Ever since the beginning of time, society has had a great influence on other people’s views and perspectives. Whether we believe it or not, society affects how we view life, judge others, and why we compare ourselves to others. The idea of a sociological perspective is a perspective with human behavior and economics interconnected. Throughout the years, society has learned that anything and everything is open to interpretation, thus nothing being “right” or “wrong.” With creativity present, anything is possible. Authors not only put a lot of heart and dedication into their works, but they also use their platform to show different perspectives. Whether an author consciously or unconsciously knows, our everyday life has hidden messages on who we need to be and what we need to do in order to fit into society’s mold. In American Gods, “The Metamorphosis,” and “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas,” we will be looking at the change and growth a character goes through, the different stages of life, and the connections of reoccurring themes in American culture.
Throughout American Gods, by Neil Gaiman, many themes are still current in today’s society, such as death, deception, power, and change. Not only are these themes loud and present, but they also connect with a couple other readings; for example, “The Metamorphosis,” by Franz Kafka, and “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas,” by Ursula K. Le Guin. In every reading, there seems to be no law and order to justice. As the people of Omelas are aware of the hardships beneath the city, they continue with daily life. Gregor’s family, in “The Metamorphosis,” seem to accept their new “life” without trying to find a cure. Shadow, in American Gods, never gets the life he deserves.
Gaiman often writes short fiction stories with a very creative aspect, based on some true mythology. At a very young age, he discovered that reading words on a page and writing them was his passion. Gaiman often illustrates how addicted Americans are to the thrill and power of life throughout his novel. American Gods examines America’s identity and questions whether the country has somehow created its own unique “religion.” In American Gods, we see Shadow, the main character, go through many different stages of his life within a short period of time. He has his life before prison with his wife, Laura, his life during his stay after he was convicted, and his new life with Wednesday, his father, after his wife dies in a tragic car accident. While having to suppress his feelings for so long, they all seem to hit him at once. Shadow cannot run away from all the changes that are happening. When people are faced with a significant change in their personal or professional lives, they often go through numerous different stages of emotion. Some feel anger and aggression, while others fall into a depression and try to numb their feelings. “We live in a world of infinite objects that are constantly changing. Yet, even in this imposing world of objects and change, there seems to be an underlying unity and stability.” With life constantly changing, society has a way of expressing that if you are not flexible and do not roll with the punches, you are “difficult.” Gaiman inspires us to believe that we can pass the fight of self-doubt, while living in a society that is constantly changing. “This is the only country in the world that wonders what it is,” says Gaiman in an interview back in 2001.
Not only does American Gods push our attention towards what we value as people and what happens when those values drift, but it displays how we need to learn to live in a society without the want of false or unjustified self-images. It also conveys the need to live free of fear from the future. Halfway into his novel, Gaiman introduces a character that highlights how the concept of “Media” lives today. Over the last decade, technology has drastically changed. It is fascinating that instead of waiting for the morning paper to read the news, we have all the knowledge possible at our finger tips. In American Gods, Media, the Greek goddess, prays on our need to assert our lives through pictures, social media, and power over others. Gaiman’s goddess feeds on our dependency of Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat every time we flip open or turn on one of our smart devices, she gains power and knowledge.
“Media is such a powerful tool that it literally governs the direction of our world.” America tends to pull our attention, love, belief, and interest to a tech-heavy manipulated life:
…The important thing to understand about American history, wrote Mr. Ibis, in his leather-bound journal, is that it is fictional, a charcoal-sketched simplicity for the children, or the easily bored. For the most part it is uninspected, unimagined, unthought, a representation of the thing, and not the thing itself… (Gaiman 85)
Metamorphosis. The word’s meaning, “a complete change of form, structure, or substance, as transformation.” To explore a true metamorphosis, a true change, a true disfigurement in any story, one must view the most significant transformation that takes place within Franz Kafka’s story, “The Metamorphosis,” about the complete metamorphosis of the mind. Kafka used his writing as an escape to progress through the hard times of his difficult childhood and the loneliness he witnessed personally. He portrayed that into his own work. In “The Metamorphosis,” the story starts off with Gregor, the main character, waking up and realizing he was turned into a giant insect. “When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin” (Kennedy 337), the quote leads the reader to guess what had happen. Not only was Gregor struck with the chaotic craziness, but now he must explain to his family what happened, when he does not even know himself what happened. In fact, the story never actually revealed what happened to Gregor. As Kafka states, Samsa had awoken from “unsettling dreams” which leads the reader to believe that was the change itself. The dreams symbolize the fact that a metamorphosis had occurred from a psychological event that took place in a dream while Gregor was asleep. The dreams had then tricked Gregor into thinking he was an insect and that symbolizes the concrete fact that the dreams are the cause of his change.
With Gregor’s family in the loop, it did not seem to affect them. They acted as if Gregor had caught the flu. Not only does Gregor never gets the closure he needs, due to his old life ending, his new life as an insect was just beginning out of nowhere. However, Gregor’s family was ready to make changes to adapt to his new needs. They decided to clear his room to give him more space to crawl. His family did not realize they were taking away all his human belongings and dehumanizing him even more with his new condition.
