troubled, rich, adolescent perspective as he is removed from the people he most dearly loves and as the world around him changes while he tries unsuccessfully to hold on to the past. With the death of his brother, Allie, and his estrangement from his sister, Phoebe, Holden trudges through many new and uncomfortable situations. Initially, he attends Pencey Prep, a school which embodies that which he despises most, “phony-ness.” He then moves to a sketchy hotel in New York, and he has a near rendezvous with the prostitute, Sunny. Holden’s loneliness drives him to be impulsive. Regarding the hotel scene with Sunny, Holden confesses, “It was against my principles and all, but I was feeling so depressed I didn’t even think. That’s the whole trouble. When you’re feeling very depressed, you can’t even think” (Salinger 91). Holden feels a clear longing to be near others to fill the absence of Phoebe, Allie, and even his childhood sweetheart, Jane Gallagher. Within the text, the reader can clearly see Holden’s deteriorating analysis and bipolar-like tendencies. For instance, Holden once says, “In my mind, I’m probably the biggest sex maniac you ever saw. Sometimes I can think of very crumby stuff I wouldn’t mind doing if the opportunity came up” (62). At the end of the same paragraph, Holden completely deserts what he said earlier when he relates, “Sex is something I just don’t understand. I swear to God I don’t” (63). Another binary opposition regarding Holden is seen by critic Yasuhiro Takeuchi in Holden’s reference to the children on the carousel: “If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them,” (274). Takeuchi sees Holden’s willingness to let his beloved sister fall perplexing as being because it seems to contradict his dream of becoming a “catcher in the rye”- one who saves children from falling (Salinger quoted in Takeuchi). Holden’s mental sickness is nevertheless defended by Antole Grunwald who says, “it is not Holden who should be examined for a sickness of the mind, but the world in which he sojourned and found himself an alien” (Antole quoted in French 103).
Dubbed the “greasers”, Ponyboy Curtis and the rest of the gang in S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders are assigned to the East side of town because of their poor economic situation, while the elitist “socs” are the “jet set, West-side rich kids” who live at the other side of town (Hinton 2). Unlike many of the other boys in his neighborhood, Ponyboy is an intellect; moreover, he even hopes to receive a scholarship to attend college with help from the excellent grades he earns at school. With his love for knowledge, novels in particular, Ponyboy yearns to leave his small, divided world of the socs and greasers to live in a world where there are just ordinary people. Johnny Cincaid, a member of the greasers, also feels the exasperation of being confined to a group and having to deal with his many family related hardships. Before he dies from third-degree burns (after saving the children at the burning Windrixville church), Johnny expresses his joy in being in a place other than their segregated neighborhood. Overall, the class conflict and the inability to express oneself drives Johnny and Ponyboy into a feeling of angst and vulnerability as clearly seen through the unfriendly Soc-Grease relationship. One source describes Ponyboy’s disposition in the following manner,
Ponyboy is chagrined by Cherry’s (a soc and friend) apologetic reminder that she can’t speak to him at school or let her parents see her with him. He cannot accept the idea that Socs have troubles too, unless troubles mean cars and money. Socs have time to party and jump greasers. Ponyboy’s brothers have to quit school or give up college to make a living. Ponyboy cannot accept the way things are and it causes a real tension within him. (Contemporary Classics 5)
Like Holden, Ponyboy and Johnny are far from where they can be comfortable; Johnny in a state of suicidal desperation exclaims, “But I gotta do something. It seems like there’s gotta be someplace without greasers or Socs, with just people. Plain ordinary people” (Hinton 48).
