Sign-Inventory 1, Week 1

There is a theme of solitude behind the poem "A Martian Sends a Postcard Home". The martian reveals insight into his own enstrangement through the things he focuses his own and how he presents it. The acts that he focuses on are largely solitary. He focuses on things that are seemingly insignificant, like using the bathroom, to show his loneliness. He focuses on solitary actions because he is alone. Still, it is interesting that he views defecating a painful--taking place in a punishment room. He views punishment as a solitary thing, and then reiterates that no one can escape punishment. Perhaps the martian has been abandoned for punishment? Hence his continual focus on loneliness. 

It is not until the last few lines that the martian acknowledges that humans "hide in pairs." He steps away from the pain of solitude in this instance and instead focuses on a harmless activity. There is a feeling of unity within the end. Humans go to sleep together. And at the same time, become one within themselves. The martian too, as is typical of a postcard, is homesick. He feels at one with his home. Perhaps he also comes to understand the part of home, the reflections of home, that lives within himself?