Alone Summary

7/31/2019 Alone Summary

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Alone Summary

"Alone" starts off with our speaker doingsome serious soul-searching. She's

feeling pretty isolated, but she thinks

she just might have come up with an

answer to her problems: people need

community in order to get by.

As it turns out, money won't buy you

happiness. Even the very, very rich get

lonely. So, don't try to make more

money. Make friends instead.

Our speaker fashions herself into

something like a prophet, warning the

"race of man" that things aren't about to

get any easier anytime soon. The

solution is (all together now.) torealize that no one can make it on their

own!


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Stanza 1 Summary

Get out the microscope, becausewere going through this poem line-

by-line.

Lying, thinking

Last night

You know how your teachersalways ask you to locate the timeand place of the action in a literarypiece? Well, Maya Angelou ismaking it pretty easy for you to getthat little bit of tediousness out ofthe way in the first few lines. Ourspeaker's relating something that

happened last night as she (or he)was drifting off to sleep.

You could think of this as the "pre-flight" messages of this particular


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poem. You're still on the tarmac, butthe flight attendants make sure tolet you know where you're at and

where you're going (along withpassing along nifty information likehow to tighten your seat belt andmaybe even how to ask for morepeanuts). You can almost feel thispoem revving its engines and

getting ready to take off. Notice how the first two lines are

almost half the length of the otherlines in this stanza? It's almost as ifAngelou split the first line in two.

How to find my soul a home

Where water is not thirsty

And bread loaf is not stone

If you're wondering why you get awhole bunch of religious websiteson your screen when you Googlethis poem, look no further. These


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lines are the religious heart and,um, soul of the poem.

So, what are they all about? Well,

for starters, the speaker seems tothink that her soul is a-wandering.You'd think that it would be safelylodged in her body, but no. It turnsout that the soul needs somewhereelse to live.

And here's where these lines reallyget interesting: have you ever heardof water being "thirsty"? For onething, water isn't a sentient being. Itdoesn't really get hungry or tired orworry about being late for school.

It's just water. But that's beside the point. Even if

water didfeel things, it probablywouldn't feel thirsty, would it? Afterall, what do you usually drink toquench your thirst? (If you said "DietPepsi," we really need to talk.)

Nope, you usually drinkwater. So,Angelou's turn of phrase suggeststhat something is seriously screwedup in the natural order of things. If


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even water can recognize its naturalqualities in this world, then maybethe soul doesneed to go searching

for another world in which to live. and BAM. That's where we get

into God's territory. See, afundamental component of Christiantheology is the belief that the humansoul is in God's care. In other

words, its "home" is not in this world(Earth) but in the heavens (withGod).

The next line might seem toreinforce this belief, but it does sowith a weird twist. See, the whole

bread/stone thing is actually areference to the Bible, specificallyMatthew 4:3, when Satan tries totempt Jesus to turn stones intobread. (Jesus, of course, doesn't fallfor it.)

So, how does this particular

reference fit into the poem? Well,here are our best guesses:

Option 1: Angelou's suggesting thatSatan has won: stones turn into


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bread (so bread, conversely, isactually stone). We're a little worriedabout what that means for Jesus,

but hey, that's not our concern rightnow.

Option 2: Angelou's using thereference loosely, suggesting thatbread which is anything butbread isa bad thing. We'd be inclined to

agree!

I came up with one thing

And I don't believe I'm wrong

OK. Here it is. After hours andhours of sleepless searching, ourspeaker's figured it all out. Staytuned, folks.

but before we get there, weshould mention that it seems a littlestrange that our speaker needs toassert how right she is beforeshetells us what she's figured out. Doth


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our speaker protest too much?Right now, it's still too early to tell.

That nobody,

But nobody

Can make it out here alone.

Ah. Here's the wisdom acquired bythat sleepless soul searching.People need other people.

And just so you don't think thatyou're excluded from that

statement, our speaker makes sureto say it twice: Nobody can get byall by themselves. That means you,too.

