Isolation In Drinking Coffee Elsewhere By Dina And Ho

It is human nature for people to attract themselves to others. However, when put in a difficult situation, one can either work through it or run from it. If one chooses to run, he makes the conscious decision to isolate himself. In the novel Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer, isolation is a common theme found within the stories. Particularly in “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere” and “Our Lady of Peace”, Dina and Sheba’s inabilities to form and maintain relationships with others lead to their constant seclusion.
Ever since Dina’s mother, the only person she truly loved, passed away, Dina became a very introverted and isolated person. Dina manages to drive away those around her, including her roommate Amy in her first semester at Yale, making

her parents feel uncomfortable with their daughter “...sharing a bunkbed with a budding homicidal loony” in order to have her own room (Packer 120). When she first meets Heidi, a fellow student at Yale, Dina remarks that “aside from class [she] ha[s] contact with no one” (Packer 123). Unlike others, Heidi effectively forces her way into Dina’s life, and the two become close friends. In fact, the two become so close that Dina states that she “began to love Heidi” after a night they had together in the dish room (Packer 138). Heidi comes out as a lesbian and, despite admitting the feelings she had for Heidi, Dina chooses to isolate herself from Heidi rather than talk about the situation at hand. As time passes, Heidi’s mother has cancer and eventually passes away, and instead of supporting and caring for Heidi, Dina runs from the emotional situations. When faced with a situation where Dina must be by her friend in a time of need, she decides to fall back into her comfort zone of isolation, ultimately not going to Heidi’s mother’s funeral and losing a friend in the process.
Similar to Dina, Sheba comes from a very isolated background.

She doesn’t live with a family and just moved to a new school after knifing her former teacher. However, her surprising eagerness to learn and role as the class enforcer helps her create a relationship with her teacher, Lynnea. Sheba consistently keeps the class quiet and even tries to help Lynnea more effectively teach the students by suggesting the class act out the book. Lynnea describes that she and Sheba had “become a team”, despite the fact that it was a “crazy, lopsided one” (Pacer 74). However, Sheba gets pregnant and begins to regularly miss classes. When she is present, her behavior towards Lynnea completely changes, and she begins to give her attitude and mistreat her like the other students do. A few days before winter break, Lynnea saw Sheba sitting alone and offered to give her a ride home. In a final attempt to help her student, Lynnea reaches out to her student, saying if she needed anything or wanted Lynnea to visit, she could give her a call. Sheba responded by saying that she “didn’t think [she’d] be needing [her] help” (Packer 77). Lynnea has done her best to reach out to Sheba, offering genuine companionship. However, Sheba’s pregnancy and depression cause her to consciously reject Lynnea and instead, she secludes herself and becomes

introverted.
Both short stories contain a character who has in some way inserted themselves into the lives of a someone who tends to withdraw themselves from others. Both Heidi and Lynnea reach out in attempts to create a companionship with Dina and Sheba, and are initially successful. However, as the formerly isolated characters begin to get pushed out of their comfort zone, they resort back to withdrawing themselves from society, ruining their relationships with those who tried to help them. Both Dina and Sheba were raised in lower income households, which contributed to their introversion. They both exhibit a lack of trust to those around them, stemming from the fact that they never had a reliable role model during their adolescence, making it increasingly more difficult for them to be able to engage a new, trusting relationship.