Isolation In Danielle Evans's Short Story 'Jellyfish'

American fiction writer, Danielle Evans, composes her short stories in such a way that the reader feels compelled to judge a character’s actions. Evans perfects the art of influencing a reader to relate to or feel strong emotion throughout a story. She centralizes the majority of her short stories on the concept of character isolation and the internal conflict caused by such isolation. This isolation stems from the rootlessness found in Evans’ characters. Her characters struggle to find a home, whether it be paternally, romantically, or internally, but they never quite make it there. The best example of this can be found in Evans’ short story “Jellyfish.” The two main characters, William and Eva, struggle with a multitude of internal issues.
Eva involves herself with multiple people when attempting to find some sort of happiness or resolve for her loneliness. Evans depicts Eva’s loneliness when explaining, “[S]he tiptoed to the shower, hoping to be ready to leave by the time he woke up so they wouldn't have to talk about what she was doing there for the third time this week” (141). Clearly, Eva does not like to be alone, as in evident in that she shows up at her ex-boyfriend’s house constantly. Yet, Eva is the one to break off all of her relationships, including the relationship she had with another woman. As a seemingly bisexual person of color, Eva tries to find her true self in forming relationships with anyone that can foster meaning into her life. In researching self-concept confusion, Stephanie Richman and others quote a line from John Cacioppo and William Patrick’s book Loneliness. Cacioppo and Patrick explain, “Lonely people have a lack of meaningful social interaction, specifically, they tend to perceive a discrepancy between their actual and desired levels of social connection” (qtd. in Richman). Even though Eva has plenty interactions and relationships, there seems to be no meaningful social interaction to the extent that she can validate her self-concept. Her attempt to find her way without settlement only worsens her situation. This rootlessness she displays has to do, in part, with her unreliable father. Evans explains Eva’s reasoning for thinking William an unreliable father when writing, “Her father was never where he said he’d be when he said he’d be there” (142). His tardiness is very indicative of the nature of their relationship, and to Eva, this deems William an unreliable father Without meaningful interactions in her relationships with both her partners and her father, Eva