Eliot's Prufrock and Radiohead's Paranoid Android

Aiken Tong

ENL 10C

Blog Post 1

            In T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, the speaker, Prufrock, addresses an unidentified subject, speaking through a dramatic monologue about his existential experience in modern society. He is upset with said existence, as his monologue is filled with his laments on the listless repetitiveness of his social interactions as well as his neurotic anxiety of being scrutinized by other people. Similarly, in the Radiohead song “Paranoid Android” from their 1997 album “OK, Computer”, the conflict between self and society is highly emphasized, where narrator of the song experiences crises of angst and overwhelming ennui closely mirroring that experienced by Eliot’s protagonist, Prufock. In their respective portrayal of what is essentially the stream of consciousness of socially awkward characters and their distorted perceptions of social interaction, each work makes use of subversive imagery and self-conscious internal monologue to express the ennui of the characters and explore the roots of its cause.

In their respective works, both Eliot and Radiohead distinguish their protagonists as iconoclasts through their subversive perspectives of the world, resulting in thei unique use of imagery. Subversive imagery is employed to jarring effect in the first stanza of “Prufrock”. In describing the setting of the poem, Eliot likens the evening sky to “a patient etherized upon a table” while highlighting only the “one-night cheap hotels” and “sawdust restaurants” of the city, hence eschewing traditional imagery of positive or negative connotations, and opting for a jarring and cynical perspective which characterizes Prufrock as somewhat of a misfit. Rather than the beauty which one might normally attribute to the night sky, Prufrock feels only numbness, much like an etherized patient, by virtue of its unchanging and repetitive occurrence. Furthermore, while this stanza is structured as an invitation to someone (presumably a romantic partner) to go with Prufrock, he discards all pretense and tact and makes direct sexual references such as the “cheap hotels” and “oysters” (an aphrodisiac) to proposition his subject, which he later reinforces with an allusion to Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress”. Thus, through his own description of the world, Prufrock is established as someone who rebels against the coyness of society’s customs out of angst over the sameness they produce within everyday life. Similarly, in “Paranoid Android”, the isolation of the protagonist’s ideals in relation to societal norms is shown to produce a unique perspective, though unlike in “Prufrock”, the narrator of “Paranoid Android” is more openly antagonistic towards the society they reject, and the imagery used is much more direct. Throughout the song, the narrator conjures some bizarre and unsettling imagery in describing the world in the people populating it. In one instance, in the most direct reference to their ennui, the narrator asks “Please, could you stop the noise” in the first line of the song, as they are trying to escape the “unborn chicken voices in my head”. The narrator is a socially alienated individual, as shown in the accompanying music video of the song, and therefore “you” could be interpreted to be directed at society in general, rather than a single subject. The first verse of the song can thus be interpreted as the narrator imploring society to stop trying to make him conform to their noise, as the notion of being a part of a community is like the sound of “unborn chicken voices” in his head. As disturbing as this imagery is to the reader, it is precisely the alienation and ennui the narrator harbours toward society.

After establishing their respective protagonists as misfits, Eliot and Radiohead explore the root cause of their ennui through the portrayal of their anxiety through stream of consciousness. In the sixth stanza of Eliot’s poem, Prufrock is shown to be plagued by his neurotic insecurities. He is completely lacking in confidence because of his own perceived imperfections such as his hair and limbs, and his fear of how other people will judge him based on it, which leads him to constantly doubt and second guess himself, even within a single minute. He is extremely self-conscious about himself within social situations as well as his lack of social skills, and thus he sees everything he does as an imposition upon “the universe”. Prufrock’s ennui is therefore shown not to be borne out of a disillusionment with society, but due to his inherent inability to function among other people. The anxiety of stream of consciousness is similarly used in the third verse of “Paranoid Android”, where, seemingly in reference to their own perceived insignificance, the narrator yells the lines “You don't remember/ You don't remember/ Why don't you remember my name?”, and their panic and embarrassment is then reflected in the discordant and frantic guitar in the instrumental bridge of the song. The inherent alienation of the narrator is also displayed in the music video, where the meek yet somewhat normal main character is juxtaposed with the surreal and grotesque world and characters he is surrounded by.

