Isolation Of A Human Being

The short story "A Tree, a Rock, a Cloud" by Carson McCullers is about a man who lost the love of his life and ever sense he as a whole new aspect on the science of love. McCullers uses a idea known as philosophy in this book in help creating her book in a form of isolation. Isolation was used a lot in this short story.

This story takes place in a bar on a cold drizzy day. this tramp confronts to the newspaper boy about his "science of love", which he conceived after his wife had left him, in which created isolation.Isolation can be used as many different meanings. "The Man" was devastated when his wife had left him which caused him to be isolated from love since it had hurt him before. Ever since he was left alone the man has led himself to love things that cannot love back because he was so scared of what would happen if someone was to love him back. So he was being isolated from love since it had hurt him. After his old wife left him he couldn't get her off his mind, he was so depressed that he had lost a part of him. He was so lost without her that he decided to look for her all over the country. " I took a number of steps to get her back.

I went around trying to locate her. I went to Tulsa where she had folks. And to Mobile. I went to every town that she had mentioned to me, and I hunted down every man she had formerly been connected with. Tulsa, Atlanta, Chicago, Cheehaw, Memphis. ...

For the better part of two years I chased around the country trying to lay hold of her", he said. so at first the man was not isolated from love, in my opinion he was in his grieving stage before he would eventually give up and become isolated and start his own formula of love. Then, he mentions that when the third year came upon him something strange started happening to him. "At first I thought of only getting her back. It was kind of mania.

But then as time went on I tried to remember her." "When I laid down in bed and tried to think about her my mind became blank". At first you see "the man" was so depressed from his wife's departure, and he had to look everywhere for her, but as time went on he felt accustomed to the environment he was in and started to forget about her even when he tried to think about her he couldn't remember what she looked like. So was the man starting to become isolated from love or was he just getting comfortable to his environment?

The man was now making up his own formula for love and he said it started with " a Tree. a Rock. a Cloud." Then he bought a goldfish and he started to love the goldfish. " I graduated from one thing to the other." With that being said he was started to love things again so, I think that the story takes a bit of a turn on isolation. After his wife had left him he was so concerned and was scared to love, therefore he was trying to stay isolated from love, however, now he has came up with his own formula to where he is started to love, but he is very cautious with love he love things that cannot love him back. For instance, a goldfish all the goldfish does is swim around in a fish tank and a tree it just stands there same with a rock and a cloud so my question is was his isolation on loved moved over a bit to being isolated from women or to love women? " For six years now I have gone around by myself and built up my science.

And now I am a master. Son. I can love anything. No longer do I have to think about it even. I see a street full of people and a beautiful light comes in me. I watch a bird in the sky. Or I meet a traveler on the road." His formula was to love everything, but he wasn't giving anybody a chance to love him back you see. Then the boy asked the man, "Have you fallen in love with a woman again?" As the story goes on it said that the man turns away after that question for the first time and replies, "No, Son. You see that is the last step in my science. I go cautious. And I am not quite ready." As you can see basically the man was not ready to fall in love with a woman again, he was staying isolated from woman for now. Since he wasn't ready for that stage his complete science formula was not finished. " Remember I love you" said the man as he walked out the doors.

After that the boy did not talk for a long time finally he asked Leo, "Was he drunk?" After that the boy did not understand the whole story in my opinion and the man never gave a chance for the boy to say I love you too or anything. So the man stayed isolated from falling in love with a women.In conclusion, this short story was great. Since McCullers is a author who moves easily in the philosophical dimensions of her art, in which in this case was isolation. McCullers used isolation of a human being to experiment using gothic tradition. "The Man" was once devastated by the departure of his wife. He decided to stay away from women and start his own experiment on love and came up with his own formula and everything.

After reading this great short story, I wonder to myself if this story was to go on would the man find a woman and fall in love with her and no longer be isolated from women. It would be a great ending but with the way McCullers writes there was no way it was going to end up like that.