Solitude

Solitude is many things. Its a ski lodge in Salt Lake City Utah. Its a private airline company. its even a osh clothing line. None of those things truely define solitude though, yet they do show how important solitude is to the world. In my own definition I would say that Solitude is the act of being alone with one's thoughts and feelings but it can also mean a group of people who together are separate and by themselves. When I "googled" the word solitude I found a bunch of interesting links, but the one I decded to go to was "Physchology Today" with an article that compared loliness with solitude. Loliness the article states is a sense of isolation that is unwanted by the individual while solitude is the state of being alone without feeling down about about it. Solitude, the artcile argues, may even lead to self awareness and a love of life. Its an interesting concept for me, because I always thought of the two words in similar, almost synonimic terms.
The word solitude relates to the book in the sense that the town Maconda is existing in solitude, with the only visitors bring gysies. In 6 generations, the town still remains relitively the same size, with less expansion that one would expect over the course of a hundred years. I also think the book title coensides with the idea of solitude bringing about self-awareness. As the characters age, they become more aware of life and the role they play within the world. Though I'm not done with the book yet (sorry i'm a horrible student, but i promise i'm almost done!), I think knowing more what solitude is, which is a positive sense of alone, I think I'll pay more attention to that as I finish.

(I didn't spell check this, i will though!)