The Theme Of Helplessness In 'Spill Simmer Falter Wither'

Helpless, the feeling you get when the odds are stacked against you and in every scenario you see failure abounding. Helplessness is prominent in the development of characters in Spill Simmer Falter Wither, Ray depicts helplessness in his inability to have meaningful relationships and pursue a healthy social life while One-eye characterizes helplessness as a life without options, one where the cards you were dealt prohibit you from living a comfortable life. While both these characters personify helplessness differently they both convey how daunting emotional stress can be.

Helplessness regarding Ray starts with how Ray describes his home, “What does my bedroom smell of? Damp spores, fluffed dirt and dead sap? See the black mold on the end wall, how it mushroomed into a reverse constellation: the night sky a white wall and the white stars black, wet and furry.” Ray’s pessimistic view of himself and his solitude play into the meaning of the word helpless, he doesn’t view his living space as worthy of care or his effort and in a way the house represents how Ray views himself and his current situation. Ray goes on to explain himself as “When I move my clodhopper feet and mismeasured legs make me pitch and clump.”

Ray explains his life as marked by the death of his father and following the death of his father he plunges into extreme seclusion only impeded by his pet. Ray is so entrenched in his solitude that he claims “Everywhere I go it is as though I’m wearing a spacesuit which buffers me from other people.” Ray doesn’t believe that there is any chance or reason to socialize with people and escape his loneliness, he feels helpless to the fact that he is lonely and doesn’t believe that his own actions are at fault for his seclusion. He also reasons that his actions contribute to the loneliness he feels, “my hands fall gracelessly, stupidly. I’ve always struggled with