How is the theme of isolation represented in English literature?

Answer 1

This is the topic of an my IB Extended Essay, and something that I too am struggling on. So far, the themes of isolation that I have picked up on are the concepts of love and racism, though I am actively looking for more. John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice and Men' looks closely at the isolation of the itinerant workers, of women at the time (conversely useful as an aspect of isolation through love) and the isolation of Crooks as a consequence of the casual racisim; it is expected for him to be isolated from society. Toson Shimazaki's novel "The Broken Commandment" also looks closely at racism, but of a different sort. This book, rather than the casual racism that John Steinbeck investigates, looks at segregation in different areas of Japanese society who are actively discriminated against, and , rather than accepting fate as a lower class citizen, the author demonstrates that these 'eta' can be normal, and in the case of the protagonist is better than normal members of the society. There is an active use of racism, and rather than the use of racist terms like 'Of Mice and Men', the broken commandment shows an attack on the very nature of the people discriminated against. Further suggested reading on this topic would be another Japanese text, 'kokoro' (Heart) by Natsume Soseki. This novel looks at the lonliness of one of the major characters (Sensei) and his isolation from society due to cultural aspects- he feels he should isolate himself because of the impact that he has had on others and the guilt that he now feels. The story follows the unamed protagonist in his idolisation of Sensei's character and his slow descent into isolation himself. In desperation to learn more about Sensei, he forgets about the other important aspects of life and in a sense begins to become like Sensei. Sensei is, in the very sense of the word, the narrator's teacher in the ways of the world and one can only assume that the emotional ending is Sensei's last lesson to the narrator on life; a beckoning of change to the way he responds. I am looking further into inclusion of J.D Salinger's 'The Catcher in the Rye'. It is proving a difficult text to crack, but so far there is a critique of the treatment of women (Sunny the prostitute) which is comparative to 'Of Mice and Men', but I have yet to find much more. As for all the texts combined, there are numerous references to isolation through the settings and descriptions of the lives of the characters, and representation of women in the Japanese texts which will give an interesting insight into the cultural differences from literature, but unfortunately I cannot post all of my ideas. Not being a member, I can only post with anonymity- I don't particularly want to be accused of plagiarism when it comes to submitting this essay after all!