Notice how the speaker puts herselfin the same boat as the rest of us?

She doesn't say that people can'tmake it out "there" alone. Nope.The speaker is in the same mess asthe rest of us. We're all "here"wherever that is. And believe us,


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"here" isn't all that pretty.

Stanza 2 Summary

Get out the microscope, because

were going through this poem line-

by-line.

Alone, all alone

Nobody, but nobody


In case you missed it the first timearound, our speaker repeatsherself. People need other people.Got it?

And we should point out that thisstanza is actually a repetition of thelast couple of lines of the firststanza. This structure sets up a sortof call-and-response within the


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poem. You can almost imagine oneperson singing the last few lines ofstanza one and then an entire

chorus of people responding bysinging the exact same words.

Such call and response structuresare actually pretty common in blackspirituals, which tend to have analmost identical format: first a story,

then a chorus, then the repeatedversion of that chorus, and thenmore story. By crafting her poemalong these lines, Angelou allows itto carry echoes of a long and well-developed tradition.

Interestingly, spirituals tend to besung by groups of people. In otherwords, when the "chorus" getsaround to singing this verse, therewould be lots and lots of peoplesinging. Notice any irony here?They wouldn'tbe singing "all alone."

In some ways, then placing thispoem in the spiritual genre allowsthe poem to become its ownsolution!


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There are some millionaires

With money they can't use

Think this poem is only about thespeaker? Oh, no. Everyone eventhe millionaire gets discussedwhen the speaker tackles thisparticular problem.

Why pick on millionaires? Well,they're sort of a stand-in for thepeople who are supposedly happyand successful. After all, they make

millions! But how do they really farein the world? Let's find out

Their wives run round like banshees

Their children sing the blues

Well, it turns out that they don't fareso well.


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A "banshee" is a rather loud andannoying spirit who wails loudlyand tends to show up when

someone is about to die. They'rerather unpopular figures in Irishmythology. In other words, they'renot all that much fun to be around.

And then we get to the kids. As faras our speaker is concerned, the

kids are isolated and singing theirown "blues."

It turns out that this "family" ofmillionaires is actually isolated andfragmented. Each person operateson his or her own. There's no sense

of community.

They've got expensive doctors

To cure their hearts of stone.

Hmm. So, it turns out that theseproblems are not, in fact, medicalproblems. More importantly, as far


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as our speaker is concerned, thechoice to fix your body without fixingyour soul is a big, big mistake.

We've got to admit, our speaker hasa point. If you think about it,healthcare is sort of omnipresentthese days. If you're feeling sad, trysome antidepressants. If you looktoo old, there's always Botox.

Believe us, medicine has a valuableplace in society. We're the first onesto sign up for flu shots! But whenthe speaker talks about the richpeople's "hearts of stone," we'reguessing that she's speaking

metaphorically. She's not interestedin the heart as a giant muscle.She's interested in that thing the TinMan was missing in The Wizard ofOz a heart that helps you connectand feel.

But nobody


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No, nobody


hmmm. We feel like we've heardthis one before.

Moral of this particular story: thespeaker can't make it alone. Andrich people can't make it alone,either.

You could think of this part of thestanza as a sort of checking back inwith the central message of thepoem: the speaker tells a little story,and then this chorus comes back tohammer home the point. We all

experience the same sort ofisolation.

Alone, all alone

Nobody, but nobody


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Sigh. Yet more alone-ness. Want to hear our spiel on why this

repetition is interesting? Check outwhat we have to say about Stanza2.

Now if you listen closely

I'll tell you what I know

Aha. Now we're getting to the goodstuff. We've followed the speakerthrough her own trials and troubles.We've seen how she relates thosetroubles to other folks who seem tohave happier, better lives. And nowwe're about to get the big pay-off.

