Loneliness and Isolation in Baldwin’s, Here be Dragons :: Here Dragons

Loneliness and Isolation in Baldwins, Here be Dragons I am non a targeted minority and I have never entangle discriminated against, but I certainly have found my self weighed down, unable to keep up, in the constant rush and roar that is our society. I have matt-up isolated and left behind by everything around me, and this utter loneliness is not something that is easy to deal with. This loneliness inevitably turns to self-hatred as I ask myself why I cant keep pace with everyone else when they seem to be doing just fine? Reading James Baldwin has reminded me that Im not alone, and that there are many ways to deal with the isolation one feels within society. For some, struggling to keep afloat in the mainstream as it rushes on is the most comprehensible way, but for others, like Baldwin, its easier to simply get out of the water and walk along the bank at his own elect pace. In Baldwins Here be Dragons he addresses the issues of loneliness and isolation in many ways. In the end, he comes to the conclusion that everyone has a develop of everyone else inner(a) of him or her, much like a yin yang we are all androgynousbecause each of us, helplessly and forever, contains the other-male in female, female in male, white in dense and black in white. We are a part of each other(160). If we are all a part of each other, then we do not need to try to keep up with the current of society to stay connected with the world. We can go wherever we please, whenever and however, and never have to fear the pass of the vital links that keep humans human. In the beginning of his story Baldwin speaks of his young adolescence during which various men constantly take advantage of him. In this part of life he speaks much of loneliness. First, as he talks about those who are literally androgynous, containing male and female parts, he guesses at the all-but-intolerable loneliness(150) that they mustiness feel at not being able to find love by being themselves for fear of humilia tion at being so different. Later, he tells of his many encounters with men that appeared to be stereotypical American citizens looking like cops, football players, soldiersor bank presidentsconstruction workers(153). These men would accost Baldwin in calamitous movie theaters and in the alleys at night begging or bullying him to take them to bed.