Fatigue
“Suddenly” he became “tired,” so he “sat down on a bench.” A strange wish “to throw a stone” kept bothering him, “he searched sky for a target,” but “the gray sky looked as if it had been rubbed with a soiled eraser.” It held no “angels, flaming crosses, olive-bearing doves, wheels within wheels.” There was only newspaper that “struggled in the air like a kite with a broken spine.” There was no answer for him, so he “got up and started again for the speakeasy.” This imagery evokes a strange feeling of fatigue and gloominess. The man wanted the answers but got none.
A body
Ms. Lonelyhearts is thinking about the human, the body and the soul. According to him, under the skin of man is “a wondrous jungle” where “veins like lush tropical growths hangs along overripe organs and weed-like entrails writhe in squirming tangles of red and yellow.” In this jungle, “lives a bird called a soul.” The Catholic hunts “this bird with bread and wine,” the Hebrew “with a golden ruler,” the Protestant “on leaden feet with leaden words,” the Buddhist “with gestures,” “the Negro with blood.” This imagery evokes a feeling of uneasiness, for Ms. Lonelyhearts’ musings on this topic are not healthy. His uncontrollable wish to rekindle his faith is disturbing.
Obsession
Miss Lonelyhearts found himself developing “an almost insane sensitiveness to order.” Everything had to “form a pattern: the shoes under the bed, the ties in the holder, the pencils on the table.” Every time when he looked out of a window, “he composed the skyline by balancing one building against another.” If “a bird” flew across this arrangement, he “closed his eyes angrily until it was gone.” This imagery showed how deeply he was affected by his work. He needed even a little bit of order in that maddening chaos.
