The Independent Artist in The Awakening and Narcissus and Goldmund :: comparison compare contrast essays

The Independent Artist in The Awakening and Narcissus and Goldmund ane of the great themes of the modern Western literary tradition is that of the mechanics independence. Writers throughout business relationship have struggled with this problem in their own lives. Often coming from the amphetamine classes, they may decide to give up a life of relation back comfort and financial security in order to explore the wilds of the benevolent spirit through literature. They must choose between financial and emotional satisfaction. This is the decision made by the shoplifters of both Hermann Hesses Narcissus and Goldmund and Kate Chopins The Awakening. In both of these novels, the protagonist leaves mainstream society behind in order to become an creative person, perhaps mirroring the lives of the authors themselves. nevertheless it is not the mere physical departure from mainstream society that is the most eventful factor in these novels. What is most important is the emotional a nd mental outer space that Goldmund and Edna place between themselves and their respective cultures. In both of these novels, the artist is visualized as a renegade spirit, leaving behind the strictures of their cultures of birth in order to pursue art. These pagan strictures come in a mo of forms. First, the artist attacks intellectual conformity, choosing art over all other heart and soul of self-expression even though it is not widespread in his or her society. though it is not explicitly stated - and is perhaps even subconscious - the artist chooses art over either academe or high society. The artist questions societys customs, making this choice explicit in their daily actions. The artist rejects flamboyant displays of wealth and the cultural emphasis on money, replacing it with a thrifty simplicity more conducive to authentic experience. Finally, the artist calls into question the cultural construct most important to any understanding of human fundamental interaction - the binary conception of gender. Attacks on conformity In Narcissus and Goldmund, Goldmund begins the novel at a medieval cloister, a bulwark of classical - that is, Greek and papist - culture against the backdrop of a backward Europe. Hesse emphasizes the unchanging nature and copulation permanence of the cloister and its population Generations of cloister boys passed beneath the foreign tree... in that respect were always newcomers and the faces changed every few years, yet most of them resembled one another, if only if for their blond and curly hair (3-4 ch.