The subject of both books revolves around the estrangement of the protagonists. For Hang, the cause of her isolation is the division of her family structure. The mixed messages from her mother push her to Aunt Tam, in spite of Hang’s unconditional love for her mother, Que. Conversely, Gregor’s separation comes from within, since the protagonist gives up on himself. The reason for Gregor’s transformation to an insect is that he lives a mechanical, insignificant, uncourageous, emotionless, apathetic, and lonely life. For that reason, he becomes an insect, triggering Gregor to distance himself from his family. Gregor’s isolation is self-inflicted by hiding under the sofa and not communicating with the family. The self-inflicted isolation of Kafka contrasts further with the family-manufactured isolation of Huong with the results of the protagonists. Gregor decides to let himself die, accepting his uselessness and realizing his insignificance in the world, while Hang resolves to change her life and live for herself rather than her mother or aunt. Kafka describes an existentialist message, while Huong describes a lighter more upbeat message that relies on optimism. The two contrasting messages through the protagonists describe the differences of the meaning of the work. The Metamorphosis shows the futility of life, an existentialist view, while Paradise of the Blind is a criticism of communism, but a story of hope for the Vietnamese people. The cultural difference of Asia and Europe rings through these messages brought about by isolation because Huong shows optimism, while Kafka shows pessimism.
For the families of the protagonists, their isolation affects the families in different ways. For Que and Aunt Tam, Hang causes them to diverge from each other. Que resents Hang for spending time with Aunt Tam, and Aunt Tam resents Que because Uncle Chinh killed her brother, Ton. This division shows the split caused by communism, which is due to the isolation of Hang caused by her inability to choose a family member to monopolize her love. On the other hand, Gregor’s self-inflicted estrangement causes the family to react collectively, while coming from different perspectives. First, Grete helps Gregor, giving him food and playing the violin, but by the end feels that his life must end, since he is a drain on the family. Ms. Samsa starts out sympathetic, but eventually sees her son as a horror of the family. Finally for Mr. Samsa, he throughout the novella he remains the real vermin of the story since he despises what Gregor has become. The collective change is towards an anti-Gregor sentiment. The changes of the families move further away from the protagonists to show the reader the folly with isolation. Instead, the two stories offer solutions to repair isolationism. Kafka offers gloom and accepting that life is worthless, while Huong describes life as something that must be determined by the individual to be worth something.
Authors use characters to exemplify a message of social commentary. Characters act in a way to bring across a theme or main focus. For The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and Paradise of the Blind by Duong Thu Huong, the authors utilize isolation to show the reader how to live life. The messages of the two stories differ with a battle of the cultures. The authors reflect the thoughts of the East and West. The Asian culture, reflected by Paradise of the Blind, and the European culture, reflected by The Metamorphosis, is vastly different, showing the optimism of the East and pessimism of the West. With this the reader sees the cultural differences in literature when it comes to the themes and utilization of characters.
Word Count 1,230
Works Cited
Dương, Thu Hương. Paradise of the Blind. Trans. Nina McPherson. New York: Perennial, 2002. Print.
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis and Other Stories. Trans. Joachim Neugroschel. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1993. Print.
A Comparison of Two Passages from The House of the Spirits
The opening of a novel is the most critical point for the author. Here the author has the opportunity to hook or lose the reader, and furthermore decides the tone and style for the rest of the story. On the other hand, the ending is the author’s final appeal to the reader, offering one final venue for offering the overall massage. With an ending the author desires to leave one lasting message for the reader to take away from the work. In Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits, a tale about the Trueba family history told through the family’s three main women, the author utilizes an interesting repetition of phrasing to hide character representation through the use of point of view within Allende’s style of magical realism that preserves the family history.
The first and last words of the narrative are “Barrabás came to us by sea” (Allende 1 and 433). In its first appearance, the line offers exposition for the reader to evaluate as the plot progresses. The mysticism of an item coming to people by sea offers the interesting mystical realism employed by Allende throughout the novel. The sea offers the symbolism of innocence for Barrabás to embody since water symbolizes purity; the dog coming to the family by the sea offers a new perspective for the family. It symbolizes the youthful enthusiasm of Clara whose happiness flows through the animal up until his death and subsequent development into a rug.
The final incarnation of the phrase occurs as a reference to the very first line. Allende wraps the story up as a full circle to show that the novel is a collection of memoirs and journals of family history. This family history extends to every detail, including the presentation of the dog. By the end of the story, the reader knows the fate of the characters, but now puts the plot into perspective; the story began with Barrabás and now ends with Barrabás. The repetition at the end highlights the mysticism, also evidenced by the italicized versions in both hands, with its first appearance showing that the mysticism in life births stories of a grandiose nature. The mysticism provides an element of realism for the Latin American audience to appreciative due to their very real belief in magic.
