Theme Of Isolation In Lusus Naturae

A major theme in short stories is isolation. In “Lusus Naturae” by Margaret Atwood and “Recitatif” by Toni Morrison illustrates the theme of physical isolation. Robert Carver shows the narrators isolation is self-inflected in the story “Cathedral”. Self-inflected isolation is also displayed in “Lusus Naturae”. The narrator of the story “Lusus Naturae” had the disease Porphyria causing visible signs that resemble a monster appearance. She also explained that her father once held her in his arms but now she sits on the other side of the table although the hurt her feelings. The family kept her away from others outside of the family. Her grandmother had even gone to the extreme of putting garlic cloves around the door frame. The family …show more content…
His wife expressed that he has no friends. He admitted that, “Every night I smoke dope and stayed up as long as I could before I fall asleep” (Carver 39). He is judgmental when his wife told him that Roberts’s wife name was Beulah he assumed that she was black. His preconceived ideas that blind people do not smoke or have beards come from him forming his option that they are not normal people. The narrator shows additional isolation when his wife and Robert are talking over old times. He sat and listened mostly except to interact occasionally so that they know he was still there. The final act of isolation for the narrator is when he was drawing the cathedral with closed his eyes and continued to keep them closed for a bit after he had finished. He choose to continue to keep his eyes closed at that moment to isolate …show more content…
After her grandmother and fathers death she started to explore. The narrator stated that she would come out during the night hours due to the light harming her eyes. After her mother sold the house the narrator explained, “During the packing-up and the sale of our furniture I spent the days inside a hayrack” (Atwood 235). Although the narrator felt a sense of freedom after her mother moved away she was curious of others. She referred to herself as an apparition. She hid in the brambles and watched people. It is when she decided not to continue to stay hidden is when her isolation ended and the town villagers came to kill her. In the story “Racitatif”, Twyla and Roberta stayed away from the other girls in the children’s shelter. The staff tried to keep them apart due to, “The big girls on the second floor pushed us around now and then” (Morrison 292). The narrator admitted that they were scared of the older girls. When the girls’ mothers came for a visit with their daughters the mothers separated the girls due to their personal opinion on the