In a world obsessed with so much technology, it is fairly easy to get sucked into electronic devices, social media and virtual networking. This has not only affected our interpersonal relationships, but our relationship with the written word as well. There are many people that could not even tell you the last time that they picked up a book. It seems as though in our busyness and with our hectic lifestyles that we have lost a certain level of companionship and intimacy that we once had with one another and with the world. Literature and/or reading, has always had the ability to transport us into new worlds, times, places and settings while introducing us to new people, smells and experiences regardless of how mundane or uneventful our day was. It has, however, become the accepted norm to transform into a human vegetable at the end of the day in front of the television, rather than dust off our antique rectangular relics and put them to good use. Harold Bloom could not explain literature’s spectacular ability to affect one relationally any better than with the following, “[Literature] returns you to otherness, whether in yourself or in friends, or in those who may become friends. Imaginative literature is otherness, and as such alleviates loneliness.” [Harold Bloom, How to Read and Why 19 (New York: Scribner, 2000)] This quote adequately summarizes how through literature we are able to find a sense of fulfillment, form bonds with characters (even though they are fictitious), and experience contentment and happiness when we are lonely. It is the ability to take these imaginary bonds with these fictitious characters (as well as often the author) and apply what knowledge and peculiarities we glean from them to our own real life relationships to make them more fulfilling.
So what is Bloom trying to say? What is this ‘otherness’ that he speaks of and why is it so important? Otherness is simply the act of not existing alone. He tells us specifically that it alleviates loneliness, so this concept of otherness has to be a feeling much like loneliness is. If loneliness is the feeling of being alone, then one could very well say that otherness is the feeling of being with others. This state of otherness created through literature leads to discovery not only in ourselves, but in others as well. Bloom states that, “literature is otherness,” [Harold Bloom, How to Read and Why 19 (New York: Scribner, 2000)] well because it most certainly is. As the reader we get to see so many things that we normally don’t get to in our day to day life. We hear their personal thoughts, experience with them the rollercoaster of emotions that they struggle with.we get to experience every facet of the character. This is not typical of the large majority of human adult relationships. We hide our feelings and often only show one side of ourselves to the world. We prefer to experience what we believe to be ugly emotions on our own so as not to inconvenience others and alter the image of ourselves that they have constructed in their minds. This type of suffering and lack of communication only further propels one’s loneliness. It is, however, very lucky for us that otherness may quickly be found in only a few turns of the page.
Without any form of communication we are simply individuals co-existing in this great big world of ours. No relationships would be formed, no birthdays, anniversaries or even marriages for that matter would be celebrated. The individual would be the center of everything. Let that sink in.that would be completely and utterly devastating and not the sort of world I would want to live in at all! I wholeheartedly concur with Mr. Bloom’s statement. Imaginative literature is the very essence of otherness, for without it we wouldn’t be able to explore and discover new thoughts and ideas that we more than likely would not have otherwise stumbled upon. The otherness found in literature not only alleviates loneliness as Mr. Bloom suggested, but also educates its reader on conditions of the human heart and spirit, and captivates starving minds that have hungered for a food that they had, until then, never found.
Upon further investigation I have discovered that all of the stories that we have discussed in class share not only similar themes, but tremendously similar characters as well. We have four short stories with four women sharing very similar qualities: loneliness and unhealthy relationships with the men in their lives. The authors bring us to empathize with these characters, to experience their struggles, because the reader has at some point in time experienced this very same loneliness themselves. The unnamed homemaker in The Yellow Wallpaper is neglected and treated almost child-like by her husband, while Mrs. Louise Mallard in The Story of an Hour was expected to live her life serving her husband. Jig in Hills Like White Elephants seemed overly dependent upon the affection of her lover and was seemingly willing to abort a child all for the sake of a man’s happiness. Finally, Miss Emily Grierson in A Rose for Emily, (who potentially had an incestuous relationship with her father), took her loneliness to such an extreme so as to murder her love interest so he wouldn’t leave her. It is perhaps the absence of these characters’ otherness, as well as their apparent weakness concerning men, that unite all of these women and demonstrate to we readers just how destructive loneliness can actually be.
Otherness is not a trivial concept. It is not merely a word, on a page, in a book, on a shelf. Otherness is a state of being, a feeling, a condition, which makes it important to our very existence as human beings. The wonderful thing is that this otherness can easily be attained through the channels of literature. Of course, experiencing otherness through interpersonal bonds is irreplaceable, however human relationships are not static, they are constantly changing and often time coming to an abrupt end. This is where literature will not fail its audienceliterature is fixed and will always remain the same. It will never leave one, will always offer companionship and the otherness that so many of quietly and constantly crave.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour”. Virginia Commonwealth University. n.p. n.d Web.
Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily”. American Studies at the University of Virginia.
n.p. n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.
Hemingway, Ernest. “Hills Like White Elephants”. Charters, Ann, Ed.
The Story and its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. 6th Ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003. Massey University of New Zealand. n.p. n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.
Perkins Gilman, Charlotte. “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Project Gutenburg.
n.p. 25 Nov. 2008. Web. 13 Dec. 2014
