Comparison Assignment: Joyce Carol Oates and Franz Kafka (Essay Sample)

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Where are you going? Where have you been? by Joyce Carol Oates 1966
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The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka 1915
Joyce Carol Oates has written a number of interesting and memorable tales, however, amongst her stories, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” has attracted a lot of significant remarks and the most debate or argument. The tale begins naively enough with an account of the 15-year-old Connie (Oates 1-6). Similar to scores of teenage girls, Connie walks around and sometimes performs other actions while asleep through life paying attention to music only she appears to listen to. Connie and her companions visit the mall often, and she has started some sort of sexual testing and has been with young men “the way it was in movies and promised in songs.”
Oates typifies Connie as a conceited, selfish adolescent in the opening paragraph, particularly mentioning her practice of confirming her mirror images in mirrors. Connie "knew she was pretty and that was everything." Connie’s planet is that characterized by superficial, ego, and poor quality and she squanders all her time fantasizing. Nevertheless, at the conclusion of the account, Connie makes a daring gesture by putting her family first. Oates applies images to compare Arnold Friend to a bird of kill. Oates states that Arnold Friend’s nose is "long and hawk-like," and has a "singsong" approach of talking that disguises his spiteful objectives. These adjectives merge to cover a gloomy image of Arnold Friend, whose whole look (his bizarre hairpiece and fashionable jeans) is designed to scam Connie into believing him. "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" is distinguished for its application of conversation and words or phrases that are not formal or literary. To a great extent, the tale comprises of the discussion involving Connie and Arnold, who slowly overcomes or exhausts Connie with his doggedness and risks of violence. The two personalities make use of words such as "ain't" and "kinda" in daily dialogue. Nevertheless, the reader is comfortable with these words since it is obvious that Oates applies this innate conversation to make the narrative more practical (Oates 1-6).
Franz Kafka wrote down "The Metamorphosis" in the last months of 1912, almost five decades following the conclusion of "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" Important to note is that the two tales present a unique relation: a teenager such as Connie of "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, Gregor Samsa is faced with a uphill task of supporting his family or at least be there for his people whereas Connie is faced with the same fate, she is needed or required to be there for her family. What’s more, the two characters have had to sacrifice some form of happiness for their families. However, unlike Connie, Gregor Samsa is to blame for cutting or isolating himself from his true character or nature —prior to his genuine metamorphosis — and, to the point he has done so, Gregor Samsa is debarred from his household (Kafka 1-40).
To ensure coherency, briefly this is how the story goes. Gregor Samsa awakens one morning and discovers that he has turned into a huge beetle-like insect. At the moment a burden to his traumatized people, Gregor has to get used to a horrible reality of living in trash and taking rotten junk from the ground. It is worth noting that the correct theme and idea of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis has puzzled academicians and book lovers ever since its printing in 1915. The noticeable thesis of estrangement, separation, and lowliness are believable; nevertheless, Kafka does not reveal a clear message, theoretical idea, or motive behind Gregor’s unexpected conversion. This perplexing, uncertain idea attaches to the worrying, instinctive reaction that this book brings to mind. Applying emotional depictions narrated from Gregor’s point of view, Kafka makes the booklover’s skin creep down the floor with Gregor and overwhelming distress due to his household’s meanness. Despite the fact that this novel is short and the set of words are confusingly nightmarish, Gregor’s calamity of personality touches on all from worldwide queries concerning our evolution to minute uncertainties in our individual character. Understood as a fable, The Metamorphosis gets at queries of what it signifies to fit in, what it signifies to be a foreigner, and what it signifies to be entrapped inside one’s own skin.
These two stories have been written by two different authors yet they show some connection, therefore, it is correct to rule out the possibility of lack of method or conscious decision in the choice of the texts. While the connection is not revealed in the paragraphs, a connection is seen in the themes. The two authors have put more emphasis on the theme of family. Connie shows how much she adores her household by sacrificing herself for the family in “Where are you going? Where have you been?” While Gregor Samsa in “The Metamorphosis” also sacrifices for his family. Focus will be directed on family as a theme while paying attention to other themes as well for coherency.
Theme
The storyline of "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" centers on the risk of sexual brutality. Oates cleverly expands this theme, portraying Arnold Friend as a scheming elder man who has designated or marked Connie for her adolescence and beauty. Connie's precise destiny is uncertain; however, Arnold says that he will take Connie to a pasture and "show (her) what love is like." It is doubtful if she endures. In spite of her defiant and dishonest mindset, Connie is a blameless girl basically. Connie has just begun experimenting with young men and explains these experiences as being "the way it was in movies," demonstrating an appeal and innocence or unsophistication that will afterward be damaged. Connie’s passionate principles are crushed when Arnold Friend influences her into emerging from the house. Nevertheless, family is the most significant theme in the tale (Oates 1-6). Connie is decisive of her household, depicting her sister as pure and uninteresting and amused at her mother for believing her. She declines to be present at a barbecue at her aunt's residence. After a while, nevertheless, Connie shows how much she adores her household by sacrificing herself for the family.
Due to his obligation to his work, Gregor is estranged not only from passionate relations but also from his household. Gregor is the only one who toils; as a result, Gregor does not relate in similar experiences such as them, for instance during meals. A new understandable instance of this theme is put forward at the household’s feeling of revulsion or profound disapproval in Gregor’s conversion. It is obvious that Grete and Gregor’s mother, in any case, see Gregor as their family member for the gre...