Loneliness Of Long Distan Essays - Social Realism, Alan Sillitoe

Loneliness of Long Distan annon By Alan Sillitoe Born in Nottingham in 1928 to a working class family, serving in the Air Force, and going through many struggles, Alan Sillitoe is known as an effective representative of the English working class. Through his story The Loneliness of the Long-Distance R unner and the other stories contained within the book, Sillitoe effectively criticises the legal system of England, which deprives individualism from its people, is ineffective and interferes with people's lives. His stories Uncle Ernest, On Saturday Afternoon, and The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner show these themes. The issues presented still are pertinent today. Sillitoe effectively criticises the legal system in Uncle Ernest. Uncle Ernest is a working-class lonely man who lives an isolated, despondent existence. Joan and Alma, whom he befriends, are very poor and in need of a father figure. Ernest has lost all of his old friends. His family has left him. He is need of company. He can no longer cover up his loneliness like he covers up the sofas he re-upholsters for a living. Ernest buys food for them, clothes, and gifts. All three are happy in the rela tionship they have with one-another. However, one day, he was told, Now look here, we don't want any more trouble from you, but if ever we see you near those girls again, you'll find yourself up before a magistrate (57). Ernest is deprived his life, w hat makes him happy. He is deprived the only friendship he has because the unwritten social code suggests that a man such as himself befriending young girls as such means that he is a paedophile. The detectives interfere with his life. Sillitoe shows t he legal system not only makes false assumptions, but goes by an unwritten social code that is accusational. The issue of conformity is central; Ernest is not a normal member of society, therefore he is further ostracised. In On Saturday Afternoon, Sillitoe's narrative is of an account of a bloke hanging himself. The man survived. When found by a copper, he was told, Its against the law. It ain't your life. And it's a crime to take your own life. It's killing your self. Its suicide. (103). The legal system is ineffective; the man proved to the coppers whose life it was. He jumped out of a hospital window to his death. Furthermore, the legal system is questioned. In this almost spooky story, Sillitoe raises the issue of whether or not the law has a right to decide for someone else whether or not that person has a right to take their own life. He answers with a decisive no through his use of tone, and by making the copper look foolish. Sillitoe's story also im plies that the legal system interferes with one's life by preventing one from doing as they wish, especially when it is not harmful to others. Finally, and most dramatically, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner questions the legal system's juvenile reform programs. They can spy on us all day to see if we're pulling our puddings and if we're doing our 'athletics', Colin Smith states, but they can't make an X-ray out of our guts to find out what we're telling ourselves (10). This is just one of Smith's comments which serve as a tool of satire, to say that the reform system is ineffective. It cannot change what the kids who go throu gh it feel inside. Borstal can make the students go through the motions but it cannot reform them. When Smith leaves, he says that the six months wasn't a bad life (46) and that his stay at Borstal made him stronger. It is implied that he commits a nother burglary. Sillitoe also criticises the system's lack of consideration for the juvenile, but rather personal glory. Smith does not want to be a runner. He does not feel any desire to win the race. Smith loses the race because he too is not a con formist. He will not succumb to the governor. He will not win the race because, It don't mean a bloody thing to me...only to him (12). Before going to Borstal, when a police officer questions Smith about robbing the bakery, the copper is shown to be incredibly foolish as Smith mocks him for days. Smith negotiates with the copper like a lawyer, asking him where his warrant is and mocking him in jest. Sillitoe shows the intelligence Smith. What makes Smith run? Is it the peace of the woods, the bea uty of the wildlife and animals