Previous
Symbols
Traditionally understood as a symbol for Jesus, the lamb in Miss Lonelyhearts’s dream represents the idea that it’s futile to uphold Christian ideals in an immoral, modern world. In his dream, Miss Lonelyhearts goes along with two college friends who want to roast and eat a lamb together, agreeing to partake as long as he can offer the lamb as a sacrifice to God. However, Miss Lonelyhearts’s attempt to kill and sacrifice the lamb goes awry; he only wounds the animal, and it escapes. In a panic, Miss Lonelyhearts and his friends run off, too, and only Miss Lonelyhearts thinks to find the lamb and end its misery. Together, Miss Lonelyhearts’s foiled attempt to sacrifice the lamb to God and his isolation while killing the lamb at the end of the dream suggest that Miss Lonelyhearts can’t live out his Christian beliefs or reach his full potential as the divine figure he believes himself to be after undergoing his religious awakening.
Lamb Quotes in Miss Lonelyhearts
The Miss Lonelyhearts quotes below all refer to the symbol of Lamb. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
They paraded the lamb through the market. Miss Lonelyhearts went first, carrying the knife, and others followed, Steve with the jug and Jud with the animal. As they marched, they sang an obscene version of “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Miss Lonelyhearts LitChart as a printable PDF.
Lamb Symbol Timeline in Miss Lonelyhearts
The timeline below shows where the symbol Lamb appears in Miss Lonelyhearts. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3
...and dreams of his college friends, Steve and Jud. Together, they decide to buy a lamb to roast and eat, with Miss Lonelyhearts stating that they need to first sacrifice the...
(full context)
