Value Struggle the Struggle Between

Value Struggle

The Struggle Between Traditional and Modern Values

The struggle between traditional and modern values has been a major subject in art and literature throughout the modern age, and especially in the latter half of the twentieth century and the twenty-first century. Many protagonists struggle to assume identities that are not respected by traditional value systems in their respective cultures, and whether they are successful or not in these attempts their journeys make for compelling stories. This paper will examine one particular text that centers on the conflict between traditional and modern values and the struggle for identity -- Whale Rider, a film directed by Niki Caro in the context of two other literary texts -- Jhumpa Lahiri's the Namesake and Franz Kafka's famed novella, the Metamorphosis. Through a comparison of these texts different views on the subject of traditional vs. non-traditional values and even the concept of values as a whole will be illuminated.

Whale Rider concerns the story of a Maori girl's ascendance to leadership in the tribe, a feat that had previously only been achieved (quite purposefully and according to custom) by the men of the tribe. There are many specific instances throughout the film where the traditional values of the tribe were shown to be in direct conflict with the changing values of the protagonist, but the overall plot of the film is just as indicative of this struggle. The story and the manner in which it is told highlights the crumbling power structure that exists in the tribe and that leads to an erosion of certain traditional values and makes the protagonist's attempts to mold and re-envision these values -- and in some cases reject them -- more sympathetic. The observed shift in traditional power structures is a major trend in twentieth century literature.

There are several details in Jhumpa Lahiri's novel, the Namesake that also speak to the corruption and/or degradation of traditional power structures as part impetus and part mechanism for the installation of modern and non-traditional values. The protagonist and titular character of the book receives a very non-traditional first name due to a breakdown in the traditional Bengali family structure and value system into which he is ostensibly being born. Living in the United States, his parents has attempted to receive his chosen name from the elderly relative selected for the honor of naming the child through the mail system, but a lost letter led to a naming mishap that would provide much of the novel's introspective and external action. Through this and other similar details throughout the novel, Lahiri shows that the breakdown of traditional power structures allows for the protagonist's attempt to carve out a non-traditional identity in a culturally new place for he and his parents and ultimately brings him to a self created set of values different from either of the cultures of which he is a part.

The use of various artifacts as symbols is also important in showing the transference and transformation of values in many texts. In Whale Rider, a whale's tooth that has been cast into the ocean serves as a symbol of leadership, and the protagonist's retrieval eventually cements her ascendance to the role of a tribal leader. Her positive arc moving away from traditional values is shown in her appropriation of certain physical symbols of this traditional value system. In this way, the protagonist both literally and symbolically adopts and yet transforms the traditional values of her tribe in order to achieve her own identity.

Artifacts are out to a much different use in Franz Kafka's the Metamorphosis. Of course, the arc that the protagonist of this story travels is also markedly different from that of the protagonist in Whale Rider; Gregor Samsa is quite happy his traditional role of a grown son in a lower-middle class family until he finds himself transformed into a large cockroach-like insect. Though at first he is still cared for by his family, the loss of his traditional role within that family eventually leads to his loss of value within the family, and his bedroom becomes a repository for all manner of discardable refuse and junk that is unwanted or underappreciated by the other family members. These artifacts are used to symbolize the lack of importance Gregor Samsa now holds in the traditional value system to which his family ascribes and of which he himself was a part just prior to his transformation.