The Face of Another by Kb Abe - Essay Example

Section/# The Face of Another: An Analysis and Discussion The level and extent to which personal identity and understanding is built into an interpretation and understanding of the human face has long been a construct of writers, playwrights, filmmakers, and artists. Due to the inescapable fact that so much understanding and connection is psychologically and physiologically built in to the human mind with reference to the face, the absence of one ( whether via a mask, injury, or some other reason) is oftentimes cause for alarm and misunderstanding. As a function of this innate human construct and reliance on the face as a means of both communication and identity, the author of The Face of Another, Kobe Abe, confronts the reader with the means by which humanity attempts to provide both a cover and an explanation for the absence of something that should otherwise be. As a function of the time and experiences that helped to define the author’s life, as well as the surrealistic style that his literature adopted, the story itself represents many more levels of meanings than merely can be expressed through the simple imagery of a man seeking to represent a new face to the world in which he lives. As a means to describe but a few of the resonate themes that are presented in Abe’s novel, this brief analysis will attempt to consider the work from literal, historical, and figurative approaches. From the literal perspective, the man behind the mask begins to redefine the way that he interacts with the world around him as a function of the fact that he no longer identifies with the true human being that is represented underneath the false exterior but a different person entirely. Rather than having the opportunity and being able to realize this rebirth and redefinition that the mask is able to give the protagonist, the carry-over affect of insecurities, unhappiness, and pervasive loneliness that have previously defined the growth of the character and serve only to be magnified under the representation of the mask. Says the author, “I can hardly believe that the face is so important to a mans existence. A mans worth should be gauged by the content of his work; possibly the convolutions of the surface of the brain have something to do with it, but his face certainly does not. If the loss of a face can cause conspicuous change in the scale of evaluation, it may well be owing to a fundamental emptiness of content” (Abe 29) What is uniquely interesting from a cultural perspective with relation to the subject matter is that within traditional Asian culture one of the few fates worse than death was dishonor via a process known as “losing face”. Although such an understanding is of course not literal with the representation that Abe approaches the reader, it is nonetheless salient. In this way, the protagonist has literally “lost face” and must seek to live within the cultural confines that such an action now places upon him. The resulting levels of disgust that the protagonist feels is merely the representation of the larger feelings of disgust and unhappiness/loneliness that he feels as a result of the shallow and impersonal life he now lives. Contrastingly, the protagonist originally thought the following regarding the means by which the mask would impact upon his life, “Thanks to the mask, everything would change completely. It was not only me; the world itself would appear in completely new garb” (Abe 14). Rather than finding a mask a suitable resolution to the horribly scarred face with which he now has the ultimate solution, the mask provides but a superficial cover for the most horrifying attributes of personal self worth, identify, egotism, and hatred that were always exhibited within his own personality; albeit, never able to make their way through the natural exterior he so long hid them under. In this way, a bit of foreshadowing is presented by the author as a means to underscore the folly and foolishness that the protagonist embodies with regards to the childish false hope that typifies his approach to the mask. Rather than providing the solution he so desires, the mask only serves to disconnect the protagonist further from his own identity and character. Regardless of the means by which he attempts to escape these, they are far less removable attributes than he believes. The simple acquisition of a new face to hide the scars and bandages is but one small portion of what his ultimate identity is made of. By foreshadowing such a concept, the author is able to help the reader to understand that although the superficial aspects of identity help the protagonist to define reality; the truth lies much deeper. Historically, many authors would make the connection between the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the level to which the end of World War II provided a powerful cultural determinacy upon the author. Although this may well be true, the sense of shame and disgust with oneself is too powerful within this novel to ignore it outright. Although the literal and figurative interpretations that one could employ from the horrors that the atomic bombs dropped upon the Japanese homeland immediately prior to the Japanese surrender could be extrapolated to integrate with the story, the more pressing understanding is a sense of humiliation, shame, sorrow, and degradation that the horrors of the war, perpetrated by both the Japanese Empire and the United States, have impressed