Loneliness In American Lyric Don T Let Me Be Lonely

Redefining Loneliness The term “loneliness” appears on multiple different occasions throughout the American Lyric Don’t Let Me Be Lonely by Claudia Rankine but what does being lonely truly mean? According to Google, the definition of loneliness is sadness because one has no friends or company. I too had always thought of loneliness as the way Google describes it up until I read the book Don’t Let Me Be Lonely. Throughout the beginning of the book the speaker hints at a different meaning of loneliness until the definition finally unfolds in the middle of the story. Loneliness is not actually about yourself being lonely because you have no company but it is more about the way you fail to interact with others to create an environment with
more company in order to feel less lonely. The first instance of loneliness in the book appears on the very first page of text. On page 5 her father’s feeling of loneliness is caused by the death of his mother. In other words, the loneliness is described as her father feeling alone because he no longer had a mother. This relates directly to the Google definition of loneliness. Not only does it relate to Google’s definition but this loneliness is described as personal rather than public. The iconic image of loneliness is someone all by them self, feeling down because they don’t have people or friends to surround themselves with, however, later in the book when the speaker is asked to define loneliness, she describes it in a completely contradictory way. Define loneliness? Yes. It’s what we can’t do for each other. (62) Loneliness is what we can’t do for each other… The transition of the idea of loneliness from the beginning of the book to the end of the book is tremendous.
In the beginning, loneliness is described as personal and caused by the emptiness of others in your life whereas towards the middle of the book, the loneliness is caused by the failure of yourself to go out and help others, in other words, what we can’t do for each other. Therefore, loneliness isn’t caused by what we always thought. All our lives we have been led to believe loneliness is caused by not having anyone there for you but maybe loneliness is actually caused by not reaching out to others in order to be less lonely. Tell me. Have you ever seen a lonely person going out and trying to help others? No. They are typically pictured as all by themselves wallowing in their own sorrow. If loneliness is what we can’t do for each other then can we even prevent loneliness? Take a look at the next part of the definition of loneliness
passage. What do we mean to each other? What does a life mean? Why are we here if not for each other?
(62) The question “What do we mean to each other?” packs a lot of power for one line of a book. That is a question that you could ask yourself every single day of your life. The answer to that daily question lets you know whether you did something productive for society or not. What you did to prove your value to others determines whether you are lonely or not but all of the thinking about what we mean to each other forces you to ask yourself another question, “Why are we here if not for each other?” which is ironically the last question of the passage. People feel lonely because they have no one to keep them company. Thinking of loneliness this way is more private and personal, meaning that the loneliness only affects you. Yes, that is true but there is a different, more correct way to look at loneliness. Loneliness is caused by what we can’t do for each other. Loneliness, by this definition, is rather public meaning that the loneliness not only affects you, but everyone around you is also affected. In other words, you are in charge of your own loneliness. People shouldn’t feel lonely because they don’t have people to keep them company, they should feel lonely because they cannot contribute to the helping of others. Helping others alone will give the so called “lonely” person company in turn leaving them no longer lonely. Therefore, loneliness is not defined by the lack of company that surrounds you, but by the company
you lack to surround yourself with.