Notice how our speaker hassomehow morphed into an authorityfigure over the course of these past


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few stanzas? She's gone from yourrun-of-the-mill insomniac to aperson we trust to change the most

fundamental problems of our life. How in the world did this happen? Well, we're not totally sure. But

we're betting that it has somethingto do with all of that repetition wementioned earlier. If you repeat

something often enough, chancesare that your listeners will start tobelieve it. And our speaker'sbanking on precisely thisphenomenon.

But it looks like there's even more

that she's about to reveal. Are yousitting on the edge of your chair?

Storm clouds are gathering

The wind is gonna blowThe race of man is suffering

And I can hear the moan,


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Wow. So nature (the clouds and thewind) is starting to participate in theturmoil of the human soul. What in

the world is going on here? Option 1: It could be like that

amazing children's book,Cloudywith a Chance of Meatballs. Youknow, the one where the elementstend to mirror people's desires? In

this case, we get storms and notfood, but you get the general idea.

Option 2: Angelou could also betapping into a pretty Romantictradition. (Just to be clear: we meanthe literary period Romantic with a

big "R" not the warm fuzzy heartsand love sort of romance.) For theRomantics, like Wordsworth andTennyson, feelings could bedescribed by aligning them withelements of the natural world. Inother words, it's not storming

outside becausewe're all unhappy.We see a storm and realizethat itneatly mirrors our own rather crappysituation. It's a subtle difference, we


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know, but it's a pretty important one. Notice how Angelou's speaker is

clearly establishing herself once

again as the authority figure in thisparticular scenario? She's the onewho's in tune with the problems andsufferings of man. But don't worry.We're about to hear the solution.After all, that's what she promises

us right at the beginning of thisstanza.

'Cause nobody,

But nobody


Hey, wait a second! What happenedto our solutions? We were promised

solutions! And all we get is thisrefrain? C'mon. We've heard thisone before!

Whew. Now that we've got that outof our system, maybe we can talk


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about whythis poem doesn't offerany solutions. After all, it's not atwelve-step program or a self-help

manual. It's a poem. Deal with it. Maybe Angelou doesn't offer any

specific answers becausethere aren'tspecific answers.People make friends in differentways. People define communities in

different ways. You could have2,078 Facebook friends and still belonely. You could have 2.078Facebook friends and feelsurrounded by love. You could havea pet turtle and feel surrounded by

love. Who are we to judge? However you define community (or,

as this poem would say, a "home"for your soul), though, you need it.And you need it now.

Alone, all alone


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Nobody, but nobody


Seriously? You want moreanalysisof this refrain? C'mon, folks. It's thesixth time we've read it. SIX. That'sa lot of times.

OK, fine.. Check out Stanza 2.That's all we've got.


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"Alone" lives somewhere in the no

man's land between formal regularity

and an absolute free-for-all. There are

some absolutes: every other stanza, forexample, is exactly the same. (We're

talking about stanzas 2, 4, and 6 here).

The first, third, and fifth stanzas are

another story. They all have nine linesunless you count the first stanza, which

has ten. (We couldargue that the first

two lines of the poem are actually one

split line, but that's another story.) And

those lines tendto have six or seven

syllables unless, of course, you're

talking about the 7th or 8th line. Those

have four syllables each.


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Confused yet? We don't blame you.

Here's what we doknow: there's not a

metrical or formal regularity to thispoem. There is, however, a sort of

formal logic to the way that the poem's

narrative unfolds.

Think of it as a camp song: the camp

counselor lays out a little bit of a story

(six lines of it, to be precise) and then

sings a verse that's easy to remember

(in terms of our poem, this is always the

last three lines of the stanza). And then

the campers sing the verse back to thecounselor. (That's the second, fourth,

and sixth stanzas.) It's easy to

remember because, well, if you're in the

chorus, you don't have all that much to

remember.

