Human is a social creature, with one of our basic needs being in communication. The story tells us how essential the need is and how total loneliness leads to the trance of anxiety, fear and delusion. The narrative is supported by a number of symbols, monologues and the overall atmosphere of mystical desolation. For the main character it seems that people have just been here: he finds a lit cigarette, a tap turned on, etc. Running around the solitary island of his consciousness, he feels as if the last man on Earth. Thus, the story sends a message of our craving the presence of other humans and our fear of not seeing this presence.
One of the symbols present throughout the story is closing doors. They close by themselves, threatening the character with spatial desolation in addition to the social one. They represent the desolation being a trap for the protagonist. Unpleasant, restricting and limiting. Not being able to move communicatively is re-interpreted as not being able to move at all, only within small distances of a trap – one’s solitude of one’s mind. Firstly, the protagonist is trapped in a phone cabin not larger than his body, and then – in a jail cell. Also, closing doors represent that there is no one open to communicate. Despite all the searches, there is no soul to talk to, to open up to. Closed door is a barrier to freedom and fulfillment, a restricting symbol of closed possibilities.
Another symbol, which is met in the story, is the eye. It is present on the optometrist’s shop window, suggesting it has simply a representative function. However, it bears the meaning of being watched. Wide-open, it supports the protagonist’s suspicion of being watched. The eye has always been a symbol of some kind of control from the above. Even the ancient cultures used the sign in their religious pictures, including the Egyptians, Greeks, Christians, etc. Be it a supernatural observer or simply cameras placed all around, the feeling of being watched often accompanies us even in our everyday life. With all the conspiracy theories, media coverage and dystopian trends combined, the feeling is difficult to escape. However, in terms of religion, it also implies some hope that we are not alone. For the protagonist the hope was also present, though the representation of it was harrowing and depressing. Surveillance is a form of communicative interaction, at times protective though unsolicited.
Feeling as if in some wonderland, the man tries to convince himself he was in a dream. One of the phrases he utters, “I wish there was some noise to wake me up,” implies deep meaning. His dream is his loneliness. “Noise” is human voices, laughs, the sounds of people’s hustle. In its figurative meaning, it says that without basic human interaction, one is asleep. Of course, one can be alone or even lonely for some time, but if it is taken to the edge, it is unnatural. One then loses skills, needed for social activity and movement. One then resembles a lake with still water. All the accumulated energy stays within a person, with no stimulating exchange. This social energy that needs constant movement makes a person feel unwell and separated. As if everything around was interconnected, alive and moving, whereas the person is a monument of tinned energy, not moving and not participating, thus asleep. The only thing capable of waking up the person is natural interaction, which is referred to as “noise.”
Following with the topic of the situation being a dream, the character also postulates, “I’m in a middle of a nightmare I can’t wake up from, and you’re part of it.” The dream has become a nightmare. If at first loneliness can be healing, the longer one remains in such position, the more burdening and tiresome it becomes. However, it is not the position that rules the person; it is the person who rules the position. We ourselves create our image, status, decide upon social and communicative mobility. We may be restricted by some complexes, beliefs or peculiarities of our social background, yet if we crave change, we are in the power of making it. Human ambition and determination are influential factors, which lead us to living a dream and leaving the nightmare. The person you see in the mirror is an inexhaustible source for inspiration, motivation and achievement, yet positive or negative is for you to decide.
Various social behaviors, patterns, situations and challenges are essential for us as human beings. From our first days, we are surrounded by people; we hear their noises and get greatly attached to them. It is natural for us to thrive from communicative tensions, contacts and cooperation, though the dosage for each person is individual. When such phenomena are absent from our life, we fall into the embrace of loneliness, at times too absorbing in their desperateness. Both the loneliness and communication may make a person insane, if there is no healthy balance. Nonetheless, it seems that people are more afraid of eternal loneliness than eternal communication. If we have no one to talk to, we start talking to ourselves, with our thoughts, uttered words, writings, paintings, music, etc. Moreover, we seek for someone to talk to everywhere, at times outside our own planet. But even after breaking the last frontier, in the end of a day each of us is still left with oneself, so perhaps the true last barrier is our mind and its fear of loneliness, but not the absence of communication.
Works cited
“Where’s Everyone?” The Twilight Zone. CBS, New York. 2 Oct. 1959. Television.
