Literary notes about Aloof (AI summary)
The term "aloof" is employed in literature to convey both physical and emotional distance, suggesting detachment or reserved comportment in diverse contexts. Authors use it to portray characters or groups who are set apart, whether in a stance of noble reserve, as seen in classical epics where warriors or leaders stand apart from the fray [1], [2], or as a reflection of personal isolation and introspection in more modern narratives [3], [4]. In other instances the word underscores a deliberate distancing for strategic or ethical reasons, highlighting a character’s unwillingness to engage with others or serve adaptive interests, as in portrayals of aristocratic indifference or calculated separation [5], [6]. This nuanced usage affirms that being "aloof" can imply both an admirable stature and an unfortunate estrangement within human interactions [7], [8].
- I should hold aloof from battle on any day rather than this, for my mother bore me with nothing of the coward about me.
— from The Iliad by Homer - Sure of his pilot’s loss, he takes himself The helm, and steers aloof, and shuns the shelf.
— from The Aeneid by Virgil - His whole life he had kept aloof from his kind, and he still desired to keep aloof.
— from White Fang by Jack London - And how aloof and remote from him she had become now!
— from Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy - Every aristocracy which keeps itself entirely aloof from the people becomes impotent—a fact which is as true in literature as it is in politics.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville - The present chief, wisely distrusting the prince whose reign has been a series of turmoils, has kept aloof from court.
— from Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3 by James Tod - Here in close covert out of the sun's eye The youth she places, and herself the while Swathed in a shadowy mist stands far aloof.
— from The Georgics by Virgil - But for an active being, a being who partakes of the consequences instead of standing aloof from them, there is at the same time a personal response.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey
