Within A Budding Grove by Marcel Proust and The Trial by Franz Kafka

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When interpreting characters in novels readers perceive characters by the impressions the author provides to writers. In the novels Within A Budding Grove by Marcel Proust and The Trial by Franz Kafka the characters Albertine and Josef K. can be looked at in many different perspectives. Proust portrays Albertine to be a multifaceted, unpredictable character but when taking a step away from the narrator’s thoughts she can be seem in a completely different light. Kafka’s main character Josef K. can either be seen as an innocent victim or as someone who deserves accusation. Writers who set up a story line that allow readers to take away from it what they wish, such as Proust and Kafka, make for the best writers (in my opinion), providing readers to take away from the novel and characters what they wish. Below I provide an argument based on personal perspective, interpretations, and critical evaluations as to why Albertine can be seen in a different light quite the opposite of the biased assumptions the narrator has provided to readers and an in depth analysis of why Josef K. is an innocent victim of the Court.

Marcel Proust writes his novel Within A Budding Grove through the lense of the narrator. The narrators perceptions make Albertine seem like an obnoxious, jealous, unpredictable, ‘plump’, annoying girl, comparing her to a “fugitive, and no expression of her value can be complete unless preceded by some such symbol as that which physics denotes speed” (WABG, 39). To readers Albertine is a mystery, we never really get an idea Marcel’s true feelings for her, he exposes his inner thoughts and distress to readers but it is unclear whether Marcel’s true feelings are motivated by obsession of her lesbian tastes, jealou...

... middle of paper ...

...nt, sinner or saint-it is all up to the reader and how we decide to analyze the information the author provides.

Works Cited

.(n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved December 8, 2013, from BrainyQuote.com Web site:

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/phaedrus391807.html

Heidsieck, Arnold. "Chapter 6." The Intellectual Contexts of Kafka's Fiction: Philosophy, Law, Religion. Columbia, SC: Camden House, 1994. N. pag. Print.

Moncur, Michael. "Quotation Details: Michael Moncur's (Cynical) Quotations." The Quotations Page. Michael and Laura Moncur, Nov. 1994. Web. 08 Dec. 2013.

Proust, Marcel. Within a Budding Grove. New York: Modern Library, 1992. Print.

Kafka, Franz. "The Problem of Our Laws." The Basic Kafka. New York: Washington Square, 1979. N. pag. Print.

Kafka, Franz. The Trial. [S.l.]: Schocken, 1999. Print.

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