Analysis Essay on Jay Gatsby

Throughout history, literature has explored the continued growth of our understanding of the human condition, or what it means to humans. One of the factors that distinguish literature from writing for entertainment and escapist writing is a commentary on the human condition. In literature, the human experience includes themes about life and society, themes that are relevant to the reader. We frequently see themes linked to the human psychic condition in literary works, such as the protagonist angst that is caused by unsympathetic characters, exploring this theme in light of five different stories written in post-WWII.

Henri, in This Way to The Gas Ladies and Gentlemen, played a crucial role in the protagonist's angst because of his unsympathetic attitude towards the prisoners/ victims. Henri is described through the narrator's eyes as a ''fat Frenchman'' (10). He is a communist, a member of the Canada labor gang, and a close friend of Tadek, the narrator. Since the narrator has a close relationship with Henri, the readers can sense the narrator's anxiety raising whenever the two talk to one another. Additionally, the narrator feels anxious due to his friend, Henri, viewing the prisoners and the cruelty practiced towards them as being natural, rather than horrifying as the narrator views it. Further, Henri is unsympathetic as he reveals that the reason why these people are being tortured and killed is that they believe in a God, not because of racist reasons, in which he blames the victims instead of the aggressor. Henri has a sarcastic attitude towards the camp and the victims. On the other hand, the narrator, through his narration, expresses a sense of sympathy toward the victims. Further, their different viewpoint on the camp, and victims, and Henri being a strong, opinionated person, affected the narrator’s psyche that led him to experience anxiety. Tadek describes the concentration camps in a way that expressed his empathy toward them:

People… inhumanly crammed, buried under incredible heaps of luggage, suitcases, trunks, packages, crates, bundles of every description (everything that had been their past was to start their future). Monstrously squeezed together, they have fainted from heat, suffocated, crushed one another. Now they push towards the opened doors, breathing like fish cast out on the sand. (19)

Additionally, these horrifying scenes cause the narrator to question his nature as a human, '' 'Listen, Henri, are we good people?' '' (22). And then, the narrator goes on to describe that he feels furious because he must be here, he is forced on to torture them. But rather than agreeing with Tadek, Henri replies, '' 'Ah, on the contrary, it is natural, predictable, calculated. The ramp exhausts you, you rebel—and the easiest way to relieve your hate is to turn against someone weaker' '' (23). Tadek, when expressing why he feels furious, was because he felt that he is forced on dealing with the cruelty that exists in the concentration camps, but Henri thinks that Tadek is furious because he can turn against someone weaker. Additionally, this interaction between them causes the narrator to feel anxious as he is confronted with his true self, a cruel person who torturers the weak, therefore, the narrator, for the first time, starts to express his inability to bear being in the concentration camps, ''It is impossible to control oneself any longer'' (25). Henri's unsympathetic tone regarding the victims causes the narrator anxiety due to that he does not want to lose his sense of empathy toward the victims and becomes like Henri, therefore his anxiety increases when they talk to one another.

Similarly, in The Guest, unsympathetic characters that cause angst for the protagonist are seen through Balducci, the gendarme. The protagonist, Daru, is living undisturbed, in a schoolhouse which he considers home until he meets Balducci. Balducci forces Daru to deliver the Arab to Tinguit and think of doing such a thing as dishonoring, ‘’ ‘I mean, that’s not my job’ ‘’ (85). Regardless of Daru’s refusal to deliver the Arab, Balducci feels insulted and starts to talk about men’s obligations during the war, ‘‘’ In wartime people do all kinds of jobs ‘‘’ (85). Balducci did not sympathize with the protagonist who did not obey this order specifically and instead forced him into it. Due to that, the protagonist feels obligated to deliver the Arab, and during his time with the Arab, he felt anxious as he did not want to deliver him to Tinguit. Therefore, at the end of the story, he fell into a state of moral despair when he realized that the Arab had chosen imprisonment.

    Moreover, in Love Constant Beyond Death, Nelson Farin is the character that is portrayed by Marquez as unsympathetic; he is portrayed as unsympathetic in two different segments of the narrative. First, he has killed his first wife, therefore, he is an escaped convict, ‘’He had escaped from Devil’s Island and appeared in Rosal del Virrey on a ship loaded with innocent macaws'' (152). Additionally, instead of expressing guilt for killing his wife, Nelson wants a fake ID, for him to escape punishment. Second, because he needs the fake ID, he sends his daughter to Sanchez to spend the night with him, in an exchange for a fake ID. Further, the two scenes reflect how much Nelson is a dismissive person in which he is insensitive toward his family members.  

Also, in Zaabalawi, Zaabalawi is the character in which it can be read as dismissive. The reader never meets Zaabalwai, just like the narrator, who goes on a quest to meet him so he can be cured. The narrator looks everywhere, in an attempt to find Zaabalawi, but he doesn't meet him, which reflects how, Zaabalawi, although there are people who are in need and searching for him, is unaffectionate towards them and their efforts to find him.

Lastly, it seems difficult to identify a character that is portrayed as unsympathetic in the short story Axolotl, because, mostly, it revolved around the protagonist's internal thoughts and his observation of axolotl in the aquarium, but the protagonist's short interaction with the guard reflected the guard’s unsympathetic attitudes towards the protagonist. Furthermore, the narrator was fascinated with watching axolotl so much that the guard noticed him, instead of ignoring him, the guard says to him in a laughing tone, ‘’You eat them alive with your eyes, hey,’’ (7). In which the narrator, as a response, starts thinking that the guard might think of him as a ‘’little cracked’’ (7).

Concluding, the portrayal of unsympathetic characters in the five stories reflected literature documentation of human experience, in which these unsympathetic characters affect other characters psychics, causing them to feel angst....