Loneliness is a deadly emotion, it brings about desires within us that we are not even aware that we have. In Langston Hughes’ “The Gun” Flora Belle discovers just how desperate an emotion loneliness is. From the constant moving to buying a gun, Flora Belle’s ultimate desire is to have the loneliness taken away. In her search she is really seeking is a savior, someone to pull her from the pit that is her bleak emotion. Flora Bell finds her savior, not in a person but, in the cold black steel of a pistol.
Flora Belle is haunted by loneliness. She starts her life with no other companionship outside of her parents. As she grows up in a small, white town, she feels isolated by her skin color and ugliness, “nobody so much as winked at Flora Belle”, …show more content…
It acts as a shield from her ever having to deal with loneliness again. All she would have to do to feel comfort is hold the metal in her hands. If that isn’t enough, she can pull the trigger and never have to feel alone again. Such a simple solution it serves for the one thing that lived in her bones for so long. With the gun at her side, she even finds it easier to laugh and interact with others. Her savior has freed her.
How sad that Flora Belle’s hope and joy stems from the cold touch of an inanimate object. The gun will never return her affections. The gun won’t truly save her from anything other the idea of having to suffer with no end. She freed herself by thinking differently and by reaching out to others in a way that allowed her to remain true to herself. The gun is just a gun, cold, unfeeling and unchanging.
Breed in lonely environment, raised in lonely world, trapped in loneliness Flora Belle searches for a way out. From town to town she looks in churches, parties and homes for a warm hand to take her hollowness and fill it with their presence. Instead of finding comfort in the warmth of flesh, she finds her savior in the chill of steel. Finally, Flora Belle is
Flora Belle is haunted by loneliness. She starts her life with no other companionship outside of her parents. As she grows up in a small, white town, she feels isolated by her skin color and ugliness, “nobody so much as winked at Flora Belle”, …show more content…
It acts as a shield from her ever having to deal with loneliness again. All she would have to do to feel comfort is hold the metal in her hands. If that isn’t enough, she can pull the trigger and never have to feel alone again. Such a simple solution it serves for the one thing that lived in her bones for so long. With the gun at her side, she even finds it easier to laugh and interact with others. Her savior has freed her.
How sad that Flora Belle’s hope and joy stems from the cold touch of an inanimate object. The gun will never return her affections. The gun won’t truly save her from anything other the idea of having to suffer with no end. She freed herself by thinking differently and by reaching out to others in a way that allowed her to remain true to herself. The gun is just a gun, cold, unfeeling and unchanging.
Breed in lonely environment, raised in lonely world, trapped in loneliness Flora Belle searches for a way out. From town to town she looks in churches, parties and homes for a warm hand to take her hollowness and fill it with their presence. Instead of finding comfort in the warmth of flesh, she finds her savior in the chill of steel. Finally, Flora Belle is