| The three stories that this essay will | | | | experiencing in full while working to pay the |
| embrace are "The Necklace" by Guy De | | | | debt off. Maupassant criticizes such |
| Maupassant, "Bartleby, the Scrivener" by | | | | understanding of happiness and makes the lady |
| Herman Melville and "The Metamorphosis" by | | | | rethink her values through misery and poverty |
| Franz Kafka. All of these stories are | | | | that she never knew before that unhappy |
| concerned with the societal problem of | | | | evening. Clearly the ending of the story when |
| perceiving the world through the | | | | Loisel meets her old friend with a child |
| materialistic prism. Those stories are | | | | proves the point that the author found joy in |
| depicting the problem in different ways | | | | different things other than money. "Madame |
| through the examples of people suffering in | | | | Forestier, still young, still beautiful, |
| situations they find themselves in. | | | | still attractive." was walking with a child |
| | | | and this child was a source of her wealth and |
| The lawyer in the famous story by Melville is | | | | beauty not jewels that were hidden in the |
| a representation of the bourgeois part of the | | | | boxes. Ironically enough the author makes her |
| society, who speaks of himself in such a | | | | a rich one and Madame Loisel a "poor" friend, |
| manner "All who know me consider me an | | | | in this manner showing his attitude toward |
| eminently safe man" meaning that he chose a | | | | those who seek material wealth. |
| safe path in life and endures a profession | | | | |
| that will definitely bring him profit and | | | | Society's rules and orders oppose human |
| stable position in the society. There is a | | | | desire to remain free and untroubled in the |
| scrivener in his firm who is of a different | | | | story by Franz Kafka. A strange metamorphosis |
| standing, a rather existentialist one who is | | | | happens with a young sales man one morning |
| not willing to confirm to values of society | | | | when he is about to get out of bed. He become |
| in the face of his boss. The two of them will | | | | a vermin, a horrible and defenseless insect. |
| never find a common language, as one is | | | | The manager who comes to Gregor's door to |
| surrounding himself by the walls of egoism | | | | find out why he didn't show up in the office |
| and material things in his Wall Street office | | | | says "I thought I knew you as a calm, |
| while the other is trying to find meaning in | | | | reasonable person, and now you appear |
| nonexistent imaginary things. Bartleby also | | | | suddenly to want to start parading around in |
| builds walls from the outside vicious world | | | | weird moods". He proves the fact that |
| that's not a safe place for those who do not | | | | everyone expects certain behavior from |
| confirm, in this way Melville states that | | | | everyone else in order for the system to |
| whoever is unwilling to agree will have to | | | | function properly, people to make money and |
| leave, which it true because poor scrivener | | | | be a part of the machine. The demands of the |
| dies unable to survive. Non-conformity to the | | | | bourgeois society are high and strict and |
| materialistic values does not serve good for | | | | being a vermin will not be appreciated by |
| the hero and neither explains anything to the | | | | anyone else especially those who are paying |
| selfish lawyer , thus leaves things as they | | | | you salary. Kafka is taking a radical step in |
| were and only the writer makes his point of | | | | portraying a pitiful insect hinting on the |
| view clear. | | | | imprisonment that norms of the materialistic |
| | | | world causes people who are sooner or later |
| Another story with an ironic and cruel ending | | | | to become those bugs without choosing so. |
| is "The Necklace". Madame Loisel "had no | | | | Gregor wasn't able to control his |
| clothes, no jewels, nothing. And these were | | | | transformation he woke up being a vermin and |
| the only things she loved" , so the author | | | | there was no way back, he was sucked in by |
| sets the main idea of the story in those | | | | the norms and pressed down by expectations. |
| lines. Madame was a very unhappy woman with a | | | | |
| loving and caring husband whom she didn't | | | | These stories are illustrating sad picture in |
| notice however. The light of the diamonds and | | | | which people are supposed to live, because |
| warmth of expensive furs were the only things | | | | system is supposed to use man force and |
| she was striving for but could not receive as | | | | enrich those who are already rich. Illusion |
| she was poor. Her understanding of happiness | | | | of material happiness does not appeal to the |
| was brutally laughed at by the author in the | | | | authors as they criticizing popular values in |
| course of the story. He makes he rethink the | | | | their works. All three of them are statements |
| meaning of her life when she loses a cheap | | | | of author's positions on problems of the |
| necklace but has to repay thousands of | | | | material model and although they are not |
| franks. The borrowed necklace in this story | | | | offering any rational solution, they are |
| represents wrong treasures that Madame Loisel | | | | making the reader think and rethink their |
| is eager to get, it costs nothing and the | | | | personal values. Therefore the ultimate goal |
| diamonds are fake although they are sparkling | | | | of literature- making readers contemplate |
| as real. Materialistic pleasures bring only | | | | over their lives if fully accomplished in |
| suffering and despair which our heroine is | | | | those three masterpieces. |