Many individuals find themselves socially and mentally isolated from others due to their ideals and state of mind that contradict society’s beliefs, which leave them unable to relate or communicate with others. Du Bois’s short story, “Of the Coming of John”, tells a fictional tale of a colored black man living during a time when the Jim Crow system of oppression was prominent. This naive man, John Jones, leaves his southern home in Altamaha to pursue an education up north, but quickly notices the cultural divide and opportunity differences caused by the systemic oppression and segregation of the country. After absorbing that information and realizing that potential, he returns back home, but finds himself detached and unable to connect with
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The story speaks about an incident that leaves Funes maimed and he developes a photographic memory. After that night, Funes can no longer see or hear anything in the world that the common person would be able to do. In both, W.E.B. Du Bois’s, “Of the Coming of John” and Jorge Luis Borges’, “Funes, His Memory”, the protagonists are mentally isolated due to their conform back into an environment that they were once accustomed to, due to their inability to communicate with people from that context. In “Of the Coming of John”, John Jones leaves his hometown and is introduced to a new and more advanced way of life, but can’t can no longer think like the townspeople, while in “Funes, His Memory”, Funes experiences a life changing accident that leaves him with a photographic memory and the inability to relate to others who don’t possess his …show more content…
In Du Bois’s story, John returns to Altamaha and is greeted by the town, but finds it literally difficult to communicate with the townspeople. While he was telling the people of his discoveries when he was in the north he used a higher level of vocabulary than the people, for, “little had they known of what he said, for he spoke an unknown tongue” (Du Bois 170). Not only does the townsfolk not understand him, but, “John never knew clearly what the old man said” (Du Bois 171). Their inability to communicate with one another shows that while John was away, he became more educated on how to speak properly to the point where he can’t even recognized his own people’s vernacular. In Borges’ story, Funes’ exceptional memory and inability to relate to ideas that normal people can allows him to invent a new system that complies with his peculiar way of thinking. The only issue with this system he develops is that it doesn’t help him interact with others. That becomes known when the narrator, “tried to explain to Funes that his rhapsody of unconnected words were exactly the opposite of a number system… Funes either could not not or would not understand me” (Borges 136). If anything, the new method of identifying every specimen and object further disconnects Funes from other people. After a substantial change in both John and Funes’ intellection, they can no longer
The story speaks about an incident that leaves Funes maimed and he developes a photographic memory. After that night, Funes can no longer see or hear anything in the world that the common person would be able to do. In both, W.E.B. Du Bois’s, “Of the Coming of John” and Jorge Luis Borges’, “Funes, His Memory”, the protagonists are mentally isolated due to their conform back into an environment that they were once accustomed to, due to their inability to communicate with people from that context. In “Of the Coming of John”, John Jones leaves his hometown and is introduced to a new and more advanced way of life, but can’t can no longer think like the townspeople, while in “Funes, His Memory”, Funes experiences a life changing accident that leaves him with a photographic memory and the inability to relate to others who don’t possess his …show more content…
In Du Bois’s story, John returns to Altamaha and is greeted by the town, but finds it literally difficult to communicate with the townspeople. While he was telling the people of his discoveries when he was in the north he used a higher level of vocabulary than the people, for, “little had they known of what he said, for he spoke an unknown tongue” (Du Bois 170). Not only does the townsfolk not understand him, but, “John never knew clearly what the old man said” (Du Bois 171). Their inability to communicate with one another shows that while John was away, he became more educated on how to speak properly to the point where he can’t even recognized his own people’s vernacular. In Borges’ story, Funes’ exceptional memory and inability to relate to ideas that normal people can allows him to invent a new system that complies with his peculiar way of thinking. The only issue with this system he develops is that it doesn’t help him interact with others. That becomes known when the narrator, “tried to explain to Funes that his rhapsody of unconnected words were exactly the opposite of a number system… Funes either could not not or would not understand me” (Borges 136). If anything, the new method of identifying every specimen and object further disconnects Funes from other people. After a substantial change in both John and Funes’ intellection, they can no longer