Two Treatments of Love in Literature

In her short story "Sojourner," Carson McCullers presents a character for whom love is a nearly alien concept, though he does not seem aware of the fact. He has failed to find love because he lives on his own, doing what he wants and going where he wants. He selects the name "Sojourner" for himself, meaning a person who stays only temporarily. This is the mode of life selected by John Ferris, a reporter who is also living in Paris. The significance of his designation as sojourner is emphasized by the fact that this is the title of the story, and it is his reality as a sojourner that suggests aspects of his psychology and that helps explain his failed relationships, for he is always passing through on his way somewhere else.

Indeed, he seems not to belong anywhere in particular, and he has given up his life in America for the life of an expatriate in Paris, though he professes to hate the word "expatriate" and prefers "sojourner." He in fact seems uncomfortable in the world as a whole and so live largely in his own mental world, barely connecting with those outside that world. Early in the story, he wakes up in a hotel room, and the implica

. . .
instead the first voice of the fugue Elizabeth had played--it came to him, inverted mockingly and in a minor key. Suspended above the ocean the anxieties of transience and solitude no longer troubled him and he thought of his father's death with equanimity (McCullers 300). It is significant that the voice form the fugue is inverted for Ferris, for his life has been upside down and "in a minor key" to this time. He may believe he can change this situation, but it may be that he cannot. He rushes home to see Jeannine, but she is not there--she is singing in a nightclub, and only her son, Valentin, is home. Ferris begins trying to make the lies he told Elizabeth into truth--he said he often took Valentin to the Tuileries, when in fact he had only done so once. Now, he suggests to the boy that they will go to the Tuileries soon. The boy brings up Ferris's father, and rather than answer, Ferris hides his own shame and fear by talking again of the Tuileries, telling the boy all that they will do and see. One of the things he mentions is the guignol, and the boy says, "The guignol is now closed," which leads Ferris once more to the realization of his own mortality and his own fear, both of which could be assuaged by love if he kne
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Elizabeth Bailey, John Ferris, Sheffield Cambridge, Lakunle Sidi, Valentin Tuileries, Sidi Baroka, Carson McCullers, Elizabeth Ferris's, Lakunle Soyinka, , society lakunle, wole soyinka, visit ex-wife, mister lakunle, community lakunle, carson mccullers, birthday forgotten, story sojourner, indicated story, john ferris,
Approximate Word count = 2754
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Two Treatments of Love in Literature