Kafka's Story: A New Era of Writing in Literature - Essay Sample

Introduction

Writers have played a crucial role in the development of literature throughout history. This is especially so for those targeting to move away from realism and into modernism, a re-invention of the future of literature. The following discussion is an example of such writers.

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The story written by Kafka is heterodiegetic. The narrator of the story does not seem to be part of the unfolding of the story's action. It is just a voice tasked with telling the story of the lives of the characters, but they do not impact on the story in any way. The other written by Xun is homodiegetic. This is because the narrator is a participant in the events following the development of the story.

Kafka's The Metamorphosis employs the use of internal focalization. The narrator tells the story through the eyes of the main characters. The story unfolds through their thoughts, experiences, and perceptions. The reader understands the story through the impact of these characters. Xun's Diary of a Madman also primarily makes use of internal focalization. The narrator outlines the story through the eyes of the diarist. It is the diarist's perceptions, ideas, and experience that shape the views and attitudes with which the readers hold the story. Through the diarist's memories, thoughts, and feelings, the story is unfolded. Xun also uses changing focalization by shifting attention in the development of the story from one focalizing character to another.

It is evident both writers, Kafka and Xun, in attempts to make their writings more relatable and more real, employ the use of internal focalization. This is whereby the narrators allude to the thoughts, memories, experiences, feelings, and perceptions of a character to tell the story. The narrator in Kafka's The Metamorphosis tells the story through Gregor's eyes. The audience acquires his fears and resonates with his experiences and memories as he goes through change. For instance, the reader is sucked into a day in Gregor's life when he visualizes his life changing when he wakes up and finds himself transformed into a giant insect.

"When Gregor Samsa woke one morning from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed right there in his bed into some monstrous insect. He was lying on his back-which was hard, like a carapace-and when he raised his head a little he saw his curved brown belly segmented by rigid arches atop which the blanket, already slipping, was barely managing to cling. His many legs, pitifully compared to the rest of him, waved helplessly before his eyes" (Kafka 204)

Diary of a Madman by Xun tells the story of the life and experiences of a man in different cultures and communities, the story of his life, through the perceptions and feelings of the diarist. It is his story that brings to light the struggles and triumphs of the Chinese characters. Even though the story garners differing interpretations, it is clear that the theme of change is prevalent in all of them. The story is predominantly narrated through the eyes of the diarist. Also, the narrator occasionally shifts focus from the diarist to contribute to the diversity of the story by telling the story through the experiences and perceptions of other characters, such as the prisoner to be executed. For example, the following excerpt validates these claims;

"The elder brother apologized for having needlessly put me to the inconvenience of this visitation, and concluding his disquisition with a hearty smile, showed me the two volumes of diaries which, he assured me, would reveal the nature of his brother's disorder during those fearful days" (Xun 240).

The narrative situation in Kafka's story, The Metamorphosis, indicates that the narrator has no bearing on the development of the story. The author uses an outside voice to narrate the story but has no participative role. The prevalent internal focalization in the story allows the reader to follow the story as it unfolds through the experiences, memories, thoughts, and perceptions of the main character, Gregor. The reader develops a connection with the character as he goes through the process of experiencing change.

Xun's story, Diary of a Madman, presents a different narrative situation. For instance, the story is homodiegetic, which means that the narrator of the story has an active role in the development of that story. The narrator is involved in the lives of the two brothers as is indicated through the events following his discovery of the diary written by one of the brothers. The story employs the use of both internal and changing focalization. It significantly dwells on the life and experiences of the diarist, his thoughts and perceptions of different matters as he battles a dangerous disease. The story also shifts the focus in some instances allowing the reader to understand the memories and experiences in the lives of other focal characters, including the diarist's brother and the narrator.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the writers involved in the above analysis played significant roles in the development of the art of writing during their times. Their works received recognition and admiration from far and wide. Their works contribute to the further development of the art in aspects such as the narrative situation, which profoundly influences the outline of a story.

Works Cited

Kafka, Franz. The metamorphosis. Modern Library Classics, 2013.

Lu, Xun. Diary of a madman and other stories. University of Hawaii Press, 1990.