Kobo Abe- Background Check

Kimifusa Abe was born on March 7, 1924 in the Kita district of Tokyo, Japan. He grew up in the province of Mukden, in Manchuria. His father was a practicing physician who taught at the nearby medical college. His father pushed him to study medicine, and Abe did so, returning to Japan in 1941 and graduationg from Tokyo Imperial University in 1948, but Abe only completed his degree under the condition that he would not practice. He had begun to publish with a collected work of poems in 1947, and his first novel was published a year later in 1948. Abe never garnered critical international acclaim, however, until Woman In the Dunes was published in 1962. Afterwards, Abe wrote many more novels and transferred severla of the to the movie screen, where Woman In the Dunes won the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 1964. His works were famous for their often nightmarish and surrealistic portrayals of the individual self in a modern society, comparable to Kafka's works. After a lifetime of writing and directing, Abe passed away on January 22, 1993.

Marquez was born on March 6, 1927 in Aracataca, Colombia to Gabriel Eligio Garcia and Luisa Santiaga Marquez. He was raised by his grandparents until he was eight, when his grandfather died and he moved in with his parents in the town of Baranquilla. His grandfather, who had been a Colonel, was an excellent storyteller and greatly influenced the young Gabriel with his political and ideological views. His grandmother also told stories, but of a different sort. She would tell stories of ghosts and omens as if they were the absolute truth- the roots of Marquez's magical realism.
In 1940, Marquez attended the boarding school of San Jose in Baranquilla, even though his family had moved to Sucre. In 1943, he won a scholarship to attend private school, and in 1947 he began to study law at the National University of Colombia. During this time period, Marquez began to read works by European authors, such as The Metamorphosis, that would greatly influence his career. His first short story, The Third Resignation, was published that September. By 1950, Marquez had quit law school and became a full-time journalist, first writing for the El Heraldo newspaper in Baranquilla.
Over the remainder of his life, Marquez has published several books, novellas, and collections of short stories. His most famous book, One Hundred Years of Solitude, won him the Nobel Prize for Literature and the Romulo Gallegos prize for literature in 1972. In addition, his outspoken criticisms of imperialism earned him no end of notoriety with the United States, and immigration officers regularly denied him visas. However, his ban was lifted when Clinton, who claimed that One Hundred Years of Solitude was his favortie book, was elected president.
Marquez married Mercedes Barcha in 1958, and has two sons: Rodrigo and Gonzalo.

The Metamorphosis- The Final Sentence

I think that the last sentence represents the change in her parents, more than anything else. Kafka writes, "And it was like a confirmation of their new dreams and good intentions when at the end of the ride their daughter got up first and stretched her young body." Their new dreams and good intentions are focusing on finding their daughter a good husband. It is now what they can do to support Grete, not what she can do to support them. This is a distinct contrast from how Gregor only worked to support them, without much regard for himself.

However, this is only one interpretation of the ending. While reading the ending again, I found that it could be viewed much more negatively than my first interpretation. Their "new dreams and good intentions" could merely have been transferred from Gregor to their daughter. They say that they want to find her a good husband, but in reality she wants to go to a conservatory to continue playing violin. Her parents may have good intentions, but if Grete follows their path then she will be caught in the same web that entrapped Gregor. In this context, Kafka's description of her youth may be sarcastic, or a lament for the beauty and hopefulness of youth that is wasted in the monotony of everyday life.

The Metamorphosis- A Personal Response

I think that The Metamorphosis is a very depressing text, with a negative outlook on human behavior and its consequences. Obviously, it was greatly influenced by Kafka's personal life, and he reflects his grim world view in the text. In particular, I think that Kafka best shows his complicated relationship with his father. In the text, Gregor at first supports his father and his family out of loyalty, love, and a feeling of responsibility. After Gregor's transformation, although he would like to support his family, he is no longer able to support them in any meaningful way, and so his father tends to push him aside and consider him a nuisance at best. The scene in which his father lodges an apple into Gregor's back is the perfect example of this viewpoint. Only afterwards does his father recall that Gregor is still a part of the family, and does not deserve to be treated as an enemy. I think that this excerpt demonstrates the unbalanced relationship they share; they go back and forth between love and disgust, support and frustration.

While the reaction of the family might seem a little harsh at first, I think that the importance of communication is highlighted by their personal responses to Gregor's transformation. We, the readers, understand Gregor's good intentions for what they are because we can read his thoughts without any misinterpretations. However, the same cannot be said of the Samsa family. Gregor has no means of communicating with any members of his family, as he has lost the ability to talk coherently, and as such the majority of his actions are misinterpreted by the rest of the Samsa's. His appearance has a lot to do with this. For most normal people, a giant bug will significantly change how he/she summarizes and reacts to a particular event or attempt at communication. Besides the literal interpretation, though, I think Kafka uses the bug as a metaphor for cultural, linguistic, and personal differences that can cause trouble with communication.

