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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Miss Lonelyhearts, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Religion and Morality in Modern Society
The Illusion of the American Dream
The Limitations of Love
Isolation and Madness
Summary
Analysis
An author of a New York newspaper advice column, Miss Lonelyhearts struggles to respond to the day’s letters. Although he initially got into this business as a joke, he no longer finds humor in people’s genuine pleas for help. Today alone, people have written to Miss Lonelyhearts asking for advice on the physical and mental strain of childbirth, how to cope with being bullied for physical deformities, what to do in the case of sexual assault, and more. Although Miss Lonelyhearts feels that Christianity would help these people, his boss Shrike finds the religion particularly funny, so Miss Lonelyhearts doesn’t think he can incorporate it in his letters. Noticing that Miss Lonelyhearts is having trouble meeting his deadline, Shrike comes over and begins to dictate a reflection on how art can save someone from suffering.
By introducing the plethora of ways in which New Yorkers are suffering alongside the insincere nature of editors behind the Lonelyhearts advice column, this first chapter quickly establishes the tone of the novella. Instead of presenting New York City as a bustling city in which people can pursue new opportunities and the American Dream, the novella emphasizes that suffering and misfortune run rampant—alongside people who don’t mind if they hurt others who are already going through hard times. With characters like Shrike, who seems to put on nonsensical performances while making fun of others, dark humor and satire are established as key components of the novella.
Themes