Come to think about it, these sorts of

call-and-response songs have been


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popular for centuries. They were a big

part of church traditions back when it

wasn't common for everyone to havehymnals. They're the format most

military marching songs tend to take:

the C.O. shouts something out, and the

squad shouts back a reply. They're the

core of most oral traditions when you

aren't able to write everything down, it's

good to have a refrain as a sort of

memory marker.


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Speaker Point of View

Who is the speaker, can she or he

read minds, and, more importantly,

can we trust her or him?

The speaker in this poem is a funny sort

of character. She starts out as yourregular, run-of-the-mill insomniac, a

person who lets all sorts of thoughts run

through her head because she just can't

seem to sleep.

By the end of the poem, however, the

speaker's become something like our

cultural conscience. She seems to know

and see all of our suffering. And we

do mean ALL of our suffering. This

speaker seems to be blowing a warninghorn. Things aren't getting any better. In

fact, they seem to be getting worse.

And as the crisis reaches its tipping


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point, our speaker's omniscience only

seems to increase.

We've got to admit, though, this

speaker plays a rather dirty trick on the

reader: she promises us some sort of

revelation, letting us know that she's

about to reveal what she knows (line

22), and then she tells us. nothing.

OK, it's not nothing. But she sure

doesn't give us any tools to combat the

alone-ness that seems to be creeping

though the world like a plague. Nope.

She just points out that people shouldn't

be alone. Hmm, thanks. Thanks a lot.

That's sort of like going to the doctor

with a broken leg and being told that

people shouldn't break bones. Wemight have grasped that the first time

around. We're not saying that she

doesn't have a valid point. We're just a


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little upset that there don't seem to be

any clear solutions.

Then again, that's not our speaker's

responsibility, is it? Aren'twethe ones

who are supposed to figure out our own

problems? Well, yes. But we'd probably

like the speaker a whole lot more if she

could just help us out a little!


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Alone Setting

Where It All Goes Down

We know right where this poem begins:

in the speaker's bed, late at night.

Where it ends, however, is another

matter entirely. You can almost see the

thought bubbles coming up from the

speaker's bed and floating out into the

wide, wide world.

See, by the time we're in the second

stanza, this poem is clearly settled in

the Real World. You know, that worldwhere some people have cash and

some people don't a world that's

economically and socially stratified.


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There's no room for dreamy idealism, or

any of the pensive nighttime thoughts

that occupy the speaker's mind inStanza 1.

And then, by the time we're at Stanza 5,

we've zoomed out far enough to be able

to consider the entire "race of man." In

other words, we've moved waaaaay

back. We like to think of it as a "Earth

seen from the Moon" sort of view.

So, from one little bed to the entire

world at a glance? It seems like setting

just isn't this poem's most important

focal point. Or perhaps it's important

that the setting shifts if only because

the problems that our speaker finds

remain the same. Whether you're inyour own bed at night or watching the

rich and famous (probably on reality TV)

or looking at the Earth from the Moon,


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you're probably alone. Or at least you

feel alone.

When we get right down to it, this poem

centers itself on an emotional

landscape: the homelessness of the

human soul. The roving, searching

heart has no home- which is perhaps

why we move from setting to setting in

this poem as well.


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Sound Check

Read this poem aloud. What do youhear?

Have you ever listened to a gospel choir

in concert? The sound FILLS the room.

It sends shivers down your spine, brings

tears to your eyes, and makes youforget about everything else but the

music.

We like to think of this poem as just that

sort of sound. Sure, it starts out with justone voice, singing (or, if we're being

precise, speaking) but by the time we

get to the first refrain, it starts to sound

like there's more than one voice

involved here. And by the time that our

speaker starts to address the problems

of other folks in Stanza 3, she's already

dealing with the whole community. It's


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safe to assume that she's no longer

talking to herself in bed at night. She's

got an audience. And from the sound ofthings, they're taking an active part in

creating the refrains of the poem.

Try reading this poem all by yourself.

Then try reading it with a few of your

friends. You'll see what we mean. The

refrains aremeantto be choral pieces.

