Isolation

The narrator’s description of life in the town is heavily characterized by a sense of isolation, and in this way, the narrative seeks to illuminate salient causes and effects of loneliness specifically found in rural America. However, it is important to note that the narrative’s approach to isolation appears strongly connected with the narrator’s own sense of isolation, and thus the narrator’s characterizations of loneliness in the town may be influenced by his own experience. The narrator lives alone, aside from the company of his pet cat, and the narrator appears to heavily focus on this condition of his life. The narrator repeatedly mentions his state of isolation in his house, such as when he writes, “I rise and wander from room to room, up and down, gazing through most of my forty-one windows” (183). The narrator implicitly lives in a large house...