The famous Harry Potter is also put in a situation in which he deviates from the norm in Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The novel begins just after the notorious Lord Voldemort has risen; and, ironically enough, Harry, the one person who saw him rise from his pathetic state, spends his summer rummaging through trash cans and relentlessly listening to the evening news to hear the whereabouts of the villain. As the reader is well aware, Harry lives with his aloof relatives in a non-magic city in Britain. Cut off from the magical world he knows best, Harry is desperate for any news regarding the state of matters after notice spreads about Voldemort’s return. Harry spends the summer in anguish as he thirsts for the arrival of September and school. For Harry, his displacement and complete lack of communication from the magical world, especially in such a crucial time, is unbearable. Critic Julie Smithouser agrees that
Harry is deeply angry at having been almost completely cut off from the magical world and stuck once more on Privet Drive. Reduced to hiding in the flower bed outside a window to hear any Muggle news which may reveal Voldemort’s actions or whereabouts, Harry’s anxiety is clear: Ongoing nightmares about his own torture and a schoolmate’s murder by Vodemort plague him, as do feelings of betrayal by his wizarding friends who have kept him in the dark throughout the summer. (Smithouser 1)
Upon, finally meeting his friends, Ron and Hermione, Harry lets out much of his cooped up frustration as he yells
…So you haven’t been in the meetings, BIG DEAL! You’ve still been here, haven’t you? You’ve still been together! Me, I’ve been stuck at the Dursleys’ for a month! And I’ve handled more than you two’ve ever managed and Dumbledore knows it...But why should I know what’s been going on? Why should anyone bother to tell me what’s been happening?” (Rowling 65, 66)
Unfortunately for Harry, even after he returns to Hogwarts, the isolation does not cease; Dumbledore, hoping to ease malicious temptation on Harry’s part, detaches himself from the adolescent completely. “Harry’s anger and resentment of Dumbledore grows throughout the book as the Headmaster distances himself from Harry under confusing circumstances” (Smithouser 1 of 1). Furthermore, Harry’s irritation increases as he is not permitted to join the Order of Phoenix, the only organization dedicated to the finding Voldemort. As the novel approaches the end, Harry’s only living family, his god-father, Sirius, dies while battling Voldemort. Unable to bear the pain of having lost another parent, Harry loses the desire to live. Dumbledore, understanding Harry’s position, sympathizes, “You have now lost your mother, your father, and the closest thing to a parent you have ever known. Of course you care.” Harry replies, “I don’t care! I’ve had enough, I’ve seen enough, I want out, I want it to end, I don’t care anymore!” (Rowling 824). Critic Lev Grossman concludes
But what really makes the Harry Potter series great is its dual nature. It's a fantasy wrapped around a nightmare, an unreal, escapist fiction with an icy core of emotional pain that is very real. In Phoenix, Rowling even kills off a major character, one of the people Harry needs most. The Harry Potter we meet in Phoenix is a darker, more volatile Harry, and it's not just adolescent petulance. Harry is showing the mental scars of having been hunted and harried for four straight years, and the rage and fear he feels will strike a chord with any reader, adult or child. (Grossman 1)
"You don't know what it's like!" he shrieks at Ron and Hermione. "You--neither of you--you've never had to face him, have you?" (Potter quoted in Grossman 1 of 1). Harry’s inability to convey the emotions he alone deals with causes him much anguish, madness, and vulnerability as easily seen in the novel. In addition, Harry’s situation mirrors that of Holden; Harry loses Sirius while Holden loses Allie. The difference is that Harry angrily confronts the loss head on, while Holden moves from place to place in a state of defiance and deteriorating mental health. In The Outsiders, even Dallas Winston, who burns with hatred for the world, suffers the same symptoms of anguish that Harry and Holden feel. “When Johnny dies, Dallas loses the only person he loved. His anguish over Johnny’s death is profound. Dallas loses his purpose in living. He decides to die. He doesn’t die pathetically, but deliberately and triumphantly…He dies willingly for Johnny’s sake.” (Contemporary Classics 7)
Interestingly enough, there is no uniform method in which the adolescent males in the three novels deal with seclusion, aside from the common endurance of anguish, madness, and vulnerability that perpetuate from isolation. Holden isolates himself from his parents and, therefore, his little sister Phoebe, the closest person to the disturbed Holden. Being away from his siblings causes Holden to move from place to place, until he eventually submits to a mental institution. In this institution, the lonely Holden is overwhelmed as memories flood in his mind regarding the people he has met and his story. Ultimately, Holden advises, “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody” (Salinger 214). On the other hand, Ponyboy Curtis, fourteen and relatively innocent compared to the rest of his gang, deals with the isolation of losing his loved ones and being unable to express himself internally. For instance, Ponyboy relates, “I had a nightmare the night of Mom and Dad’s funeral…I woke up screaming bloody murder. It scared Sodapop and Darry almost as bad as it scared me; for night after night, for weeks on end, I would dream this dream and wake-up in a cold sweat or screaming. And I never could exactly remember what happened in it” (Hinton 110). Nightmares are the only method by which Ponyboy can let himself be free to express his cooped up anger and vulnerability; furthermore, Ponyboy again has a scary dream when the hospitalized Johnny is on the brink of death. Harry Potter also experiences another great loss with the death of Sirius, but unlike Ponyboy or Holden, Harry does not hold back his feelings, as seen when he shouts at the esteemed headmaster, Dumbledore. Again, he lets out his anger toward his friends when they do not communicate with him throughout the summer. Novelist Barbara Shoup explains that one of the driving forces behind a young adult novel is that it is includes “real people with real problems” (2 of 3). Within The Catcher in the Rye, The Outsiders, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, three very real adolescents are confronted with one very real problem: isolation. “As a transitional stage of human development, adolescence is the period in which a child matures into an adult,” and regrettably, Holden, Ponyboy, and Harry, mature into adults with memories of severe hardship and isolation (“Adolescence” 1 of 1).
