Author(s): Ma Chaofan

Abstract: Olive Kitteridge, the third masterpiece by contemporary American writer Elizabeth Strout, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for its exquisitely detailed depiction of the daily lives of small-town residents. Against the backdrop of the increasingly prominent trend of global aging, the portrayal of the elderly in this book appropriately carries real-world implications. This paper uses narrative gerontology theory to analyze the loneliness experience of the elderly and its narrative presentation in the novel. In terms of narrative, the author uses the shift between an omniscient perspective and an internal perspective, combined with the characters’ inner monologues and dialogues, to deeply bind the theme of loneliness with the physical and psychological experiences of aging. This highlights the role of “Narratives of Life” in narrative gerontology in constructing the existential meaning of the elderly, revealing the universality and complexity of loneliness among the elderly in modern society.

Keywords: Olive Kitteridge, narrative of ageing, loneliness, aging, family relationships

Article Info: Received: 10 Aug 2025; Received in revised form: 01 Sep 2025; Accepted: 04 Sep 2025; Available online: 10 Sep 2025

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.105.9