Franz Kafka's "Before the Law": A Marxist Perspective

            Franz Kafka’s short story “Before the Law” resembles something close to a parable with its few and nameless characters, a gatekeeper and a man, and vague setting in addition to the looming tone of a concluding moral. However, it ends dishearteningly, as the man is unable to gain access into “the law” and the reader is left wondering what the gatekeeper was guarding in the first place and why the man never followed his impulse to pass the gatekeeper throughout all the years. While a structuralism interpretation offers the reader a wide variety of structures to consider when reading the story, the Marxist perspective gives a much more specific interpretation of these structures and should therefore be considered the more useful interpretation compared to structuralism.

            A general interpretation of “Before the Law” can be characterized by structuralism. The interpretation skills behind structuralism involve considering not only the structures that appear in the story, but the structures in the reader’s and possibly the author’s world that influence these structures within the work of literature. From the first line of “Before the Law,” “Before the law sits a gatekeeper,” it is clear to the reader that there is a hierarchical structure in place between this gatekeeper and the intangible yet undefined “law” of the story. This hierarchy is further explored when “a man from the country” enters the story, requesting access to the law by way of the gatekeeper. This establishes that both the man and the gatekeeper are below the law, with the gatekeeper simultaneously being situated above the man, although the reasons are unbeknownst to the reader as to why. The gatekeeper also claims that there is an extended hierarchy of gatekeepers above him, one that apparently is so intense that the gatekeeper in the story “can’t even endure even one glimpse of the third [gatekeeper]” because he is so powerful. Beyond this hierarchical structure of the characters themselves in the story, the structure of the mind plays an important role in the tale, specifically the conflict the man faces of wanting what the gatekeeper refuses to give him. This conflict deteriorates the man’s mind and eventually drives him to becoming “childish” in his requests to the gatekeeper to gain entry into the law. Through this structuralist approach, the reader does not completely get a clear depiction of what exactly the law is, but only that it is something so powerful and high above both the gatekeeper and the man that the reader can only guess that that is why it is so unattainable for the man to gain access into it.

            While the structuralist interpretation looks at the larger and more general structures of “Before the Law,” no matter how limited its characters and setting, the Marxist interpretation offers a more specified look at these structures, particularly the hierarchical one between the active characters and the implied ones and the opportunity to gain entry into the law, or lack thereof. Marx heavily emphasized the crucial role that political structures play within society in his works, specifically the relationship the lower class had to the upper class. In the context of “Before the Law,” the man from the country can be seen as the lower class, or the proletariat, deferring to the bourgeoisie, or the upper class, as represented by the gatekeeper. Despite having no proof of his supposedly superior power, the gatekeeper assumes total power over the man in the country, much like how Marx describes how the bourgeoisie take governing control over the proletariat. Similar to the gatekeeper allowing the man to continually psychologically suffer until his death because he feels he is unable to gain entry into the law, Marx claims that the bourgeoisie leave the proletariat to struggle throughout their lives and never move from their position in society as the lower class. Essentially, the man and the gatekeeper of Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law” parallel Marx’s ideas in terms of societal classes and their roles in society, thus making it a clearer and more directly useful interpretation of Kafka’s vague and open-ended work. 

Pound's "In a Station of the Metro" and the Imagist manifesto

Option 2

16 April 2018

Literary movements are very similar to connoisseurs, they move by the sense of taste. Being a peculiar feature, taste can both stay static or change over time. Indeed, the palate within the literary and the gastronomic individual is similar. To many it is a matter the deals with the person’s “taste buds” but to me the anatomic comparison extends. Hidden is the paramount importance of smell, because without this ability the sense of taste becomes seemingly lost.

Digressing from what seems to have been a tangent, Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro” is a poem that conforms to the Imagist manifesto. To briefly enumerate Amy Towell’s list “On Imagism” from Tendencies in Modern American Poetry:

1. Use “language of common speech” and the exact words to describe an event while avoiding clichés (9-10).
2. New rhythms are used contrary to past usages (9-10).
3. There is an “absolute freedom in choice of subject” (9-10).
4. Imagism as the title suggests focuses on showing an image (9, 11).
5. Make concrete and clear poetry (9, 11).
6. Concentration on a subject is vital to poetry (9, 11).
7. Suggestion created by implications (12).

