Table of ContentsPhysical or Emotional Pain: What Makes the Best Story?Postcolonial BildungsromaneConclusionsPhysical or Emotional Pain: What Makes the Best Story best story?Pain is a very human thing to feel, whether it presents itself in a physical or emotional form. As a “human” concept, it is fascinating that pain can be (and is) expressed through literature. Because as much as we would like some characters to be living human beings, they are not. I would like to explore the idea that the presence of pain is a tool used by authors to present their characters in a more "complete" or humane way. An exploration of this concept will be carried out through in-depth readings of pre- and postcolonial bildungsromane. This will help my argument that the presence of pain in postcolonial novels, as opposed to precolonial bildungsromane, allows characters to appear more full than flat and, therefore, allows them to relate to humanity. plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay First, I'd like to discuss the concept of "complete" and "flat" characters, which I will refer to for the remainder of the essay. To introduce a new metaphor, I would like to say that I believe that the characters in a novel can be considered as a basket of fruit. The basket itself is the shell of a character. The fact that they are mentioned in the story space gives them a basket. But the amount of different types of fruit that fill that basket determines how strong that character's personality and emotional relationship with a reader (and, ultimately, their humanity) are. The flat characters would be the basket which, for example, only contains apples. It still has fruit and is still technically filling - but it's not diverse, it's not as fun and it's even a bit bland. On the other hand, the characters' full baskets contain an assortment of bright colors and a range of tastes – everything from average apples and oranges to more fun or exotic starfruit, mangoes and kiwis. And they are filled to the brim. To draw on my own metaphor, I would say that the more diverse a basket of fruit is - or the more complete a character - the more humanly identifiable one or more characters will become. Next, I'd like to discuss the difference between physical and emotional pain, and the different types of weight these pains take on when present in a novel. Emotional pain is simply easier to achieve in the context of a novel, because all the resources are available for the author to create emotional scenes. All they really need are a few correctly placed words with which one character expresses to another that they are experiencing emotional pain (normally through dialogue) and voila: emotional pain! Physical pain, on the other hand, is a more vivid concept that is not as easy to implement on the page. It's not enough for a character to say they're in physical pain, through dialogue. Normally, there is a scene preceding this dialogue – if there is one – that allows the reader to have a much deeper experience. For physical pain to become credible in a novel, the author has to put a little more elbow grease into it to achieve it. This gives more weight to physical pain when it comes to creating a full-fledged character, although emotional pain cannot be completely discounted for the purposes of this topic.And, for the last essential part of my introduction: I want to explain this, in order to Later, in developing the subject of humanity in a novel, I must first clarify that, even if the characters in a novel are supposed to look like humans, they are not real. This may seem obvious and simple, but many readers and writers struggle to tell the difference. In the analysis of literature, we often wrongly talk about characters as if they were real people, with real feelings, who live outside the space of the story – which is not all. just not the case. Every aspect of a character that we see in a novel was placed there intentionally by the author. In literary analysis, one must keep this fact in mind at all times, in order to provide an accurate reading of the author's work, which explores the intention rather than simply exploring ambiguous concepts taken out of thin air. leaves. at the forefront of the bildungsroman genre. Normally, they would simply be called “coming-of-age novels,” without the “precolonial” label. The reason I call them that here is so that I can be clear in the comparison between early bildungsromane and postcolonial bildungsromane. I will first introduce two precolonial bildungsroman novels, and then compare the incorporation of physical and emotional pain presented in these (or lack thereof) to that of two postcolonial bildungsroman novels, and how it affects the fullness of the characters of each. The precolonial novel I would like to present is The Apprenticeship of Wilhelm Meister by Goethe. The apprenticeship of Wilhelm Meister is sometimes considered the father of bildungs. It is one of the first bildungsroman novels and is used in classrooms all over the world to teach bildungsroman or, in other words, a character's journey. What does it take to get the complete picture? Does a novel have to be as long as this one to get the point across? -- These are some of the questions we are asked in class. And, more importantly, these are not questions I will ask or answer here. Instead, I would like to present a different view of Wilhelm Meister. My questions are: How much pain is presented in this novel, and is it presented physically or emotionally? How full is Wilhelm's character? And does the length of this novel attest to the conclusion we reach regarding the fullness of Wilhelm's character? The majority of pain mentioned in The Apprenticeship of Wilhelm Meister is that of emotional pain. This is shown time and time again, as Wilhelm