They just sound better when a whole

bunch of people are speaking along

together. And that's part of the hopeful

message of this poem. If you imaginethe refrain being spoken by a choir of

voices, then the poem itself is already

moving outside the spaces of isolation

and alone-ness that the speaker so

hates. Nifty, huh?


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Alone Theme of Isolation

Lonesomeness is something that all humans (no matter who they are or

where they live) know well. In a way, it connects us. However, the speaker of"Alone" warns that we cannot go through life all by our lonesome selves.

Life will swallow us whole unless we've got family, friends, or a community

of some kind to help us through the hard times.

Questions About Isolation

1. Does the speaker ever actually say that the millionaire is alone? How do we

know that he fits into the same category as the speaker?

2. Do you think that the speaker is talking to an audience in this poem? If so,

who?

3. How many times does the word "alone" appear in this poem?4. Why do you think Angelou says "nobody can make it all alone" instead of

something like "everybody needs other people"? What is the difference

between these two phrases?

Chew on This

Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devils advocate.

Although "Alone" seems to worry that people are isolated, the poem itself

actually breaks out of isolation by addressing other people.

There isn't any solution to the isolation described in this poem.

Alone Theme of Suffering

The speaker of "Alone" ominously declares that "the race of man is suffering/

and I can hear the moan." Instead of talking about how suffering is something

that all humans experience at some point in their lives, our speaker warns

people about a change she observes in the world. It's as though humans are

suffering more and more. She's noticing a shift in how humans live, and she'sworried.

Questions About Suffering

1. What do you think causes the speaker the most suffering in this poem?2. Do you think that all people suffer equally in this poem? The speaker? The


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millionaire? The millionaire's wife?

3. Why is being alone a bad thing? How does this poem describe it?

4. Is the loneliness in the world getting better or worse? What section of the

poem helps you to come to this conclusion?

Chew on ThisTry on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devils advocate.

Although the speaker suggests that being alone is the cause of suffering in

this poem, the true suffering seems to come from not knowing how to

nourish the soul.

This poem offers a cure for suffering: finding a community that can nourish

the soul.

Alone Theme of SpiritualityWe know from the start of "Alone" that our speaker is struggling to find her

spirituality, to feel connected to something greater than herself. She is lying

in her bed thinking about how to find her soul a home. As a result of her need

and quest for spirituality, she has a revelation about all people. She realizes

that in order for people to find homes for their souls, they have to stick

together. Community helps spirituality flourish.

Questions About Spirituality

1. Is this poem about finding religion? Why or why not?2. Is this poem advocating spiritual renewal by turning to a god or to a

community? What in the poem helps you to come to your conclusion?

3. How do the references to the Bible contribute to the poem?

4. Do you think that the alone-ness described in this poem is fixable in this

life? Why or why not?

Chew on This


There's no actual cure (in this world) for the alone-ness that the speaker

describes in this poem.

The cure for the alone-ness the speaker describes can be found by re-

connecting with people around us.


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Alone Theme of Society and Class

Lots of people feel that money can cure everything, but the speaker of

"Alone" (and the Notorious B.I.G.) knows differently. She tells us that evenmillionaires, with more money than they can use, can't make it through life

all alone. Money doesn't bring happiness and it doesn't chase the blues way,

she argues. In fact, it seems to make some people even lonelier. Loneliness,

therefore, is something that everyone, regardless of money or class, copes

with. It's a powerful force.

Questions About Society and Class

1. Why do you think the speaker singles out millionaires in Stanza 3?

2. Do you think that the millionaire's kids suffer differently than other kids? If

so, how?3. Do you think that this poem is about all people everywhere? Why or why

not?

4. Does this alone-ness seem to be getting worse in this particular time? Why

or why not?

Chew on This


As it turns out, money actually makes people less fulfilled than other, poorer

people.

Money doesn't affect whether or not a person is alone at all.

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Alone Summary