I really like the portrayal of Gregor's sister in The Metamorphosis. It's refreshing to have a character who acts selflessly once in a while. Her selflessness stems from a strong, loving bond between herself and and her brother. Even so, Kafka shows that selflessness has its limits. Towards the end of the story, even Gregor's sister grows desperate and frustrated with her family's state of affairs to the point of suggesting they remove Gregor permanently. Both of her elderly parents are working, Gregor had driven off the boarders before they paid the Samsa family, and overall conditions in the house are tense and miserable. I think that Kafka is making a statement about human nature through the sister's character. He shows that humans can only perform selfless acts for so long, and eventually there is a breaking point beyond which they must think of their own need to survive.

Madame Bovary- 4 Themes

1- Mechanisms of middle-class society (not quite sure what this means but I'll give it a shot)
The novel portrays the workings of the middle-class in an array of fashions. There are extremes and normalities, but all fall within a similar social status. In the novel itself, very few characters are either very poor or very rich. For most of these bourgeois, they are motivated by their desires: Emma's romanticism, Lheureux's sinister power, Homais' bid for recognition, and others. The search for these desires seems to make up most of the interaction bewteen membors of this caste. Flaubert seems to be of the opinion that most of these motivations are flawed in some manner, leading to criticisms of the bourgeois lifestyle.
2- Fatality of the bourgeois
I think Emma's death of arsenic poisoning is representative of bourgeois fatality as a whole: a slow, painful, decaying death. Rather than a romantic "blaze of glory", this is a more realistic, and apt, ending to a downward spiral.
3- Reality vs. illusion
Flaubert suggests through his characters that a balance is necessary. An extreme of one (Emma) or an extreme of the other (Charles) lead to either mediocrity or despair and depression. Emma is so romanticized that anything she does will lead to eventual disappointment. Charles, on the other hand, simply lives in the reality and is therefore an incredibly boring, mediocre person. Flaubert seems to suggest that a balance of self-awareness and desire would lead to a more fulfilling, motivated, and successful life.
4- Is Emma a victim?
She is a victim in several ways. First, she is a victim of her own failings. Her romantic ideals and desires cause her downfall and death. However, the second possibility lies in her surroundings and culture that caused these failings. She loved to read, but would the majority of texts in those days were romantic. Coupled with her poor social standing, these ideas grew on her to the point where she thought of nothing else. So in this way, Emma is a victim of her time and culture, as were many women of that era.

Favorite Texts and Why

I couldn't decide on just one, so here are three of my favorite texts and why I enjoyed them.

1- The First Circle, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
This book is an incredibly complex, vivid portrayal of the politics and inner workings of the upper echelons in a Soviet prison camp. Based on others' experiences in such a camp (another one of his novels is more directly based off his experiences), it is a fascinating but intensely human recreation. It was the first text of its kind that I had read, and it remains my favorite example of Russian literature to date.
2- A Farewell To Arms, by Ernest Hemingway.
I read this book fairly recently, after reading several other novels written by Hemingway, and this novel really hit home. Hemingway's writing is beautiful in its simplicity, and the combination of romantic dreams grounded in realism really works. While many people might not consider it his finest work, I thouroughly enjoyed reading it.
3- The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien.
I'll admit it, I'm a sucker for sci-fi/fantasy. But what I loved the most about this series was the depth to the world around it. I don't think any author has ever put so much time anf effort into creating such an elaborate world. It is astonishingly well written (Tolkien majored in language) and is fun to read.
On a side note, the languages of his world were what I found to be the most fascinating singular aspect. He actually developed several full languages just for this series, and since I really enjoy learning languages, it definately tuned me in to the series.

Gustave Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821 in Rouen, France.
He was educated in his hometown until he left for Paris to study law in 1840.
His first published work, Madame Bovary, was serialized the Revue de Paris in 1856.
Flaubert and the publisher were immediately put on trial in January of 1857 by public prosecutors on the grounds of obscenity and immorality.
After a month of deliberation, Flaubert was acquitted on February 7, 1857, and the book published in April became an instant bestseller.
Salammbô (1862) and L’Éducation Sentimentale (1869) were the only other complete novels Flaubert would write before his death in 1880.
Flaubert was known for his meticulous approach to writing; he claimed to always be looking for “le mot juste,” or “the right word.”
He was widely acknowledged as the most influential French realist at the time of his death, with writers such as Guy de Maupassant, Edmond de Goncourt, and Emile Zola.