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

The Independent Artist in The Awakening and Narcissus and Goldmund One of the great themes of the modern Western literary customs is that of the artists independence. Writers throughout history have struggled with this problem in their own lives. Often coming from the upper classes, they may decide to give up a action of relative comfort and financial security in order to explore the wilds of the human spirit through literature. They must choose in the midst of financial and worked up satisfaction. This is the decision made by the protagonists 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 artist, perhaps mirroring the lives of the authors themselves. But it is non the mere physical departure from mainstream society that is the most important factor in these novels. What is most important is the emotional and mental distance that Goldmund and Edna plac e between themselves and their respective coatings. In both of these novels, the artist is portrayed as a renegade spirit, leaving behind the strictures of their cultures of birth in order to pursue art. These cultural strictures come in a number of forms. First, the artist attacks intellectual conformity, choosing art over all other means of self-expression even though it is not far-flung 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 ostentatious displays of wealth and the cultural emphasis on money, replacing it with a frugal 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 Roman - culture against the backdrop of a backward Europe. Hesse emphasizes the unchanging nature and relative permanence of the cloister and its population Generations of cloister boys passed beneath the foreign tree... There were always newcomers and the faces changed all(prenominal) few years, yet most of them resembled one another, if only for their blond and curly hair (3-4 ch.