Once again, change had not only created a situation that one must progress out of, but there was no rule book on how to deal with the monstrous change that was occurring. Issues like this happen a lot in our current society. As the story goes on, Gregor’s family continued to try and make things more comfortable for him rather than trying to cure him. As they continued with their life, Gregor’s family seemed to be more ashamed than upset. They still had an unusual reaction, but they remained not surprised. The limits of sympathy seemed to have run out towards the end. His own family went through a psychological change of their own as how they viewed Gregor had completely changed. Eventually, emotions took over, and the family members became horridly stressed with Gregor’s appearance. His father no longer showed sympathy, and his father got into an altercation with Gregor multiple times. Gregor’s family saw him more and more as just an insect:
…The number of people in our society who place an exorbitant amount of value on the physical appearance of themselves and of others is overwhelming. When developing an opinion of someone, their appearance should be among the last things considered. Yet, judging someone based on their physical allure is unavoidable; the idea that “looks are a factor” is built into us on an integral level…
With a strong disconnection mentally and physically, Gregor remained present for the most part but that was not reflected in his outer image. The greater challenge was being separated from his family and from humanity. Gregor was alienated and isolated from the people who he put before himself. He sacrificed his own life for the greater good of his family, and he was never recognized when he deserved it. Rather than focusing on our self-worth, society loves to focus on how we can benefit others or use them. Gregor often referred to his dilemma as an “imprisonment,” as he was alone even when he was surrounded by others. Although his transformation was a shock, Gregor was focused on his past life, as it was taken from him without any notice. In society today, you either fit in with the standard or you are labeled to be “different.” Either way, you cannot win. Not only does Kafka show and represent this “stereotype,” he also depicts a kind of self-love everyone should have. You should be comfortable in your own skin, and you should be happy with the person you have become, without caring about what the next person will say. Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis represents a sociological adventure like no other. I”ts abnormal changes and unlikelihood of events provide a psychological appeal to not only a physical nature, but to one of a mental nature, as well.”
Lastly, Ursula K. Le Guin, in “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas,” is an American novelist who works mainly in the genres of fantasy and science fiction. As a child, she and her siblings would frequently read issues of Thrilling Wonder Stories and Astounding Science Fiction, which sparked her interest about writing. All the previously mentioned facts about the creators play an important part in the works and experiences in their life that influenced them.
“The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” starts off with a scene of pure happiness all around town as the summer solstice is being celebrated with a glorious festival, and there is a race featuring young people on horseback. The unnamed narrator even brags that “Omelas sounds in my words like a city in a fairy tale, long ago and far away, once upon a time. Perhaps it would be best if you imagined it as your own fancy bids, assuming it will rise to the occasion, for certainly I cannot suit you all”(Kennedy 249). However, what the reader is not aware of yet is that in a basement underneath the city, a child is sitting on a dirt floor, with stiff, clotted, foul-smelling heads, near a rusty bucket with little to no light. With the presence of fear, malnutrition, and neglect, the child will never see the light of day as they are “defective.” The door is always locked, and nobody ever comes in except to kick the child and tell him to stand up. One might ask themselves why, in such a great utopia town, would a child be suffering underneath the city without their family. The answer is that the child must surrender his life as the needs of many outweigh the needs of a few. This is no secret to the town’s people, as “They all know it is there, all the people of Omelas” (253), but they all strongly believe that the needs and happiness of the many outweigh the joy of one. There are some in Omelas who disapprove of how the boy in the cellar is treated. They are so conflicted that these people decide upon leaving Omelas because they know that the boy is being used as an escape goat, in order for those to be happy.
It is also interesting that those who do not leave Omelas accept what is happening. They may be upset for a day or two, but they realize that their happiness and freedom is dependent on the boy being locked up in the cellar. Le Guin is suggesting that there is a price to pay for happiness and freedom. The price in this case is the fact that the boy is kept in the cellar. This ideal connects back to American Gods, as every year a life is taken for the town of Lakeside to remain “balanced” and to continue thriving. “The function of sociology is to pass laws and establish morals, to tell people how to behave, and how to function as a part of the surrounding society”. Who would have thought that in order to keep your own happiness someone must suffer an internal lifetime? What a person sees may not necessarily be the reality of what is really happening. The cellar itself represents freedom and how easily those in authority in Omelas can take away a person’s freedom without any explanation being given. Humankind not only forces us to think that we need to pursue a happy life to gain self-fulfillment and self-worth but in order to live and prosper, we must do whatever it takes to obtain these “goals.” The principle holds true in more-complex cases as well. These values are not what we should be focusing about. We should be worrying about being:
- Dependable
- Reliable
- Loyal
- Committed
- Open-minded
- Consistent
- Honest
- Efficient
- Innovated
- Creative
- Positive
- Respectful
Instead, we worry about how our life appears to others and how much more “alive” we feel by buying expensive items, being in control, and having power over others. Life is about so much more than comparing yourself to the person you are standing next to, as everyone has their own story and struggle. The term social criticism often refers to a mode of criticism that locates the reasons for malicious conditions in a society considered to be in a flawed social structure. The key word is being “flawed,” as we need to not only change this view but realize why is it so wrong and why it does not apply to our current culture.
Kafka, Gaiman, and Le Guin may not all have the same exact story, but the underlying message in their work shows a connected perspective. Beneath the extraordinary details and imagery are stories about power, evolution of change, and American culture. Each author depicts a different type of situation that can be interpreted as control by a community as well as a way of liberating one’s self from responsibility for one’s actions by both individual and society. Social influence takes many forms and can be seen in conformity, socialization, peer pressure, obedience, leadership, and persuasion. Thus, social influence is everywhere, and it acts as a guideline of the life we should “want” and “have.” We see that the real questions are about what we value as people and what happen when our path becomes unclear. “Perhaps America is the only country in the world still searching for its soul.”
Works Cited
- Gaiman, Neil. American Gods. William Morrow, 2011.
- Kafka, Franz. “The Metamorphosis.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, edited by X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia, 12th ed., Pearson, 2013, pp. 318-348.
- Le Guin, Ursula. “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, edited by X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia, 12th ed., Pearson, 2013, pp. 258-262.