Love as a theme in literature has a long history, and love can be treated in a variety of ways according to the view of the writer and the nature of the time in which the work is written. Love is treated differently in a short story by the Southern writer Carson McCullers and in a play by Nigerian poet and playwright Wole Soyinka.
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 implication is that he is not certain how he got there as he drifts between sleep and wakening:
John Ferris awoke in a room in a New York hotel. He had the feeling that something unpleasant was awaiting him--what it was, he did not know (McCullers 292).
The unpleasantness he seems to foresee might be his meeting with his ex-wife, or the dinner he has with her and her husband, but in fact it seems to be that this day is Ferris's birthday and he has forgotte...