In the poem, the strange house is depicted as bearing shame for its gothic appearance. Moreover, there is an observer beneath the waters looking keenly in expectation of something to happen in or around the house. The writer likens the house to a person being accused of having done something wrong and hence is isolated and lonely. He actually notes that the “house must have done something horrible to the people who once lived there”. Although there is no proof that the individual being symbolically depicted as the house had done anything wrong, it seems that he had been totally abandoned. Nevertheless, there remains traces of a stranger who keeps visiting the house as depicted in the single pair of tracks. It turns out that the stranger is a man who as the house comes to suspects, is also desolate. Although the sky and the vegetation seems to have abandoned the house, this man becomes its salvation, bringing hope in the form of repainting the house and restoring its lost glow. It seems that the man brought hope to the abandoned person in question and gave them a second chance at life, as depicted in the statement that “again and can no longer stand it”.
In the little stroke by Eudora Welty, the same idea of isolation recurs in the literary piece of work. The mother of the narrator is portrayed to do all the house work single handily except for errands into the little shop where she would ask for assistance. The work includes milking the cow, doing household chores and cooking for the family the little store is also described with aspects of isolation where the narrator remarks that “it was located around the corner, towards the cemetery”. Moreover, the little store stood out as it lacked backyard or any vegetation such as trees or flowers. The building is described to have an outstanding emptiness and lack of beauty as its frames were “plain covered over with brick”.
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As the narrator tells of the little store, she makes mention of the isolation experienced during childhood. As she puts it, a child feels indelible from the world as they feel that everything is alright with them. Nevertheless, the child later comes to realise that they reverse was true in that they were not indelible but rather the adults were making themselves indelible to them. Further ahead, the narrator takes the reader through the little store describing the various aspects that uniquely characterised the little store. One of the aspects is the smells that came from the store that seemed totally obscured from the sun. The various smells are described including the smell of dill pickle brine that had leaked, smell of still entrapped mice, liquorice recently sucked into a child’s cheek and so on. The dilapidation in the store seems apparent to the reader in the same manner that the old house in the poem appears. Nevertheless, the little store seems overloaded and heavily laden with commodities, products that made people to always visit the place. Moreover, the shopkeeper therein was friendly and never hurried anyone off as he gave them the freedom to choose the product they pleased. For the children, the little store held a special place in their hearts despite not favourite a place for most adults. The store was so endeared that the children had the perception that it was actually their possession.
Sadly, the narrator remarks that years later when she became an adult, little remains of the little store. She remarks with melancholy of the lack of any stories about the little store or its occupants. She seems apparently disappointed that despite all the generations that had lived and passed on oral narratives, none had been passed regarding the little store. Eventually, she remarks the isolation and the loneliness that the little store and its occupants had suffered despite being so kind and serving to the people that lived around it.
In the story by Richard ford, the object of discussion is home where the narrator begins by admitting the many times that he had been reminded to visit his home. He admits feeling a sense of longing for a home experience as he travels along the many urban centres musing about the many families that lived in the various houses that he captured in his sight. He eventually clarifies that a home does not necessarily mean a place that one was born but rather, the place they choose to live as it provides the, with the desired comfort. For him, such a place seemed not forthcoming as he travelled yonder in search for it. He describes the emptiness of living in a place that he never felt comfortable with to the point of making him feel isolated. Despite having spent a total of eight years at his present area of residence, his heart still longs for that tranquil home that authentically makes him feel like the man he was born. He explores various lands and seas but still, his heart finds no rest as his ideal home is nowhere to be found. He sadly remarks that home was “ever offshore, ever out of my reach, a place locked in a dream”.
Throughout the three pieces of literature, the recurrent theme is on isolation of things most dear to the narrators. In the poem, the house is endeared to the writer and he feels that he cannot watch it live in dilapidation anymore. Similarly, the little store forms unique memories for the narrator and makes her feel a longing for it despite that it is nowhere to be found. Likewise, the narrator of the Richard ford story describes his longing for home, a place of tranquillity that he never finds.
