Olivia Duong
English 10­1 The Progression of Isolation
Rudyard Kipling sai d, “We're all islands shouting lies to each other across seas of misunderstanding.”In Elizabeth Brewster’s “Jamie”, Jamie’s perception of the people around him starts with misunderstanding what they think, causing paranoia. As a result, he isolates himself. Confusion ensues when Jamie stops hearing the people around him . This eventually leads to him making up voices of scorn and pity . Those who feel alienated may materialize hostile thoughts towards themselves in attempt to put themselves in the position of the victim.
Jamie cannot accept that life is unfair as he sees that everyone is moving on with their lives and are living happily, while he remains trapped in his lonely routine. This also happens because when people are surrounded by their own thoughts, they tend to become very sensitive and any possible, negative action done by the people around them is magnified to the point where they feel unsafe and paranoid. Jamie does so when he “dives into people’s eyes and [drags] up sneers”
(13) as a result of his hyper­reactivity. Seeing himself as the victim, Jamie uses this as an excuse for directing his anger at those around him. This reinforces the insecure view on himself, as he cannot come to the acceptance of his disability and fault in his own isolation.
Paranoia, along with constant isolation, can challenge people’s mental soundness, as shown in “Jamie”.This is also shown in our own society, through prisons with solitary confinement. This method of rehabilitation has countless cases of individuals, separated from most human contact, who become obsessive over certain things or in worse cases, have suicidal thoughts. Jamie is “sore with the hunger for company among the people,”(21) as humans have the natural instinct of re