Body vs. Spirit

Introduction

Human nature has always been a difficult concept to understand. Many ideas have been advanced concerning human existence especially involving body and spirit. From the religious front, we are informed that human nature is dichotomous. This means that men are made of two forms; the body and spirit. There are also those who believe that the human nature is monochotomous, meaning that the body and spirit are one and cannot exist in absence of each other. The two stories byFranz Kafka and Toni Morrison teaches though body and spirit are closely connected they exist independently. The stories also teach us that it is the spirit that determines a person character.

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is a story about a young man Gregor Samsa who is from a relatively humble background. When his farther, who was the family sole bread winner, had his business fail Gregor took over as the provider for the family. He was forced to take a job that he detested. He became a traveling sales man. One evening when he was asleep, Greg underwent a transformation that charged his life forever. During this night, Gregor’s body was transformed into that of a giant insect. This event changed Gregor’s life as he could no longer go to work, appear in public or interact as he previously did. Eventually, Gregor saw that it would be better for his family, if he was no longer around. Gregor makes an exit when he finally dies.

The bluest Eyes by Toni Morrison

The bluest eyes by Toni Morrison is a story focused on a few black American families and their interaction with white families. One major character in this story is Pecola Breedlove. Pecola is an 11 year old girl who is daughter to Cholly Breedlove and Rebecca Breedlove. Her family is described by the narrator as ugly and which is characterized with violence especially between the two couples. At one point, Pecola’s brother decides to run away from home to get away from the mayhem in their home. However, Pecola was a rather passive girl who stuck around despite the troubles in her home. One day her farther came home drunk and raped her making her pregnant. Pecola tries to tell her mom but her mom refuses to believe and beat her up instead. Pecola ends up feeling unloved and thinks that the reason behind this was because she was ugly. She thought that is she could have blue eyes she would become beautiful and people would love. She goes to SoapheadChurch with the belief that he had the ability to turn her eyes blue. She is tricked and left knowing that her eyes had been transformed into the bluest. She becomes mad while still holding this belief.

Differences between Gregor and Pecola

A lot of differences exist between Gregor of Metamorphosis and Pecola of The Bluest Eyes. On one hand Gregor was self accepting and positive person who never looked down at himself or looked for self pity. He was aggressive and worked towards changing his life misfortunes. When his father’s business collapsed, he was quick to take up the responsibility of being the bread winner for his family. Instead of sitting back and morning about his father’s inefficiencies, he takes up a job that he dislikes in order to fulfill his responsibility towards his family. Even when the transformation happened, he did not dwell much on finding out what had happened to him. He also did not mourn about what happened but instead he began to seek ways of adjusting to his new body. What he was more concerned with was his ability to fulfill his duty to the family and became frustrated when he could no longer assist his family.

Pecola on the other hand, is passive girl who always looked down upon her self and who had a pessimistic view of life. She complains that no one in the family and neighborhood loves her but does nothing to change this. Her passive and weak nature allows her to be mistreated even by her family members such as her father who rapes her in two different occasions. She tries to look for reasons behind her misfortunes in life and concludes that it was because she was not as good looking. This shows that Pecola had a very low opinion of herself which may have contributed to her tolerance towards mistreatment by other people. Pecola is convinced that having blue eyes would make her beautiful and other people will begin to like her. Her hold to this belief eventually drives her mad.

What this Difference tells about Human Nature

The two cases are significant to our understanding of the human nature. We can argue that Gregor had a stronger and more positive spirit which enabled him to accept prevailing circumstances and look for solution. His positive spirit made him accept that his father was no longer capable of providing for the family and therefore he needed to take charge. His positive spirit also enabled him to respond positively to the transformation that had occurred on his body than most people would. We are informed that, Gregor was more worried about missing work than with what had happened to him. Pecola had a negative spirit which made her to look down upon herself. She did not like the fact that she was a black. She viewed her black nature as ugliness and wished to have blue eyes. Her low opinion of her self gave her a pessimistic view of life and also made her prone to mistreatment.

The differences between the two characters also tell us that, the spirit and body are very closely connected but independent from each other. Despite his transformation into an insect, Gregor still maintained his human feelings, wishes, thoughts and desires. This is an indication that spirits and body are independent of each other. The desires of the spirit and that of the body came into conflict when his mother and sister decided to move furniture out of the room. However, after transforming into the insect Gregor develop an affinity for small and dark places just like insects do. This is an indication that the body appearance was affecting the desires of his spirit. Pecola’s spirit was also affected by her body appearance. Her being black gave her a perception that she was ugly installing in her an inferiority complex, which is a problem with the spirit.

Conclusion

Human nature is made up of both body and spirit. These two literatures have demonstrated that body and spirit are very closely connected but independent of each other. A problem in the body affected the spirit of both characters indicating that these two forms are closely related. However, a body transformation by Gregor did not result in transformation of spirit as Gregor maintained the human spirit rather than acquiring that of an insect.

References

Kafka F. (2004). Metamorphosis. USA. Penguin Publishers

Morrison T. (2000). The Bluest Eyes. USA. Plume Publisher

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