But this character's uncanny independence could just be an accident. Human beings are social animals. We live in families, we intend to make ourselves happy with other members of our species. One ancient name for the other, homo, the most faithful descendant being l'homme, is far from serendipitous. They may as well be aliens.
Homo is hetero.
The protocynical thought that we hurt one another in looking for love is painful enough. The amplification of this into the hyperesthetic notion that people hurt us even when we choose to remain alone is almost too much to bear. The repeated confirmation that some are out to destroy us for no good reason is always too much to bear. This alone suffices to explain the pathetic death of Huey Newton, and the death wishes of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, who was also pathologically stoic. The suspicious intuition strengthens us for the opposition, but it also destroys us.