Chaos (symbol)
Chaos is a symbol of Miss Lonelyhearts’ crisis of faith. That chaos was “multiple” and there was no place to hide from it, for it reigned within him. “Broken groups of people” harried past him, “forming neither stars nor squares.” It felt so wrong, for chaos was alien to him. “The harsh clanging sound of street cars and the raw shouts of hucksters” were unescapable, just like madness within him. “Repeated groups of words” failed to fit their rhythm and “no scale could give them meaning.” He was losing himself in chaos.
A lamb (allegory)
A lamb is allegory of innocence. The dream in which Miss Lonelyhearts had to “perform the sacrifice” and kill the little lamb signified that he was losing his own innocence, purity of his own soul. He “raised the knife” and “made a flesh wound.” Then the knife “broke the altar,” but was unable to “cut through the matted wool.” His hands were covered with “slimy blood.” Finally, he crushed “its head with a stone and left the carcass to the flies.” That lamb was Miss Lonelyhearts’ innocence, dead and crushed.
Misery (motif)
The main motif of this story is misery. Miss Lonelyhearts couldn’t imagine how much suffering he would have to witness when he agreed to be an advice columnist. He had to deal with all “the sick and miserable, broken and betrayed, inarticulate and impotent.” He was “twisting the arm of Desperate, Brokenhearted, Sick-of-it-all, Disillusioned-with-tubercular-husband.”