These seven points are key in helping discover and categorize any Imagist poetry, in theory. So, using a standard is great but one should always keep in mind that there will still be some sort of malleability. Not all features have to be exact.

To begin with using this structure in Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro,” (#1) states of regular language usage known to the general public which would be checked yes. Words like “apparition,” “faces,” “petals,” and “bough” do not steer away from common usage. There are also no clichés and there is a distinct impression given to the reader by the seeming shift from a societal view to one of nature in the poem (12). The impressions are used to convey the right impression and feeling to the reader (12). This feeling is ambiguous with the choice of word “apparition” giving the perception of something that comes from nowhere and yet it is contrary to what one would expect in a metro. Faces of different people coming would be common. “Apparition” also has a double meaning of also relating to ghosts. This however seems to be of no major correlation to the poem. New rhythms (#2) also states of continuous free-verse usage in Imagist works. This meaning it is free of metrical patterns or rhythms and which would also apply to Pound’s poem. Here is what I thought to be first of a form of iamb meter and with the second line being the inverse of the first line. Bold letters being stressed and unbold unstressed.

The ap | pari | tion of | these faces | in the | crowd;

Petals | on a | wet, black | bough.

As can be seen the meter is off towards the end by one syllable and the two lines do not end in a rhyme. As for the next idea of subjects (#3) as stated, “Old, new, actual, literary, anything which excites the creative faculty in the individual poet, is permissible;” in Imagist poetry (10). Check. Imagism (#4) is then described as “a clear presentation of whatever the author wishes to convey” (11). This one not fitting exactly in since the representation of what the author wishes to convey is in part of great importance to the title. Without it the interpretation of the poem can go many ways. This significance goes more with (#7) suggestions and implications since with the title interpretations can be focused and based on a subway type setting. This would be difficult to do if say there was no title and the title used was the first line of the poem. Making of concrete poetry (#5) is to make the images more solid than blurry as explained by Towell, “That is why, although so many Imagist poetry is metaphorical, similes are sparingly used” (11). Check. Pound uses concrete and metaphorical images indeed. The “faces in the crowd” being “Petals on a wet, black bough” (12). Finally is concentration (#6), which I would say is of great importance to the poem. The point of concentration is of knowing to stay on a subject and knowing when to stop (11).

Ezra Pound does so by knowing the variable knowledge of people and their possible experiences in a subway. There is no need to elaborate and explain any more of setting the title is enough. The taste acquired by one's "taste buds" says it is just about a given event that has many faces compounded together by a substance. The metaphor of the wet bough possibly being water and that of those in the metro possibly being work itself as the adhesive. The faces in the crowd are distinct and contrast directly with the dark "black" background of the branch. Each petal has its different distinct features but it is hard to tell or admire because of the glued claustrophobic feeling of many petals. The taste says something but there is a smell that says there is more. Indeed, try to eat blindfolded while holding your nose. The taste goes away. In writing there too is a sense away from having to touch or feel, this sense is given and felt similar to what the Imagists believe of "'one must feel it."' Ezra Pound's poem feels Imagist, I am sure of it.

"Before the Law": Marxism and New Criticism

 There are several hallmarks to a Marxist critical approach, the most common of these being an “insistence that human interactions are economically drive and that the basic model for human progress is based on a struggle for power between different social classes” (Gardner). In short, this means that humans do things for their own gain, usually financial, and progress is the result of people trying to one up one another. These points are easily applied to Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law” in several different ways.

              The first thing that hints at a Marxist undertone is the relationship the man from the country has with it, which is no relationship whatsoever. The law is set up as this amazing thing that one should strive to attain. This mirrors how society views economic and/or social success, people strive all their lives to succeed and reach the next goal, but does that ever really end? There will always be another medal to win, promotion to get, or record to break yet people continue to try. In a similar manner, the man from the country gave up everything he owned for the chance to get past the gate just like how humans strive for success.

