The End of Solitude

346 Words2 Pages
“Social life is a bustle of petty concerns, a jostle of quotidian interest…” – William Deresiewicz Deresiewicz brings up a strong point in this essay. The fact that we are never alone with all of the media and technology that is around nowadays. I chose this quote because of the ridiculousness of some things that are common today. The word quotidian can mean every day, or to a point mundane. Getting at the mundane aspect I can understand how things get mundane. Our lives seem to be completely tied to other peoples’ lives. It’s hard to go through a single class period at school without receiving some gossip in one form or another. Deresiewicz says before in the essay, “This is what the contemporary self wants. It wants to be recognized, wants to be connected: It wants to be visible”. We seem to have a difficulty finding our own solitude, being alone. Personally, living in this kind of society, I can’t really grasp his concept of the importance of solitude and to me it seems like he’s saying that connectivity is bad and doesn’t say why we should stay solitude, but that’s just me. “Communal experience is the human norm” says Deresiewicz. Humans are social creatures, we live in groups, and we connect. To Deresiewicz this is an okay thing, but at times we must be able to find times to be alone. I feel a connection going on between pretty much all of the essays we have been reading. “Self-Reliance” by Emerson was all about being able to, well, “self-rely”, “Walking” by Thoreau was all about being able to leave your social life behind, and go on a walk, where you can clear your mind and find repose, and finally this essay “The End of Solitude”, trying to leave our natural lives for something more in-depth mentally. The way I live may be different, but I do believe that all three of these writers have a strong point in what they’re saying, and how we should be trying to
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