Comparative analysis and contrast of concepts

William Faulkner & Franz Kafka

Society vs. The Self: Individualism in "A rose for Emily" by William Faulkner and "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka

The twentieth century introduced the new ideology of individualism, wherein people gradually detached itself from the norms that have bound people and institutions together for many centuries. As Western societies embarked into a world order dominated by modernism and capitalism, people's values have changed, and the focus shifted from the society to the individual. This social change had significantly affected Western culture, that modernism, capitalism, and individualism were projected into the works of famous literary writers.

Among these famous literary works that demonstrated the development and effect of individualism in Western society were "A rose for Emily" (1930) by William Faulkner and "The Metamorphosis" (1916) by Franz Kafka. These works discussed the theme of individualism through the tone of each work's narrators: the "Community" or the third person narrator in "Emily" and Gregor Samsa in "Metamorphosis." This similarity in the tone of the voices or narrators used in each literary work has an objective, and this is to effectively illustrate how the protagonists Emily and Gregor serve examples of individuals who tried, and failed, to assert their individualism.

This paper argues that the use of the third-person voice in "Emily" was Faulkner's way of extending the message that Emily lived her life constantly criticized and evaluated by her community. Kafka's use of the third-person voice/narrator in expressing the thoughts of Gregor, wherein it was demonstrated how he was able to assert his individualism, although at the cost of being isolated by his own family. Both stories highlighted how society, subsisting to the collectivist ideal, resented individuals who tried to show their "deviant ways" -- that is, acting not in accordance to society's norms, but acting in accordance to their own thinking and choice.

In "Emily," the protagonist Emily was stigmatized by her community simply because she declined to share her life with other people. In the close-knit community that Emily lived in, it was impossible to keep someone's affairs to himself/herself, wherein the norm was to involve one's self in other people's business. Thus, Emily was tagged as deviant and her community had created the image of her as a mysterious and somewhat dangerous individual whose activities were cause for suspicion. Emily as a "fallen monument" symbolized the enigma she left behind after her death: no one knows about her, her life, and the truth behind the mysterious disappearance of Emily's former beau, Homer Barron.

Indeed, the use of the third-person voice reinforced the fact that Emily as an individual was only known through the references of people in her community. Her persona and life have become dependent on what other people said about her, and she was not given the chance in the story to assert her true self. Thus, through the third-person voice, Faulkner showed how Emily had been and continued to be suppressed by her society, being a deviant single woman who kept to herself rather than mingle with her neighbors. Despite Emily's defiance to the community's norms, she was still victimized by the people's intolerance to her being different. Even after her death, the image of her as a scorned woman-turned-murderer remained, all on the basis of a member of the community's narrative (the third-person voice/narrator).

"Metamorphosis," meanwhile, presented the depiction of the individual who wanted to assert himself/herself in a society governed by fixed norms and rules throughout many centuries. Gregor Samsa, who had shown exhaustion from working and supporting his family, was able to assert himself by transforming himself into an insect. As an insect, he was unable to communicate with his family -- and worse, he was unable to go to work and earn money to maintain the lifestyle that his family has. This incident is an ironic occurrence in the story: Gregor was only able to assert himself by rendering himself 'incommunicado' or incapable of communicating, with his family. Speaking the language not of people but of insects, he got what he wanted, only at the cost of being misunderstood and eventually, isolated and neglected, by his own family.