              Another point for the Marxist approach are the characters themselves. The man from the country and the gatekeeper obviously represent two of the possible social castes and the gates after the first represent the rest of the possible castes. A major principle of a Marxist analysis is struggle between social classes and, in many cases, this struggle can be moving from one to another or simply seeking to improve the social standing of a class. In this short story one can see the struggle the man from the country goes through. He wastes his entire life and all that he has worked for but dies no closer then the first day he attempted to cross the gate.

              Although I found the Marxist approach an enlightening and refreshing experience, one is best served viewing “Before the Law” through the tried and true lens of formalism or new criticism. The message this short story is trying to impart is that the law is not for men to decide or set. It is above our station and should be left to higher powers. This interpretation is seen through Kafka’s use of punctuation, sentence structure, and symbolism.

             Kafka uses punctuation to great effect

The gatekeeper is one such symbol that Kafka utilizes. He is an unchanging, seemingly immortal figure who is the same despite the passage of time

              While a Marxist approach does offer unique and compelling arguments into the true meaning of the excerpt it also limits the approaches one can take to the piece.

Critical Analysis of Franz Kafka's "Before The Law"

Majid Firoozi

ENL-10C

4-16-18

Blog Post #1

        The critical approach that my group and I felt was most relevant in the short story, “Before the Law” by Franz Kafka was the Marxist criticism. We felt that this was the proper perspective to analyze this text with because of the clear social divisions as well as the way Kafka uses power or “the law” as the primary motive. The interactions amongst the characters who carry distinct different socioeconomic backgrounds, along with the way in which a constant struggle for power is presented in the text covers the very essence of what the Marxist approach is. This short story exhibits these Marxist ideals precisely as a poor countryman encounters the gatekeeper of “The Law”. The countryman is willing to do anything, from selling all his possessions, to patiently waiting for years to be able to attain this law. The Law itself possesses a very abstract identity but nonetheless has a very desirable nature. We as readers can’t help but acknowledge the hierarchy presented in the story as the gatekeeper and the countryman represent two distinct social classes. The gatekeeper was described briefly in the text as “the gatekeeper in his fur coat, at his large pointed nose and his long, thin, black Tartar’s beard beard….” (Kafka). The way in which the gatekeeper is described so elegantly creates the notion that he is of greater class than the countryman. His superiority is later proven as he continually rejects the countryman’s access to the law. All in all, the Marxist approach encourages the reader to analyze portions of a story as such, and to be able to recognize the social and economic influences that are present in a text. 

        Another very effective critical approach in analyzing this text is through psychological theories. This criticism focuses on the internal mental states of literary characters. This approach encompasses the motivations, desires, and the overall psychological development of the characters within a text. As mentioned prior, the country man desires the Law which is the most obvious motivation of story, but the way that he grows delirious and somewhat insane as the story progresses is important to recognize while utilizing this approach. This overwhelming desire leads to the countryman’s downfall as he begins having a battle with his sanity. When the country man first encounters the gatekeeper, he easily succumbs to his power for reasons that aren’t quite clear. Whether he was frightened, insecure, or just felt inferior to the gatekeeper, he told himself that patience was perhaps the only path to the law. As time passes and still no entry to the law, the countryman's desperation leads to irrational decision making. In hopes of winning over the gatekeeper, “The man, who has equipped himself with many things for his journey, spends everything, no matter how valuable, to win over the gatekeeper” (Kafka). Bribing the gatekeeper to the point where he was left with nothing was the first signification the country mans mental breakdown. As the story progresses the countryman’s mental instability intensifies as it mentions that he “grows old, he still mumbles to himself. He becomes childish and, since in the long years studying the gatekeeper he has come to know the fleas in his fur collar, he even asks the fleas to help him persuade the gatekeeper” (Kafka). This is where we are able to see the countryman’s internal conflict and how this obsession he has with the law is contributing to this mental breakdown. As the story comes to an end and the countryman takes his last breath still at the entry of the gate. Not only his death but the internal conflict that the country man had prior to his death encompasses what the psychological approach encourages the reader to acknowledge. 

