Running head: HAVING THAT REALITY CHECK MOMENT
Having That Reality Check Moment
Ezekiel R Mejia
Rasmussen College - Appleton
Author Note
This paper is being submitted on November 23, 2014, for Anthony Vitale’s G335
Contemporary World Literature: 1900 to the Present course.
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HAVING THAT REALITY CHECK MOMENT
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Having That Reality Check Moment
“Reality check,” a popular phrase which is defined as “an occasion on which one is
reminded of the state of things in the real world (Oxford, 2014).” Modernist are known for being
the largest influences that causes one to “check” their reality as they are individuals who
challenges the truth or beliefs. Some hated modernist for doing so, as some modernists
influenced against religious belief, breaking tradition used for generations, and even found some
modernist to be an act or rebellion against society. However modernism is viewed, we must keep
in mind that questioning and understanding knowledge is all part of human nature (?????). When
tradition, beliefs, culture, and knowledge is past down from generation to generation, how can
we not expect that intelligent beings can improve or develop beneficial beliefs or knowledge?
With technology advancing and human population rising, with all the effects on the world that
those two carry with it, new situations are created where old ideologies become inefficient.
Surely, modernism was unavoidable and was destine to happen as individuals will begin to find
new beneficial ideologies and experience the old ways not making the cut in their logical sense.
Those individuals who notice the flaws or challenges the old system quickly began a movement
that had people to “check” their reality by using one of the most successful influential methods,
literature work. Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Death Constant
Beyond Love, and Andre Breton’s Free Union are three examples of modernist literature that
cause readers to reevaluate their perspective on social reality by relating commonly accepted
practices to surreal and unaccepted practices or point of views.
Kafka’s Literature, The Metamorphosis, starts off as a horror story, having a man turn
into a bug; but unlike carrying on the tradition of most monster stories, he makes the monster the
victim and society as the real monster. It’s interesting that Gregor, the young man who turned
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into a man-sized bug, cares more about his family rather than his own predicament. Moreover,
his family who wasn’t sure how to handle the situation, slowly began to find Gregor more of a
pest than family (Puncher, 2012).In the end of Kafka’s story, Gregor died because he found out
how his family really felt about him and the family was relieved when they heard about Gregor’s
death.
Here we have a perfect scenario for a monster, a man-sized bug, to create a horror genre,
but with a mind of a human being, things didn’t turn out that way. Instead, society is rash on
conclusions and doesn’t give Gregor a chance to live equally or adapt. Then there is his family,
the only people that he should always rely on, who found him to be quite the annoyance, a family
who pretty much gave up seeing him as their own blood. That isolation and the anxiety that
builds from no support or acceptance was just too much for Gregor to handle. It’s exactly what
was happening in the real world during this time in Prague (Puncher, 2012).
In 1912 Kafka began his work on The Metamorphosis which would take him three years
to complete. It was a story that shared how a man lost connection with the human circle and how
that began to dehumanize him (Puncher, 2012) (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008). However,
Prague in Czech Republic was actually part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1912 which was
the third largest city at the time (Breckman, 2000) (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008). In this part of
the world, there was a lot of separation and isolation being created by the ethnic diversity
between the Monarchies. Kafka grew up in this part of the world where he didn’t really fit in
with any group, creating a lot of anxiety and racial tension (Grade Saver Staff, 2014) (Shmoop
Editorial Team, 2008). It was as if Kafka was trying to share the real world modern society
issues that he experienced through his story The Metamorphosis (Puncher, 2012).
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Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Death Constant Beyond Love, is about a man who is living the
dream as a successful individual, however, after he finds out he doesn’t have much time to live,
he realized that he wasn’t happy. Society may view his life as successful as he has power and
wealth, but when he finds out he is going to die, he could care less about being successful and
finds himself having little value in his life. Marquez brought a good question to many
individuals: do you find value in your life? If so, then you agreed that you will continue living
the way you are now with no regrets in your last few months of living. I’m sure Marquez was
trying to convey the idea of not letting society or peers convince you to live life for power or
wealth or else you will find little value in your life. In Senator Sanchez’s case, he was a lonely
individual (Puncher, 2012) (Class Blog Community, 2013).
Power and wealth is a dream that many set out to have, a dream that many individuals
remind each other they wished they had. Society looks up to those who have power, they have
respect for them as well. As for wealth, it can definitely make life a lot easier to live and help
gain the items you wish for entertainment. However, power and wealth also come at a cost which
many don’t dawn on. Obtaining power or wealth takes time, luck, dedication, and doing things
that you’ll regret. In this case, Senator Sanchez was in a position that many wished they were in,
for he had both power and wealth. This was a position he lived for and gained a lot of pride over
to the point which caused him to choose not to tell his family he was going to die. Senator
Sanchez was a man who was too focus about his work that hindered his personal bonds over
business bonds. Being Senator was the dream life having money and power, but now Senator
Sanchez didn’t find himself to be living the dream and this is proven when he found out that he
was going to die soon (Puncher, 2014) (Class Blog Community, 2013).
