Loneliness and Bad Health in Alone by Edgar Allan Poe

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The Endeavor of Finding One’s Place:
How Society and Technology Are Attributed to Loneliness and Bad Health

In the poem “Alone,” Edgar Allan Poe establishes a modern crisis, in which one struggles to find their place amongst society. We now live in a world that is less unified , religious, political, social, and wealth classes’ have branded us now more than ever. The art of fitting into a categorical society is complex even more when technology has a grasp of our daily lives. Social media is hailed as an innovation to tether us closer than before, but the outcome has been quite detrimental. Loneliness in turn has gone from being a stage of life one must face into a health debilitating disease. Humans existence lingers around two abilities—one being the ability to fit in—the other being the ability to adapt. An inner crisis boils between both abilities; when one cannot fit in, isolation sets in, while not adapting ends in being left behind those around leaving the end result as loneliness.
Edgar Allan Poe introduces his poem with a dark demeanor, the chilling words—“From childhoods hour I have not been/ As others were, I have not been/ As others saw, I could not bring,” the process of fitting in never started for someone so out of touch with society . Edgar Allan Poe chooses the words, as other were, I have not been to imply the struggle of being how society wants one to be, but not having the qualities to integrate , thus resulting in being left out. Later adding the mystery that binds me still , the mystery referring to the riddle of seeking a purpose in life and questioning why one is born in the first place, in times of sorrow and discomfort , loneliness and turmoil, depression and confusion one questions their own existenc...

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... cancer, diabetes, and other life threatening diseases. Although older people are more likely of developing such diseases, children are at high risk of anxiety and depression due to the fact of being excluded as noted in a medical journal by the American Academy of Pediatrics—“ being bullied or excluded by their peers were the factors most likely to predict whether or not they reported symptoms of depression,"
Moving into a personal experience, as I watched my mother slowly succumb to cancer, what I perceived as isolation slowly turned into loneliness. An event that was supposed to bring family closer knitted only made that bond drift away. As the loneliness took a toll on me, my health felt the effects. I gained fifty pounds and was on the brink of acquiring type-2 diabetes. At age fifteen who knew that the fact that I was lonely brought such turmoil to my health.

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