The Effects of Loneliness essay

The book To Kill a Mockingbird depicts a great deal of loneliness. Many people, as well as, their experiences are examples of loneliness during the duration of the plot. One example of this loneliness would be Mrs. Dubose struggling with her Morphine addiction and not wanting to die. Mayella Ewell, another example of loneliness in the story, deals with some very different forms of the same problem, Mayella does not even know if her own father loves her or not, this is an obvious victim of loneliness. One final example of a person who deals with this problem would be most importantly Boo Radley who with his almost non-existence in the Maywood community, could very well the prime example of loneliness in the book and maybe even in life.

Mrs. Dubose at first presented herself in a way that portrayed the attitude of anger and hate. However, as the plot progresses the children find out the she really does care about how she presents herself and they see some of the struggles she faces. Sadly, though, this fact does not become apparent to the children until Mrs. Dubose dies. In the story Jem acts out against Mrs. Dubose’ hatful and racist remarks about his family, and his father in particular. When he knocks all of the flowers in her garden over, the children are required to visit her every day to read with her. She does this to keep her occupied while she is weaning herself off of her Morphine doses. Eventually she is able to quit with the help of the children. The real reason for her desire to quit was that she didn’t want to die addicted, so in other words, she cared what others thought about her. Also, she didn’t like the person she was as an addict because everyone was either scared of her or hated her and she just wanted to prevent herself from being alone.

My second example of loneliness would have to be none other than Mrs. Mayella Ewell. She is much different than Mrs. Dubose in the sense that she does not know what it is like to be loved and therefore does not strive for that feeling as Mrs. Dubose does. Mayella is a very neglected little girl who, as she states in court atTom’s Trial: she is not even sure if her own father loves her or not. Also, she does not even have any friends at school or in the community. So with this being said it is obvious that she spends most of her time inside the house. This makes it obvious to everyone else in the community just how lonely she really is. That is also one of the reasons that she may have taken advantage of Tom Robinson and, when he resisted, accused him of assaulting her.

One final example of loneliness is Boo Radley. He is a prime example of loneliness due to the fact that he has allowed his loneliness to destroy his entire social life and turn into fear. He can even be an example of loneliness in real life, because he can show people just how bad things can get if you leave feelings like that unanswered. Boo is worst than Mayella when it comes to constantly staying inside of the house. He stays in his house so much the children in Maywood have begun to create stories and rumors about him that are not at all true. Anyone who reads To Kill a Mockingbird will quickly find out just who good of a person Boo Radley really is. The reader will see how he tries to communicate with Jem and Scout by not actually confronting them by putting various items into a knothole in a tree by his house, as well as, how he eventually saves their lives. However, as the story progresses you see him begin to become more open and not be as afraid of people even though he is still very lonely.

There are many examples of loneliness throughout the book. There is Mrs. Dubose with her Morphine addiction, Mayella struggling with social and family neglect, and Boo Radley just being plain lonely and staying in his house. However, in addition to the story, loneliness can also be a powerful emotion in real life. There are lonely people who walk the streets everyday and unlike Boo Radley do not even have a home to live in. In other words, loneliness can eventually destroy are lives if choose not to do anything about or allow it to control us. That is exactly what most of these people mentioned in the story have done and exactly what people everyday in real life do daily. However, if we make an effort as Mrs. Dubose does, we can achieve more happiness than ever before.