Loneliness

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then her husband, and he was becoming more distant. Erdrich begins the story at the end, and Lyman is looking back on the past. Erdrich writes, "Now Henry owns the whole car, and his younger brother Lyman (that's myself), Lyman walks everywhere he goes" (143). When Henry died, Lyman's spirit and happiness went with him. Lyman walking every place symbolizes that there is nothing for him. Lyman only has memories of companionship.
Although both characters were lonely at the beginning of the stories, the source of the lies deeper in the story. Charlotte felt the pain of being alone after her husband Kenneth started receiving mysterious letters from his dead wife. After reading the letters " . . . he looked years older, looked emptied of life and courage, and hardly conscious of her existence" (Wharton 318). These letters began to arrive when they returned from their honeymoon, and persisted until Kenneth disappeared. Because of the letters, he paid little attention to her ...

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