“Here and there a woman passed, here and there a man; rarely, a couple.”

Rufus never fully comprehends his alienation from the society he inhabits. As he passes through the streets, however, the physical distance between the people symbolizes the alienation that everyone in the city feels. Women and men pass each other, drifting through their lives and only rarely forming lasting and meaningful connections with one another. Most people are like Rufus, listlessly searching for something they do not know how to define.

“Without Vivaldo, there was a difference in the eyes which watched them.”

Without Vivaldo present, Rufus is even more keenly aware of his race. He knows that he is being watched and that, as a Black man, the people watching him are harboring negative thoughts. He feels the difference between the times when he is with Vivaldo, when he is with Leona, and when he is alone. Furthermore, the feeling of being watched by the primarily white society makes him resent Leona and Vivaldo as well as society at large. Rufus is unable to escape the feeling that he is constantly being watched and judged to the extent that he discerns different kinds of surveillance depending on his company.