Death and Identity in the Short Story: An Analysis of Kafa, Poe, and Borges

Death and Identity in the Short Story: An Analysis of Kafa, Poe, and Borges

The research paper will analyze death and identity based on the short stories by Franz Kafka “Before the law”, Edgar Allen Poe “The oval Portrait’, and Jorge Luis Borges “Everything and Nothing”. It will focus on how the three stories portray death and identity by use of characters, themes such as prisoner to time, love, and desire to achieve unrealistic goals. Each of the three author’s view of death and identity will be analyzed. Through the stories, the paper intends to provide answers to the question of what is worth living for and why the concept of death. An overview of the author’s lives, similarities and differences in relation to death and identity will be provided to help the purpose for life.

Kafka (4) noted that Franz Kafka was a member of the minority Jewish community in Prague. In his early life, Franz acquired a deep understanding of literature which made him be rejected in his community. For many years Franz was isolated and alienated. In most of his writings, Franz acts as the protagonist to show how he was rejected and alienated. Quinlan (18) noted that Franz lives a frustrated live with his father being the stumbling block in his life. He had difficulty finding the purpose for his life for his father was a powerful, impressive and imposing man. In the short story before the law, Franz uses the anonymous character to show how death is inevitable. Through the nameless character, Franz presents how death can cut short people’s dreams as the man’s journey to understand the law failed due to him getting old and finally dying. Franz finds tragedy in death, making the character unable to achieve his goal of accessing the law.

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston and a great poet known to write from his tales of mystery. Poe regarded as the Romanticism figure grew up in a family abandoned by his father while his mother died at an early age. As a teenage boy, Poe got interested in arts and literature where he could express his life sufferings. In his novel, The Oval Portrait Poe also uses an unknown character to create a relationship between art and life. The story employs a close analysis of Poe’s story as a subtle commentary on the link between his life and art (Poe, 43). Through the story, Poe believes that his purpose in life is an art which is also his identity. The last author is Jorge Luis Borges, who was born in Buenos. He was a journalist from Argentina and a poet. Borges literature works were driven by the desire to be like his father (Borges, 61). By observing his father’s works, Borges longed to be one of the great writers which he finally managed to be before his death. In his novel, everything and nothing Borges uses an unknown character who has no true self but feels emptiness. The character has no purpose in life, and he plays the role of nobody. The character died innumerable death before achieving his dream of fundamental unity. After death, the actor finds himself in the presence of God and request God to make him be himself. In the story, Borges addresses the theme of God as the creator, purpose of life, unity and multiplicity of existence.

The three stories touch on the topic of death identity and purpose of life in various aspects. Based on each author’s life story, how they were brought up, their life experiences and families, each of them provides a different view of how death can cut short an individual’s purpose in life and destroy identity. Franz explains how a nameless character went on a mission to try to understand the law and get guidance and realize the purpose of life. While in the process to do so, he gets old and dies before knowing the purpose of his life. The gateman closed the gate that was opened for him. In this case, Franz presents death as a tragedy that is inevitable hindering people from achieving their goals. Poe draws from his life journey to create a connection between life and art. As a young child, Poe grew up knowing that the purpose of his life is literature and arts. Mollinger (153) pointed out that the unnamed narrator in the oval portrait even though injured, does not cecum to death instead stay alive to analyses the portrait. In this case, the nameless character gets fulfilment and achieve his goals. Death is not presented as a tragedy in Poe’s short story (Poe, 43).

Further, the oval portrait art helps the character realize his identity in reason to life. When he observes the picture of the girl, the anonymous character finds a purpose and a reason to live. Borges, on the other hand, presents death as a tragedy but with hope after death. Even though the empty man dies without achieving his goal of completeness, he later meets God, who gives him hope for the future. As Borges touches the theme of religions, he presents future hope in God which is a reason to live and not to die.

A critical examination of the three short stories reveals some aspects of similarities based on death, identity and purpose for life.  First, the author’s uses mysterious characters. The empty man in everything and nothing is nameless, the injured narrator and his servant in the oval portrait are unidentified, and the same applies to the man who tries to access the law and the gateman (Kafka, n.d).  Perhaps the most important question is why the three authors retained the identity of the protagonist.  Arguing from their personal lives, the narratives in the novels are reflections of the author’s life stories. Maybe that is why they decided to hide their true identity by using anonymous characters. Each in his childhood life experienced tragedies due to the death of their parents and their loved ones. Consequently, they were unable to achieve their dreams and realize the purpose of their lives.

Another similarity the novels are the personal sacrifice and inaccessibility of their goals. The unknown character in Kafka’s story sacrificed almost his entire life to find the law that would guide him and define his purpose for life. As he struggled in his journey of life, a lot of self-sacrifices are made to get to the law. Unfortunately, due to the long journey, he finds when the gateman had closed the gate opened for him, and the character finally dies without accessing his goals. Similarly, Borges empty character sacrifices the rest of his life, trying to find out who he is and fill the emptiness in him (Belitt, 291). The unknown character does not want to die before achieving his objective of knowing who he is and finding a reason for his emptiness. His life is full of unknown identity, and he longs for a day that God will reveal to him who he is before death. The man is unable to find a singular identity, and through the story, he is one man in all men. The character can feel anything that other people can feel. What happens to all men happens to him, too as he shares his destiny with other men. At times he has to sacrifice his personal goals for other men because they are part of him.

An understanding of the theme of death and identity can also be explained in terms of the differences in the author’s narratives. The three writers present diverse viewpoints of death and identity. As they narrate the tragedy of yearning for the purpose in life and inevitability of death, Borges presents a more optimistic perspective. Even though the protagonist, the empty man, does not find purpose and his identity, he finds hopes that God will reveal to him all that he longed to know. By presenting the role of God as the creator and all-knowing, Borges is optimistic that even though his character does not achieve his goals, there is hope in God. Borges viewpoint if different from Franz, which presents death tragedy as the end of everything. As the man to access the law dies, all hope is gone. Franz finds drama in death, and all hope vanishes; hence, the man does not find the laws and his identity. Poe on the other and finds both, the narrator in the oval portrait finds his identity in arts which he realizes is his purpose for a life worth living.

In connection with the three author’s viewpoints (Bay, n.d) points out that death makes people contemplate their existence and the meaning of life. When people think of death, they try to understand the reason why they live and try to fulfil that purpose. It is therefore essential that everyone understands why they live and find a reason worth living for in the world. Poe, (42) also recognizes that those who live to fulfil their dreams have to sacrifice personal gains if their goal is to help others by achieving their dreams. As noted in the novels, the unknown characters had a goal to identify their purpose and live by that purpose before death tragedy.

In conclusion, this paper entails a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between death, identity and purpose with reference from Kafa, Poe, and Borges novels. The content can help various people to understand their purpose for life and have a reason to enjoy life by full filling their dreams and goals. Through analysis of author’s lives, similarities and differences in relation to death and identity, it answers the question of what is worth living for.