        Both of these critical approaches can be utilized in gathering a deeper understanding of the text, but I feel that the psychological theory is a better suited approach. The marxist approach undoubtedly holds very true to the text, as the social divide is one of the most evident qualities of the story itself, but the psychological theory allows us as readers to better understand the characters and their development. The Marxist approach focuses on the various elements of the story and how there is a social and hierarchical influence. This approach doesn’t have much to do with the development of the story itself, rather it touches on the reasoning behind the occurances of the text. It is not necessarily an interactive or very thought provoking approach. As for the psychological theory, it allows the reader to dive deep into the minds of the characters themselves and observe how they develop in the story. Throughout the story we are able to apply this approach very easily because the bulk of the text is devoted to internal conflict the countryman has with himself. The marxist approach isn’t as easily applicable to the text because it simply doesn’t cover as much of the text as the psychological approach does. The entirety of the text is drawn towards the countryman’s mental breakdown and his underwhelming journey towards the law, which is why the psychological theory poses as a much more relevant and important perspective to analyze this text from.

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," by T.S. Eliot and "Down to You," by Joni Mitchell

         When I first read T.S. Eliot’s poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” there was a familiar sound to it –– The tone, the rhythm, the language immediately made me think of Joni Mitchell’s song “Down to You.” The stream of self-consciousness and imaginative language of both poems carries their narratives which communicate a struggle of romantic expression. Eliot’s balding narrator and Mitchell’s “constant stranger” are both in search of a meaningful romantic connection but, caught up in their anxious internal dialogue, prove incapable of finding one. 

In his poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” T.S. Eliot writes from the perspective of a middle-aged man. In her song, “Down to You,” Joni Mitchell’s main character does not have a distinct profile but one can assume she is talking about herself –– a woman in her thirties. Both of these characters set out on a pursuit of romantic intimacy. “Let us go you and I,” calls Eliot’s speaker to his imaginary lover (1). He and his companion are headed to a party. Mitchell’s character similarly goes “down to the pick up station” –– the bar (12). 

Throughout the span of the poem, Eliot echos a little couplet –– “In the room the women come and go/ Talking of Michelangelo.” Mitchell repeats a similar line in the beginning and end of her poem –– “Everything comes and goes.” Both poets comment on their inability to grasp what they desire. Eliot’s speaker watches these pretentious ladies “come and go” as they participate in proper party pleasantry –– Not only does the speaker fail to hold onto a woman, but he can’t quite grasp the seeming ease of everyday social interaction. Mitchell’s line is vague, but perhaps she is watching people come and go in the bar. “Everything comes and goes,” Mitchell waves off responsibility –– Nothing is permanent, nothing really matters. It’s all “(m)arked by lovers and styles of clothes” (Mitchell, 2). Both poets explain the impermanence of things through an observation of superficial trends –– The women at the party chit chat about high art while everything in Mitchell’s world is marked by meaningless lovers and clothing. “I am no prophet –– and here's no great matter,” Eliot restates this blasé sentiment (89). He dramatizes that he “[has] seen the moment of [his] greatness flicker” –– It is at its end. “Pleasure moves on too early,” Mitchell agrees. 

The man and the woman in the two poems are both physically involved in socially intimate interactions, but are unable to emotionally involve themselves. The man is at a party surrounded by people, but spends the whole time in his head worrying about what “(t)hey will say” about that “bald spot in the middle of [his] hair” (42, 41). The woman participates in a one-night stand –– She is as physically intimate as possible with another human being yet she hides “(c)lutching the night to [her] like a fig leaf” (18). They are unable to attain the connection that they seek because they are so caught up thinking about it –– Their self-consciousness is isolating.   Eliot never specifies who his speaker’s companion is, but one might infer that it is the worried voice inside his head –– not his companion but his lack-there-of, his loneliness. Mitchell’s woman also carries this with her, “[laying] down an impression/ And [her] loneliness” during her one-night stand (22-23). This is reinforced with Mitchell’s use of second person narrative –– She separates herself from the voice inside her head. 