Chapter V: “The difficulties of life are intended to make us better, not bitter.”
The reader has seen several different types of isolation which span a period of approximately 2300 years. In Brave New World and Grendel, the isolation encountered is situational as John the Savage and Grendel are victims of their time. Later, the reader recognizes the familial isolation within Hamlet and The Awakening as Hamlet muddles through the recent death of his father and the tyranny of his uncle and as Edna isolates herself from her family “to find herself” and to pursue personal desires. Finally, the reader empathizes with the adolescent male who endures isolation within The Catcher in the Rye, The Outsiders, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Holden unsuccessfully tries to cope with the death of his brother, Allie, and the nostalgia that incessantly plagues him. Similarly, Ponyboy also deals with the loss of his parents as well as the social isolation of being a Greaser. Lastly, Harry suffers from the anguish of being isolated from the magic community, the death of his godfather, and the inability of others to really understand his feelings. In each case, the characters deal with the anguish, madness, and vulnerability that each isolation scenario brings. Moreover, in culture today, the reader can see parallel and unfavorable results of isolation.
Within society today, isolation is more prevalent than ever before. From certain melancholic, independent music to disorders such as depression, the crippling effect of isolation is widespread in today’s culture. Nevertheless, isolation does not have to be seen as a solely negative condition. In fact, isolation in time brings forth several positive attributes as well. In Grendel, for instance, the monster, amidst all his madness and self-pity, finds his purpose in life: to be the keeper of balance between goodness and evil. Hamlet, on the other hand, accomplishes avenging his father by killing Claudius. Ponyboy, after all the uncertainty of being isolated from the greasers and the anguish of Johnny’s death, realizes the importance of “staying gold” (Hinton 178). And Harry Potter, now completely detached from any form of family, realizes the significance of friendship.
Today’s generation embraces isolation more than any generation before. Society no longer insists that a person should be associated romantically with someone else. Case in point, marriage is the union society once deemed as necessary and common. Albeit this familiar view, psychologist Jillian Straus reports
…that hard demographic fact is rapidly turning singlehood into a satisfying destination rather than an anxiety-ridden way station, a sign of independence rather than a mark of shame, an opportunity
to develop a variety of relationships rather than a demand to stuff all one's emotional eggs into one basket. …Individuals are finding singlehood preferable to being in an unsatisfactory relationship. In fact, the possibility of singlehood as a viable life path throws into high relief a finding that is slowly emerging from mountains of social science data—that neither the coupled nor uncoupled life is an automatic ticket to bliss; much depends on the achievement of meaningful life goals and quality of the relationships you create. (1 of 2)
John Maxwell’s idea “The difficulties of life are intended to make us better, not bitter” is a viable summary for conclusion of the six novels that have been analyzed. For the most part, many of the characters who undergo madness, anguish, and vulnerability as effects of isolation eventually realize an appropriate ending to their story. Though nowadays it seems that our society is one of instant gratification, the trials and tribulations that one endures strengthen and make him that much more grateful. In the core of it all, the ultimate fruit is that much sweeter.
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