For English my class was assigned to read Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West. This book was written in 1933. Miss Lonelyhearts is not what it sounds like. First off, Miss Lonelyhearts is not even a female. Miss Lonelyhearts is an alias that an unidentified man goes under as part of the advice column that he writes for. Miss Lonelyhearts has to deal with other people's problems on a daily basis. This impairs his ability to lead a happy life. First he flirts with his boss's wife. He then breaks up with his fiance, and then sleeps with an unhappily married woman who wrote to him. The woman he slept with is married to a cripple who she claims is not a gentleman and that she only married him because she was pregnant. He then tells her that her husband probably loves her. However, he still ends up sleeping with her. He falls ill after this incident. His fiance heard that he is sick and comes to bring him soup. She asks him for the reason why he does not just quit and go into advertising. The reason he gives her is, because even if he does quit, the letters will always haunt him. His boss then comes and tells him to write to Christ like one of his writers would write to him. Miss Lonelyhearts is a character who expresses his religion in interesting ways. A few examples are 1- He took the ivory Christ of the crucifix and nailed it to the wall 2- He attempted to sacrifice a lamb to God. However, after trying to slaughter the lamb, the lamb escapes and he ends up having to put the lamb out of its misery, because it was cut by hitting its head on the rock. What is ironic is that his initial intention was to eat the lamb.
Now back to the soap opera part of the story. Miss Lonelyhearts then takes sick leave and goes to a house in the country with his fiance. It is there that he is temporarily able to escape the drama for a few days.However upon returning to his natural habitat he realizes that, he was right about not being able to escape the memories of the letters that he has read. This is realization is said to have been a relief. The reason being is that he felt like that he has been living a lie throughout the duration of the escape. He soon comes face to face with the husband of the married woman that he has slept with. The crippled husband comes to deliver a letter personally to Miss Lonelyhearts. The cripple eventually invites Miss Lonelyhearts over to his house. Upon the arrival of the two men, the cripple's wife automatically begins to flirt with Miss Lonelyhearts. The wife sends her husband out to the store to buy some gin. This is the perfect opportunity for the wife to continue her advances on Miss Lonelyhearts. He continues to ignore her advances until...she tries to assault him by sticking his head between her breasts. He responds in defense by hitting her in the face. His boss then invites him to a party where everything really catches up to him. His boss shows him off as a circus act and even has him read the letter that the cripple sent to him after the incident at his house. The letter says that his wife said that he tried to rape him. His fiance was at this party and runs away and is upset. He found her and tried to obtain her forgiveness and stated that he quit the Miss Lonelyhearts job. His fiance then tell him that she is pregnant and plans to have an abortion. He then asks her to marry him and convinces her to keep the baby. He even volunteers to go into advertising like his fiance suggested earlier. Miss Lonelyhearts has repented for his sins and finally gets his happy ending, or so we think. The cripple comes to meet Miss Lonelyhearts. Miss Lonelyhearts newly reformed decides to embrace the cripple. It turns out that the cripple had a gun on him, and they both fall down a flight of stairs after the gun shot.
I guess that everyone including me has past experiences that they cannot escape. When Miss Lonelyhearts said that he would never be able to escape the letters, I felt as if we shared the same brain. Despite the fact that many years have past since my childhood I seem to be unable to escape the traumatic experiences of my youth. I feel that this book was meant for people who are think like me. People who seem to never be able to get past the bad experiences in their lives and seem to make one mistake after another. This book is in no means a fairy tale. This book is more realistic by showing us that the past will always haunt us. Miss Lonelyhearts is not happy when he everything is good, because he feels that the happiness is artificial. This is a malady that I am faced with everyday. I am never happy, I have problems conforming to societal norms, because I feel that it is fake and feel like I am living a lie. He seems to trudge through everyday life. No amount of happiness can mask his pain. He originally wanted to write for the sport column, which he never got. He breaks up with his fiance because of his Jesus complex to save everyone after getting the Miss Lonelyhearts column. I have to deal my confusion and problems with society on a daily basis. Miss Lonelyhearts is stronger than me because if I had to deal with all these problems I would have broken down long before Miss Lonelyhearts did. He is not like everyone else because he can no longer think about himself when he is faced with everyone's problems. He is extremely confused. I feel leading my life is difficult but imagine leading his life. I have problems that many people do not understand, yet I am amazed by the problems Miss Lonelyhearts faces on a daily basis. I sometimes wonder if I was like everyone else and lived the lie that normal people live, if I would discover true happiness. I have tried that but I have discovered that I am less happy pretending to be something I am not, especially when the past catches up to me and I end up bumping into a person that I was trying to escape. My favorite part was that it did not fit into the mainstream fairy tale category. He was not a prince charming. He is constantly tortured until the day he dies.
This might seem like a cliche class paper, but I did genuinely relate to this book. Also this is not a class paper. I am writing about this on my blog because I truly enjoyed this book. I would not write about this unless I truly enjoyed it. Sorry if I am boring you to death. LOL.
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