Toward the end of both the poem and the song, Eliot and Mitchell express their feelings of ennui one last time. The man begins to fantasize about “mermaids singing, each to each” (130). He imagines “the white hair of the waves blown back/ When the wind blows the water white and black” (133-134). The man dreams of this beautiful, but completely unrealistic image. His intense desire for profound human connection is what keeps him from actually attaining it. It is a much safer place inside his head and so he stays there until “human voices wake [him], and [he drowns]” (137) –– When he wakes out of his dreamworld, into the real world, he ceases to exist. His fantasy drowns him –– It keeps him from experiencing anything outside of his mundane routine of counting “coffee spoons” (52). Mitchell also transitions into somewhat of a dreamy tone calling the woman “a brute” and “an angel” –– “[She] can crawl [she] can fly too” (44-45). She too exists in a dreamworld. In both cases this dreamworld just propels them into deeper feelings of isolation –– Such is the fate of many great artists. 

Question 3- Alfred Prufrock and "Promise"

Dane Nicolas

Professor Amy Fountain

ENL 10C

16 April 2018

Blog post 1: Question 3- Alfred Prufrock and “Promise”

            Youthful angst is a very relatable emotion which almost everyone has experienced. The expression of youthful angst has a long history in art and is a very popular genre. In 1920, T. S. Eliot’s wrote The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock where he articulated this powerful feeling. In his poem, a young man decides to go out for a night of fun and attends a party where he feels the strains of this angst. Eliot’s poem follows this young man’s thoughts and emotions as he struggles to enjoy this social event. Similarly, this theme of youthful angst is still quite popular in more modern music. In 1999, Eve 6 released “Promise” which shares the same theme of youthful angst and their expression of this emotion. This song also portrays a young man’s night as it begins and the same flow of thought and emotion that is coupled with it. T. S. Eliot and Eve 6 both portray the theme of youth angst in their protagonist’s own attack and belittlement of his own self-image.

             Eliot quickly introduces Prufrock as a young man in London who finally feels he is prepared for the night ahead of him. As he arrives at the party he quickly turns on himself and attacks his own physical appearance when debating whether or not to socialize at the party, “To wonder, ‘Do I dare?’ and, ‘Do I dare?’… With a bald spot in the middle of my hair”. (Eliot 14) When faced with the challenge of social interaction, Prufrock quickly and thoroughly questions his own ability and right to approach anyone. Prufrock likely isolating himself in a corner of the party, immediately questions whether or not he has the courage to even approach these people. Eliot’s use of the repeating ‘Do I dare’ emphasizes his thought loop as he repeatedly runs through this question. This lack of confidence is rooted in his own appearance and his thinning hair, which he feels the most subconscious about referencing it through out the poem. Just as in these lines, the poem continues to express Prufrock’s lack of self-confidence and demonstrates the feeling of angst as he slowly picks himself apart. Seventy-nine years later, this powerful theme of Prufrock’s youthful angst is quite similar to the protagonist in “Promise”.

Eve 6 portrays a similar story of a gentlemen finally prepared for his night as he quickly attacks his own ability, “I spit and stutter stuff and clutter, Worries in my worried corner, Maladjusted… Red as a newborn white as a corpse”. The protagonist also quickly questions his own social skills as he enters the party. Quickly attacking his nervous tendency to stutter and choke on his words when engaging in new social interactions. Similar to Prufrock, Eve 6’s character worries and isolates himself in a corner of the party while questioning his own ability and right to engage in the party’s interactions. During this questioning he quickly assumes he is ‘maladjusted’, which attacks his own social skills in this kind of situation. This leads to the end of the quotation and a repeating line in the song. When referencing ‘red as a newborn white as a corpse’, the protagonist is referencing his physical appearance when thinking of and implementing his approach. First the redness roots in his embarrassment and the flush he is experiencing during the thought of this interaction. The newborn also portrays his innocence and inexperience in these situations, demonstrating his inability to partake. Then the color white references his nervousness and the corpse articulates this feeling as a killer. This cleverly demonstrates the inability for a dead body to interact, depicting his frozen state due to his intense social anxiety. This song uses similar imagery to Eliot in the depiction of this young man’s struggle.

Through different forms of media, T. S. Eliot and Eve 6 both articulate the powerful theme of youthful angst with their protagonists' attack on their own self-image. These authors both express the powerful emotion of this angst and successfully paint a very relatable picture of this struggle. These artists depiction of angst clearly articulates that this feeling is nothing new and has been a powerful force through modern history. This demonstrates a hope for anyone who struggles with this emotion. These forms of expression show that this feeling is common and will end, belittling the power of this intense anxiety. I found it rather interesting that this expression is nothing new to the more modern world but can be seen almost a century ago.

