Isolation in Another CountryAnother Country is perhaps the only novel of its time in which every character suffers from a feeling of isolation. All the main characters share the feeling of isolation. Whether the character's isolation is due to race, economic status, or even sexual orientation, each character's life is affected. The feeling of isolation makes the characters lose contact with reality. This isolation is evident in the story of Rufus. Rufus is a young black jazz musician who grew up in Harlem, a young black man fighting against "the system" to achieve his dreams. Later in the novel, Rufus reveals his inner turmoil. Rufus feels isolated from society. He knows, but is unable to accept, the racial barrier that separates him from his only close friend, Vivaldo. Vivaldo is a true friend, but despite their friendship, Rufus feels a constant sense of resentment towards Vivaldo. Rufus is tormented by thoughts such as "No one dared to look at Vivaldo, with any girl, as they looked at me now;...It was because Vivaldo was white" (Baldwin 31). The racial isolation is compounded when Rufus severs all family ties in order to maintain his interracial relationship. Knowing his family's open disapproval of interracial relationships, Rufus decides to leave his family and live with his girlfriend, Leona. Despite his deep love for Leona, her presence constantly reminds him of the barrier that separates them. She becomes, in his mind, a symbol of the society that oppressed him. She becomes the symbol of the things he could never obtain in life. As his life consumes him, he plunges into the depths of despair, committing horrific crimes against those closest to him. Rufus refuses his friends' help. He turns to life on the streets and ends up jumping off a bridge. Before Rufus's death, Baldwin recounts: His own loneliness, amplified millions of times, made the night air colder. He remembered what excesses, what traps and what nightmares his solitude had pushed him into; and he wondered where such a violent void could lead an entire city. (60) Vivaldo, a close friend of Rufus, faces his own form of isolation. Born into a dysfunctional Brooklyn family, Vivaldo felt he had never been loved; thus, it imposes itself in loveless relationships. In these relationships, he establishes a barrier between himself and his girlfriends. Vivaldo seems to be looking for love in all the wrong places: on street corners and in bars..