Furthermore, Allende’s use of point of view offer an interesting view of the story. The first passage utilizes the personal subject pronoun “I” offers a reference to Allende herself since it discusses the formation of the text. The fact that the character would use the actions written in a notebook shows that the narrator is reliant on the novel’s characters in order to drive the action. The “I” offers a detached role in the plot because it discusses the process of the writing that perceptively, the reader expects would not be done by one the characters, however this expectation is shattered by the end of the novel. Finally when Allende utilizes personal pronouns in the final portion of the Epilogue, the grand reveal occurs that Alba, not Allende, did the actual compilation of stories. The introduction of Alba as the narrator, with the detachment of Allende, shows the admiration and preference for the Trueba family by the narrator. Moreover, Alba highlights the main theme of the narrative by highlighting the importance of keeping family records throughout the generations. Within this detailed record, Allende displays the importance of the words of the past generations, by respecting the order of the family history to match that of Clara’s that provides the basis for the record. With profound respect, Allende shows the significance that the past must play in the present, being a big role for the present to provide a basis of reverence towards the past.
Additionally, the Alba and Allende dynamic manifest the author’s role in the novel. When the reader is unable to distinguish the “I” in the first paragraph of the story, they suppose it refers to the author. Instead, the “I” actually refers to Alba who represents a close link between the author and the character. Alba is supposed to be the closest character to Allende and inject Allende’s personal thoughts through the plot. After the “I” is clouded in the first paragraph, the reader supposes the detached point of view is a result of the author’s stylistic objectivity to the plot. Alba’s reveal in the Epilogue gives the close link to the author an even better case because of the actions of the novel that lend to Allende’s life. The pro socialist ideas presented through the characterization and point of view link the author and her character. The novel portrays capitalism as the greedy, materialistic, and oppressive form of economic structure that hinders the lives of men and women alike. Correspondingly, the characterization of Esteban Trueba as a thriving capitalist whose life is empty and lacking true love, until Alba extends herself to her grandfather to share his story.
Possibly the most telling link in the Alba and Allende agenda arises when the Allende writes, “I would use her notebooks to reclaim the past and overcome terrors of my own” (Allende 1). Alba and Allende share the horrors of modern Chile in that Alba is the youngest of the Trueba women and Allende was born in 1942, during the height of world conflict. Allende survived life in Latin America as a relative to the Chilean leader Salvador Allende whose death can be represented to the reader as the death of the Candidate. The modern history represented in the novel is actions that occurred in Allende’s lifetime in Chile and Latin America, offering realism and historical background to the piece. Shared through the eyes of the powerful women of the Trueba family, Allende can reclaim the past and overcome terrors of her own.
Connecting the author and her powerful female character is the critical link for the two passages. Alba acts as an agent through which Allende speaks through and shares similarities with to tell his message. Alba acts as the model of Allende because her compilation responds to Allende’s original manuscript. A letter to her one hundred year-old grandfather provided the starting point that branched off the storyline that winds and turns around a family history.
The two passages provide interesting connotations for the reader to gather based on the information available to the audience. The very first paragraph offers an exposition and provides the baseline for the reader’s understanding of the work. It gives a starting point for the magical realism to build upon and provides an identifier for the narrator and its point of view. Interestingly enough, Allende clouds this point of view by misconstruing it at first by making it appear as if the narrator is Allende herself by using the personal subject pronoun “I”, revealing the writing process, and stating that the stories offer a remedy to her tortures. Instead, the narrator is revealed in the resolution of the novel and sets itself as Alba, the youngest Trueba daughter who represents the modern times thinking of the new generation. Fortunately enough, Allende completely links herself with Alba because the two value the history of past family generations, live through the same time, and finish circularly with an italicized dictation of Barrabás arriving at sea. The two passages compliment each other as they offer different connotations to the audience since they include different levels of information to the audience, which eventually clears up in the circular style that offers a precise character presentation.
Word Count: 1,260
Works Cited
Allende, Isabel. The House of the Spirits. Trans. Magda Bogdin. New York: Bantam, 1986. Print.
Two Key Passages From The House of the Spirits
Passage 1:
“Barrabás came to us by sea, the child Clara wrote in her delicate calligraphy. She was already in the habit of writing down important maters, and afterward, when she was mute, she also recorded trivialities, never suspecting that fifty years later I would use her notebooks to reclaim the past and overcome terrors of my own.” (Allende 1)
Passage 2:
“My grandmother wrote in her notebooks that bore witness to life for fifty years. Smuggled out by friendly spirits, they miraculously escaped the infamous pyre in which so many other family papers perished. I have them here at my feet, bound with colored ribbons, divided according to events and not in chronological order, just as she arranged them before she left. Clara wrote them so they would help me now to reclaim the past and overcome terrors of my own. The first is an ordinary school copybook with twenty pages, written in a child’s delicate calligraphy. It begins like this: Barrabás came to us by sea.” (Allende 432-433)