Introduction
The importance of settings in Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” and Marquez’s “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” cannot be underestimated, because it is named by placing their characters within a framework of specific socio-political circumstances, which allowed both authors to endow their stories with strongly defined tragically-comic sounding. Even a brief analysis of both literary works reveals their main motif as being directly related to the idea of social alienation. Yet, what makes a particular person feel like he or she is being alienated from the rest of society? It is the fact that, while acting as society’s integral component, such a person gradually gets to realize the full extent of its expandability. Therefore, it was not by pure coincidence that both authors had placed their stories’ actions amid a social environment that implies suppression of one’s individuality. In this paper, we will aim at exploring this thesis even further.
Striking features of Kafka’s story
One of the most striking features of Kafka’s story is that, even after having realized himself being turned into an insect, the story’s main character Gregor Samsa never ceased thinking about his professional career in terms of being the only objective proof of his existential worth. While speaking with the clerk who came to check on him, Gregor tried his best to assure his superior that was just about to leave the house: “I’m just getting out of bed. Just a moment. Be patient! It’s not quite as easy as I’d thought. I’m quite alright now, though” (Kafka, Ch. 1). Why would Gregor be still willing to go to work, even though he had just been turned into a bug? This is because, while sharing the household with his parents and his sister, he gradually adopted a collectivist mentality. In its turn, this explains why in “Metamorphosis” Kafka applies a great amount of effort in providing readers with the insight onto emotional atmosphere in Gregor’s house: “Through the crack in the door, Gregor could see that the gas had been lit in the living room. His father at this time would normally be sat with his evening paper, reading it out in a loud voice to Gregor’s mother, and sometimes to his sister” (Kafka, Ch. 2). By doing it, Kafka strived to expose his characters’ lives as being highly ritualized. However, people who proceed with the highly ritualized mode of existence are being rarely capable of perceiving their lives’ value as a “thing in itself”. They assess surrounding reality through the lenses of socially constructed notions of “morality”, “ethics” and “tradition”: “Gregor’s father refused to take his uniform off even at home; while his nightgown hung unused on its peg Gregor’s father would slumber where he was, fully dressed, as if always ready to serve and expecting to hear the voice of his superior even here” (Kafka, Ch. 3). While living with his parents and siblings, Gregor was expected to act as an ant – he could not have a personal agenda, whatsoever. And, after having been deprived of its value as a money-generating machine, Gregor was automatically deprived of its value as a human being. This is exactly the reason why in “Metamorphosis”, the author had gone a great length while describing the story’s settings he wanted to emphasize the counter-productive essence of collectivist living. Just as Chinese immigrants in Western countries, Gregor’s relatives had an unhealthy taste for living in extreme proximity to each other as if they were the human equivalent of ants. How do ants treat the non-functional members of their society? They stop feeding them while making preparations for their corpses to be eventually utilized as food. Similarly, Gregor’s relatives had stopped feeding him, while growing increasingly impatient with him continuing to remain alive – all because they could only formally be referred to as humans.
The settings
Even though settings in Marquez’s story “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” are being concerned with particularities of rural rather than urban living, they are being designed to serve essentially the same purpose as what is the case with settings in Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” – instilling readers with a negative attitude towards the idea of collectivist existence. Why it is that the value of an individual’s life in Latin American countries has traditionally been considered not very high? This is because Hispanics continue to think of their ability to conceive as many children as possible as such that directly reflects their existential worth. While describing Nasar’s house, the author states: “On the upper floor, where the customs offices had been before, he (Ibrahim Nasar) built two large bedrooms and five cubbyholes for the many children he intended having” (Marquez, p. 3). It is namely in overpopulated rural societies, where people are being required to adjust their behavior to the principles of “honorable living”, even at the price of violating state-imposed laws. And, the reason for this is simple – the very survival of these societies depends on their members’ willingness to kill each other on the account of even the slightest provocation. As the popular saying goes – the less there are people, the more there is oxygen.
In rural societies, people’s desire to explore their individuality by the mean of indulging in intellectual activities is not being tolerated. On the contrary – the residents of just about any village in Latin America are being valued for the sheer strength of their irrational prejudices, along with their ability to consume large quantities of greasy local food. “They (villagers) placed the sick people in the archways to receive God’s medicine, and women came running out of their yards with turkeys and suckling pigs and all manner of things to eat, and from the opposite shore came canoes bedecked with flowers” (Marquez, p. 5). Thus, the story’s settings subtly imply the nonsensical nature of Santiago Nasar’s death – the only reason he was murdered, is because the Vicario brothers were strongly determined to explore their peasant “spirituality” by declaring vendetta on their sister’s suspected lover. And, what prompts uneducated peasants to begin assessing surrounding reality in terms of “spirituality”, “tradition” and “honor” more than anything else does? Alcohol! This is the reason why “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” contains numerous scenes of people socializing with each other, while in the state of drunken stupor: “205 cases of contraband alcohol had been consumed and almost two thousand bottles of cane liquor, which had been distributed among the crowd. There wasn’t a single person, rich or poor, who hadn’t participated in some way in the wildest party the town had ever seen” (Marquez, p. 4). Just as it is the case with “Metamorphosis”, Marquez’s story’s settings imply collectivist retrogradedness, on the part of those who had no choice but to observe these settings, throughout their lives’ entirety.
Conclusion
The conclusion of this paper can be formulated as follows – in their stories, both: Kafka and Marquez strived to present readers with a three-dimensional clue on particularities of their characters’ behavior. In its turn, this prompted both authors to invest heavily into bestowing their literary works with the spirit of existential fatefulness. And, how they had gone about accomplishing this is being primarily concerned with Kafka and Marquez’s ability to adjust stories’ settings to correspond to these stories’ plots with utter exactness.
Bibliography:
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. Chronicle of a Death Foretold. New York: Vintage Books, 2003.
Kafka, Franz “Metamorphosis”. 2005. The Project Gutenberg EBook. Web.