Isolation

Loneliness and isolation often times, go hand in hand with each other. Sometimes they are part of a cycle that leads back and forth into one another. Perhaps people get lonesome because they are isolated from others; or, due to sadness they isolate themselves from the world. Themes of loneliness and isolation are all evident in these three works, the short story, “Love Medicine,” and the poems, “l(a,” and “This is Just to Say.”

At first glance, the poem, “l(a,” is confusing. When I first opened my book to this poem, I was dumbfounded. After pondering what was possibly going through E.E. Cummings’ mind when he wrote this, I stumbled across an idea—to write out what I am seeing. Only then did I realize that he wrote, “loneliness,” and, “a leaf falls.” The above-mentioned themes, loneliness and isolation, are much present in this poem. When I envision a leaf falling, I usually picture a single leaf, falling slowly, tumbling left and right as the wind hits it. To me, this is an image of isolation. Also, the layout of this poem isolates the letters. Some lines have one or two letters, but no more than five are on a single line. This is also another form of isolation. (And loneliness is obviously evident due to it being one of the few words actually written.)

The poem, “This is Just to Say,” was written to ask for forgiveness because the speaker ate someone’s plums. While loneliness is not as strongly evident in this poem, the theme of isolation is. Looking at the layout of this poem, again, we have very isolated lines—having at most three words per line. Perhaps this poem was written as an alternative to confrontation, thereby isolating, or distancing, the speaker from the owner of the plums.

Another important theme that is greatly portrayed in, “This is Just to Say,” and also in, “Love Medicine,” is temptation. In the poem, the speaker gave into his temptation and ate the plums. He says, “Forgive me/ they were delicious/ so sweet/ and so cold.” In the short story, the grandpa has an affair, which brought him farther and farther away from his wife. In desperation, the wife tries to bring him back to her by using a sort of love potion. His affair (and also his mental illness) isolated him from his wife. And at the same time, her desire to win him back, back fired and isolated her from him because he died, and therefore making her lonely. The last stanza of the poem almost sounds like a plea—forgive me, I couldn’t help myself, they were so perfect. Perhaps out of embarrassment for his temptation, he distances himself from the plum owner.

These two works are great examples of how temptation, loneliness, and isolation are all interrelated. It refers back to the notion that everything in the world—nature and people—are interconnected. Likewise, emotions are connected. Perhaps if the grandma in, “Love Medicine,” did not strongly desire her husband to be 100 percent in love with her, then she would not have ended up so lonely in the end.