Rachel Flores

Option #1

ENL 10C

Professor Aimee Fountain

April 15, 2018

Money Therapy

                     The way in which “Before the Law” by Franza Kafka is organized, in both tone and contextual evidence, allows for there to be various interpretations as to what the different elements of the story symbolize and represent. Although our group stood alongside the shared consensus fixated towards the Marxist criticism as mentioned in Gardner’s “Literary Criticism and Theory”, as an individual, I found that the psychological theory fit the story in a more appropriate manner through allusions to the idea that the gatekeeper was merely a fragment of imagination on behalf of “the man”.

         “Before the law sits a gatekeeper. To this gatekeeper comes a man from the country who asks to gain entry into the law” are the first two lines of the story that introduce the initial idea of a previously established hierarchy. It is rather easy to state that the gatekeeper symbolizes more than just a man and mention how he represents a higher, authoritative class that has the power and ability to allow or deny any sort of entry into the ambiguous “law”. Whether the interpretation of the law be literal or more abstract, in any case, it stands as a destination with quality selection. According to Gardner, the Marxist criticism theory definition calls into question any instance in which there are “inequalities between characters” leading the simple mention of having a “man from the country” ask “to gain entry into the law” to the gatekeeper, trigger the automatic response to classify this story as part of the Marxist category. Further on, the theme of materiality comes into the picture as the plot describes the commitment this unknown man puts when offering over his possessions in exchange for entrance into the law, “The man…spends everything, no matter how valuable, to win over the gatekeeper”. This idea of endless effort symbolizes the complexity of what Karl Marx argued which revolved around how “human interactions are economically driven”. In simpler terms, the only reason factory workers worked side by side, was because they all shared the same goal; to earn money to sustain not only themselves and their families, but to indulge in capitalist needs. Along with this artificial interaction amongst co workers also comes the alienation of the workers self since success in life is essentially based off salary, thus, tracing back to the idea that more money does not in fact mean more happiness, and instead, according to Karl Marx, means a step further into self-alienation through the routine work performed on a scheduled basis. “Everyone strives after the law,” everyone strives after money and power, “so how is it that in these many years no one except me has requested entry?”, so how is it that humans dedicate their entire lives to monetary profit for survival without question?

                  The Marxist theory is a convincing title to place upon this story, but the ideas of the early Sigmund Freud make their way into the plot through a series of illogical aspects that remain sprinkled throughout the story. “Before the law sits a gatekeeper..” asks for more and as the plot unfolds, the dialogue presented is mostly thoughts on behalf of the man from the country, “he thinks about it and then asks if he will be allowed to come in later on” to which the gatekeeper replies with an uncertain “It is possible” reply. We later on see these ponderings on behalf of the man with varying actions that force the man to “sit for days and years” despite his many efforts, but never being able to get to the law. A continuous sense of self conflict, desire, and psychological struggle is presented as the gatekeeper notices that the man is persistent enough to wait and chooses to challenge the man on his behalf by telling him that he may try to enter, but there are yet harder and “each more powerful than the others” awaiting behind him. A sense of reverse psychology to emit the idea intimidation is presented in the way that he offers an entrance but mentions the barriers that stand in the way. As the story transgresses, a therapy-like scene appears when stating that “the gatekeeper often interrogates him briefly, questioning him about this homeland and many other things, but they are indifferent” much like a therapist would ask his/her patient indifferent questions to solve the personal crisis they go through or to figure out why the man wants to get into the law in the first place. As for the further hints of illusion the story mentions how the man “grows old” while there seems to be no indication of aging on behalf of the gatekeeper. Lastly, the end of this mans life is questioned when stated that during his last moments of life, “finally his eyesight grows weak, and he does not know whether things are relly darker around him” or if his eyes have been deceiving him this whole time and the gatekeeper does not exist. The gatekeeper was his internal consciousness that for some reason, did not permit him to enter into the law, why? Because he was not worthy and he was a guilty man who knew it.