It has been said that “Man revolts against his condition first by understanding it and then, in the face of his cosmic meaninglessness creating his own human meaning.” To me, this means that a person has no meaning until he understands he has no meaning and only when this understanding occurs is when he creates his own personal meaning. Two books, which support my point of view, are The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and The Plague by Albert Camus. These two stories use setting, plot structure and symbolism to express their author’s ideas.
The Metamorphosis is one of the earliest pieces of literature to express an existential point of view. First of all, the room that Gregor Samsa lives in is isolated from the rest of the world. This isolation allows him to understand the meaning of being a bug. This is an example of a story that begins at its end. There is no way out for Gregor Samsa at the beginning, likewise there is no way out for him at the end. He is a bug and has to understand that. Finally, Kafka uses the insect as a symbol for human life. The existential view is that human life is meaningless. In our world the bug is looked upon as meaningless. Once he came to the realization that it would be better if he died, he defined himself. This definition was that of a caring individual who sacrificed his life for the happiness of his family.
The Essay on Athenian View of Human Nature
The course of history has shown that during times of confusion or disaster, people’s true human nature emerges. Unlike the view of Gandhi, in these moments humans behave violently and are concerned with self-interest, supporting the Athenian’s view of human motivation. In the History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides gives ample support of this view of human nature. Generally ...
Albert Camus, uses the same three literary devices, to express his existential opinion in The Plague. Camus, chooses to set the story in Oran, Algeria. The reason for this country and city is because it is obscure and alienated. Again, like in The Metamorphosis, the isolation helps the lead character Dr. Bernard Rieux, understand the meaning of life, especially life surrounded by the plague. Additionally, Camus divides the novel into five parts. The first and final portion show life before and after the plague. Parts two and four display the suffering of the individual characters and the society in Oran as a whole. Part three portrays the plague at its peak. This plot structure illustrates the rise and decline of the plague as well as the gain of personal understanding experienced by Dr. Rieux. With this understanding, Dr. Rieux discovered his individual meaning. Like Kafka, Camus uses symbolism to portray the human condition. However, Camus symbol for the human condition is the plague. “To give an artistic shape to these convictions, Camus chooses a “plague” as an appropriate symbol for the human condition, since it intensifies this awareness of man’s mortality and makes the common bond especially clear” (Neilson 4736).
Albert Camus and Franz Kafka use the literary devices of setting, plot structure, and symbolism to portray the existential belief that man is meaningless until he realizes that he has no meaning and only then does he discover his meaning. Wile using the literary device of setting, both men portrayed the same exact feeling of isolation. The literary device of plot structure was used two totally different ways to project to different emotions. Finally, symbolism is used to portray the human condition in both stories, however the way the symbol is used is vastly different. Therefore, the use of literary devices in a story is enriching and makes the story unique from all others like it.
The Essay on Literary Devices In "The Woman At The Store"
There are many different literary devices used in Katherine Mansfields The Woman at the Store, they are used effectively. Regularly Mansfield uses personification, characterization and irony. This short essay will show what the main literary devices are in this story. Irony has a significant literary device in this story; the storys plot is enormously ironic. The reader expects that the womans ...
