The frequent use of alienation as a centering theme is due to the fact that it is common to all humans. Alienation is a feeling of not belonging. This feeling can be physical, mental, religious, spiritual, psychological, political, social, or economic and often it tends to be a combination of more than one of these types. Alienation is a driving force that pushes the human conscience to extremes. Whether it is alienation from civilization or alienation from society, drastic changes consequently occur. States of alienation come to exist as the result of many situations. Characteristics of alienation that are common to many characters in literature will be examined in this symposium.
             Clear instances of alienation can be seen in many of the works of literature. In Richard Wright's Rite Of Passage a young boy's struggle to deal with abandonment is followed. William Golding's Lord Of The Flies illustrates alienation from civilization and the drastic changes that result. In Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome the alienation is both physical and emotional. Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka tells a bizarre tale of a man who is disjoined from his family when he wakes up to find that he has been transformed into a giant insect. The play Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill shows alienation that can result from drug abuse as well as a woman can feel alienated when she is in a group of other men.
             The principal character in Rite Of Passage is Johnny, a young boy who against his will is thrust into a dark world, far from the life that he has always known. This sudden feeling of estrangement and alienation sets in when his foster mother introduces the life changing news and he learns that he will be moved to a new foster home. As an orphaned child, Johnny had always felt a certain distance to his foster family, but over time this slowly diminished and he finally felt like he belonged somewhere. He is forever altered ...