Lack In All the Living

              Throughout the novel lack is an essential part to the lives of both of the main characters, Aloma and Orren.  I think it is the connection they both share that helps them to remain together even if at many times it seems they are both unsuited for each other and destined for a life of unhappiness should they choose to stay together, like they do at the end of the novel.

              Neither one of them seem to be truly happy with their lives during the entire novel.  They are completely devoid of the emotions that would render them to feel whole.  Aloma has a lack of grief and attachment to family due to her upbringing that is carried with her through her adult life and becomes the major struggle between her and her lover/husband who has just lost his family and is struggling through the process of grief.  This is touched upon lightly and then brought explicitly to the readers attention when Aloma is telling Bell about her lack of memory of her parents and the narrator states “As a child, she’d tried to invent the feeling of loss inside her.  But like the dead, the feeling simply wasn’t there.” (pg. 104) Orren has a lack of joy throughout the novel, as he appears to be battling with depression after the sudden loss of his entire family, leaving him feeling very alone with only a romantic partner that he doesn’t know very well emotionally, and has the inability to empathize with him.  These feelings that Orren does not express but seems to have is brought to a head towards the end of the novel when in the middle of an argument with Aloma and a spurt of anger he says “What about you?  You don’t know nothing about it, none of it.  You got no feeling.  All you care about is being happy.  I…I can’t have that, that ain’t a option.  You get me?” (pg. 161)

              In addition to his admission of unhappiness, it was also the question at the end of that quote spoken by Orren that struck as also important in the topic of lack in the novel.  There is overabundance of miscommunication and lack of understanding between Orren and Aloma but it is never brought up between the two of them.  They cohabitate but because they are unable to understand one another they are not able to live together.  Orren has this lack of understanding about the importance of piano to Aloma because he views it as her just doing something meaningless to make herself happy.  At the same time, Almoa views Orren’s obsessive attitude towards fixing the farm and trying to keep the spirit and the memory of his family alive as pointless since they are dead and gone and in her mind their deaths are just a life event he needs to get over and move on from.  I think in the end of the novel although it is unspoken they eventually feel this connection of lacking that brings them together.  When Aloma decides to get rid of the piano and Orren says that they need to get rid of the family pictures to me that appeared to be a submission by both parties that although they may not understand each other and their lives may not be fulfilled they have this deep connection of lack in their lives that they eventually brings them together and will help them stay together.