Loneliness in a Croweded Town

In class discussions, almost all of the stories have been discussed, except for the story of “Loneliness”. I thought that it was very interesting that this story was never discussed in great detail during the discussions, but I can see why. The story itself seems to have no real connection to the rest of the story as a whole at first, and also the main character, George Willard, is only mentioned one time. But the story of “Loneliness” shows the resounding themes that everyone in the story relates to, being lonely and finding a place for themselves. It also helps show how key George is to the other characters in the story, and how he helps them and learns to understand them all.

Enoch, like the rest of the characters in the story, feels this lonely sense of not belonging, although he tries to acknowledge societies expectation of him, he cannot grasp the norms. He was very proud of himself when he “became a citizen of the world”, which is when he listened to society. Enoch voted, married, had children, and read the newspaper on his front porch, but this was not the life that he expected for himself. He became bored and claustrophobic with this life that he had created for himself, so he quite it. Many other characters were not satisfied with the lives that they had chosen for themselves, including Elizabeth, who married but not for love and Alice, who was continuously waiting for a man to show up, but never did. What is different is that he had the love that he thought he wanted, but in the end tossed it away. Many characters spend their entire lives waiting for their spouse, and he found one and just left her.

Enoch follows his own path for fitting into society though and makes up his imaginary friends. Society did not give him a proper group to fit into so he made his own. He dreamed, and the result was a group of close, but imaginary friends. He tries to take his fantasy world and bring it into the real world when he tells his next door neighbor, but as soon as he professes his dreams to her, his friends vanish. This contradicts what is stated about dreams in the rest of the story though. Dreams should be kept and followed through. As soon as he spreads his dream and tells another person, they vanish and he never sees his “friends” again. Dreams do not exist in the real world of Enoch.  

            Enoch also had dreams about his future, like many other characters within the story, but they were quickly crushed by life. Enoch wanted to go to Paris to become an artist, but this did not turn out well and that is why he moved to Winesburg. Although he was a very good artist, this dream was crushed. Elizabeth did not want the same thing happening to George and that is why she wanted him to keep dreaming. Wing also encouraged George to keep dreaming, although they could be quickly crushed.

            Enoch also goes to talk about these occurrences with George. George is a young boy, who everyone is trying to save from becoming a grotesque. Enoch can be characterized as one of the loneliest people in this story, and by telling George his story; he can try and prevent George from becoming like him. He does not want George to become as lonely and as desperate for a place to fit in as he is.

            Loneliness is a very important story and shows how lonely almost all the characters are in one single and unified character. Every character has their own reason for being lonely, but when Enoch tries to bring his fantasies into the real world, that is when he becomes completely alone.