How do you think keeping a journal helped Sarton to live with the inevitable results of the choices she made?ĥ. I have missed it, missed 'naming things' as they appear, missed the half hour when I push all duties aside and savor the experience of being alive in this beautiful place' ( At Seventy, p.

'I feel happy to be keeping a journal again. It has served its purpose' ( Recovering, p. 'Now I am reading over the journal and revising I see that I have made a good journey out of depression and rage, and it is time soon to make an end of this means of handling those demons. To what extent does Journal of a Solitude achieve her stated goal?Ĥ. Contrast the picture of the emotional life revealed in these two journals. There is violence there and anger never resolved' ( Journal of a Solitude, p. Now I hope to break through into the rough rocky depths, to the matrix itself.

The anguish of my life here-its rages-is hardly mentioned. But I have begun to realize that, without my own intention, that book gives a false view. ' Plant Dreaming Deep has brought me many friends of the work. What is your reaction to the many complaints she makes about these interruptions?ģ. It is ironic that Sarton's 'solitary' life is in fact filled with visitors and commitments that take time away from her art.

I must have time alone in which to mull over any encounter and to extract its juice, its essence, to understand what has really happened to me as a consequence of it' ( Journal of a Solitude, p. But I must not forget that, for me, being with people or even with one beloved person for any length of time without solitude is even worse. 'There is no doubt that solitude is a challenge and to maintain balance within it a precarious business. What price does she pay for living alone? How does she deal with her loneliness? What does she see as the rewards of the solitude she has chosen?Ģ. Discuss the role solitude plays in Sarton's journals. Yet I taste it fully only when I am alone here and 'the house and I resume old conversations' '' ( Journal of a Solitude, p. Without the interruptions, nourishing and maddening, this life would become arid. That is what is strange-that friends, even passionate love, are not my real life unless there is time alone in which to explore and to discover what is happening or what has happened. 'I am here alone for the first time in weeks, to take up my 'real' life again at last. The deliberate decision to live alone was a brave one for a woman of Sarton's generation. Reading Group Guide: Journal of a Solitude Discussion Questions | Praise for May Sarton's Works | Journals by May Sartonġ.

May sarton solitude