upon the thought processes of the author (Lamont-Brown 15). In this way, it is this author’s belief that the physical scars that are suffered by the protagonist are but evidence of the broad and overarching emotional scars that afflict the populace of Japan and prevent them from being able to enter into a life of normalcy after the jarring events that defined the collective of society throughout the Second World War. In this way, just as the author struggles to present a true personality and identity to forward to the individuals with which he interacts, so too does society attempt to present a new face to the world as a means of understanding after the horrors caused as a result of World War II. A thorough analysis of the work cannot be affected without at least paying some attention to the way that Abe’s style directly mirrors the style, philosophical framework, and the political and societal analysis that the work of Franz Kafka effected in his novella Metamorphosis(Thornber 563). Although this topic of comparison has been belabored by many, it nonetheless bears analysis due to the fact that Kafka’s work dealt with an almost identical subject matter as does that of Abe. Moreover, the topic of humanity and its gradual loss due to the function of a distorted identity is a topic that is of mutual interest to both authors. The purpose of this analysis is not to attempt to draw inference between these two works or to claim that one borrowed liberally from another; rather, the purpose of mentioning Kafka in such a context is to acquaint the reader with the fact that regardless of the amount of time or the ultimate societal and/or political issues that a given author thinks salient at the time, the topic of identify and the loss thereof is of both a primary interest to the fields of literature, philosophy, psychology, and society at large. Finally, the three distinct forces that have been discussed thus far as a means of understanding allow the author to proceed into a level of character introspection and analysis that would otherwise be confused by the dominant cultural, social, personal, and historical attributes that define the “self” in question. What is meant by this is that by peeling away successive layers of the characters personality and the constructs which help to define such a personality, the author is able to get to the core of what being human and the meaning of relationships, identify, and ego actually mean. As a function of such a low level of analysis onto the key motivators of what defines humanity, the author is able to interact with the reader on a level that would otherwise be impossible. Moreover, the growth of the character throughout the novel is a means of acquainting the reader with the understanding that the protagonist himself experiences a key change in the way that he relates to the idea of his old self, his new self, and the means by which the mask allows him to seek to create the identity and world view he wants. The abject failure to accomplish such a goal is of course ample lesson to the reader that the intention of changing ones identity and thereby affecting the surrounding environment is likely an endeavor that could be considered tantamount to the ancient Greek understanding of the word “hubris”. As the protagonist finds, the supposed freedom and liberation that he expected to achieve as a result of his change was something entirely different than what was expected. Rather than feeling a true sense of liberation and freedom, the protagonist is met with the same deep-seated psychological issues that caused him such great difficulty previously. In this manner, the author is able to bring home the important point that no matter the means by which an individual may attempt to change “face”, the inward interpretation and definition of variables that ultimately translate into expression of personality and identity cannot so whimsically be altered. It is beyond the scope of this particular author to be able to convincingly determine which of the three approaches which have been thus far detailed bears the most relevance with regards to defining the protagonist of this particular novel. However, of more importance than seeking to define the protagonist based on what causal factors most influence and/or motivated the desire and subsequent attempt to change, it is perhaps of greater and more significant merit to note that each of these forces acted in their own way to define and differentiate the character as a function of character, culture, history, and inner identity. Rather than merely stating that affecting a fundamental change on the outward appearance as a hopes that it will effect a change on one’s identity, the author relates the progression through the experience of the protagonist as a type of reference and object lesson through which the reader can comprehend the folly and disconnected thought process that leads the character to believe he can affect such a change with little to any consequences on the life he lives. Works Cited Abe, Kōbō. The face of another. New York: Perigee Books, 1980. Lamont-Brown, Raymond. "Abe Abe: Japans Novelist Of Alienation." Contemporary Review 263.1530 (1993): 31. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Dec. 2012. Thornber, Karen. "Truth From A Lie: Documentary, Detection, And Reflexivity In Abe Abes Realist Project." Asian Studies Review 36.4 (2012): 562-563. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Dec. 2012. Read More