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After Senator Sanchez found out he was going to die, the feeling of death was always in
the back of his mind. With the little precious time he had and how scared and depressed he was
with such news, neither power nor wealth could cheer him up. What he desired was loving
support and one that isn’t bought or gained through his position. However, when he realized he
had none of that, he used his power and wealth to give the illusion he wasn’t going to die alone.
In reality, Senator Sanchez had no one who loved him for who he was as an individual and he
died lonely (Puncher, 2014) (Class Blog Community, 2013).
Andre Breton’s Free Union was a beautiful and very emotional poem about a woman
Breton finds appealing. However, unlike most poets, he doesn’t allow himself to be influenced to
express himself with what others or most individuals find appealing. Instead of expressing his
emotion on what society may recognize, he expresses himself through his ideology. He was a
modernist who truthfully spoke and accepted more about the woman he found appealing in his
own way, through his surrealism world (Vintage Books, 1995).
Breton’s poem gave an impression as a French blazon, but with the odd comparisons, it
left readers confused. Breton used this familiar technique that poems are known for, yet he
replaced what many find appealing with what he found more appeal too. This made the poem
sound like a joke and not an example of French blazon. However, Free Union was still
considered to use French Blason because Breton’s comparisons of oddities, which were interests
of his that he found appealing, were used as metaphors (Vintage Books, 1995). Breton never
broke any rules using this technique nor did he fail, he simply was being different.
Free Union wasn’t only different because of using oddities for comparison, but it also
was surreal (Surrealism-Plays Staff, 2010). Breton didn’t only use the French blazon technique,
but he expressed his emotions by taking readers to a world of his own. This world I speak of isn’t
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a world that you physically visit, but it’s a world that makes sense of these oddities as acceptance
to social reality (Voorhies, 2005). It’s as if Breton was telling the readers that they must
understand his world to understand his poem. As a human being, adaption should come naturally
as a solution to understanding this world (O'Neil, 2001). However, some readers dismiss the
poem instead of trying to adapt. In other words, trying to adapt in Breton’s surreal world by
using original methods to survive in physical world won’t help. Readers cannot expect to
understand this surreal poem by treating it with the same logical sense they treated previous
poems with. To understand Breton’s surreal world, one must reexamine their methods in figuring
out means in the study of validity and reason (Merriam-Webster Staff, 2014). In other words, one
must logically think about it in another sense of manner, also known as thinking outside the box
(Free Dictionary Staff, 2014).
Notice how all three of these stories cause readers to reevaluate their perspective on
social reality in one sense or another? If it wasn’t by relating a monster story with real world
modern issues, it was by relating ideals in life to someone who had this so called “successful”
life placed in an irony situation. If it wasn’t by means in relation to any of those, it was relating
the indifferences of human beings that make up our shared world with their unique ideologies.
What makes these modernism stories unique from past literature is how they relate commonly
accepted practices to surreal and unaccepted practices or point of views. This is a complex
method that is used for sharing ideas and new perspectives of the world we share, a method that
is highly effective in influencing readers to reevaluate their own sense of social reality.
All in all, modernists went against what society or the typical social norm would expect
by twisting those expectations around. This was accomplished by taking recognized accepted
practices and using them in appropriate manners in a different situation. Kafka related the
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commonly accepted idea of a monster to a different point of view by having the monster become
the victim to society. Marquez placed the accepted view of success as being power and wealth
into a situation that caused that meaning to become unacceptable as Senator Sanchez was not
able to buy his true wish for success, love and companionship. Breton relates a traditional
description of an appealing woman to different oddities in his surreal world, influencing
individuals to express themselves in their own manner. These are three great examples that cause
readers to reevaluate their perspective on social reality and finding themselves having a “reality
check” moment.
HAVING THAT REALITY CHECK MOMENT
References:
Breckman, W. (2000, January 1). Penn Reading Project. Retrieved from
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beyond-love-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez/
Free Dictionary Staff. (2014, January 1). Think outside the box. Retrieved from
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/think outside the box
Grade Saver Staff. (2014, January 1). Franz Kafka Biography | List of Works, Study Guides &
Essays. Retrieved from http://www.gradesaver.com/author/franz-kafka
Merriam-Webster Staff. (2014, January 1). Logic. Retrieved from http://www.merriam
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O'Neil, D. (2001, January 1). Human Biological Adaptability: Overview. Retrieved from
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HAVING THAT REALITY CHECK MOMENT
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~dsbeckma/222Surrealism.html
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