is undeniably an emotional character. This was clearly Goethe's intention, as evidenced by the sheer constancy of emotionality Wilhelm projects - and what is even more important is the consistent presentation of emotional pain, which becomes a large part of Wilhelm's journey. From the beginning, the emotional pain is emphasized as such: "Days of repeated and constantly rekindled pain followed...he had not entirely lost his beloved, and his grief was a series of insistently renewed attempts to s hold on to the happiness he had left. him” (Goethe, 41). The pain seen throughout the novel is also quite filtered through the dialogue. In a conversation with Jarno near the end of the novel, Wilhelm states: “We are forced to abandon our deepest feelings and desires because of him. I will accept this mission, even if I foresee the anguish that I will have to suffer from Lydia's tears and despair” (Goethe, 269). The presence of emotional pain is always looming and almost impossible to ignore. Even if the emotional pain takes overflying in The Apprenticeship of Wilhelm Meister, Wilhelm's journey is not entirely free of physical pain. But when it is presented, it is most often filtered through dialogue – similar to the emotional pain presented in the novel. To extend the concept even further, the physical pain Goethe incorporates does not even come from Wilhelm's own experience, but from the dialogue of other people who share it with him. It's almost as if Wilhelm's character wasn't supposed to feel physical pain, but rather just focus on emotional pain. An example of this appears when Wilhelm argues with Melina during their first meeting. Melina said to Wilhelm: “You must have very thick skin, like a bear in chains, beaten with a stick in the company of dogs and monkeys, to dance to the sound of bagpipes in front of children and scum” (Goethe, 28) . As human beings, we experience physical pain day in and day out, whether it's back pain, headaches, kicks or punches. The conspicuous absence of any purely physical pain in Goethe's novel prevents Wilhelm and the other characters from achieving the potential wholeness that they might otherwise achieve. The length of this novel is one of the reasons I believe true physical pain is absent in Wilhelm's character. Adding physical pain, it would add much more length to the novel, and add a completely different aspect that Goethe didn't seem to care about. Goethe worked hard to create an emotional world for Wilhelm that seemed complete, without the more physical aspects. The most intriguing part is that Goethe consciously adds elements to his novel that emphasize the fact that emotional pain is not important in filling out a character or moving the plot forward. He essentially makes my point when, at the beginning of the second "book" of the novel, the narrator himself emphasizes the unimportance of a certain amount of emotional pain: "...we will not treat our readers to a narrative detailed of the misfortunes and sorrows of our unfortunate friend when he found his hopes and desires so unexpectedly shattered, but rather skip over a few years” (Goethe, 41). It is clear, in this passage, that Goethe was more concerned with Wilhelm's journey than with filling him with beautiful fruits that would make him an even more delicious and full character. The absence of physical pain and the addition of lesser emotional pain leaves Wilhelm's character with only apples in his basket. individuals. The presence of physical and emotional pain in these novels is much greater than in earlier precolonial bildungsromanes. The novel that I read carefully is The Ambiguous Adventure by Cheikh Hamidou Kane. Kane's novel opens with the very physical discipline that the spiritual "teacher", Thierno, instills in the protagonist, Samba Diallo. The novel memorably begins with the phrase "That day, Thierno had beaten him again" (Kane, 3), and from the first pages, the reader feels with him Samba's pain, as he is pinched on the thigh, on the nails. tears the cartilage in his ear and he is burned. These passages are not without contrast with the thoughts of Thierno who praises this boy whom he punishes physically by reciting his prayer. We also find out soon after that Samba is not fazed by the beatings -- he actually remembers them very fondly, because, as he was taught, they helped him achieve "the highest levels of human greatness” (Kane, 5). Kane's introduction of this teaching method in the history of Samba, and the final appreciation ofSamba for this one, recall what Samba begins to feel towards the Western occupation of Africa at the end of the novel. The author not only gives a higher pedestal to this presentation of physical pain by using it as an introduction, but she sets the bar for physical pain that places it in parallel with the good things Samba experiences. Then there is an underlying belief that Kane works with in his novel, which is the belief that pain is good, that it takes you places and you learn from it. This goes beyond anything seen in precolonial bildungsroman novels. As for the emotional pain observed in Ambiguous Adventure, it is strangely linked to the physical pain of the novel: “For several days, it had been extremely painful for him to live in the village. The professor had become eccentric in his behavior, and it seemed to Samba Diallo that he was both less serious and more distant” (Kane, 36 years old). Although his physical pain is gone, he is unhappy: Samba is incapable of feeling emotional pain without grieving over the lack of physical pain he felt. An echo of this is created by Kane's repetition of physical and emotional pain becoming one. Later in the novel, the knight tells Samba: "'...one can work out of necessity, to put an end to the great pain of need that arises from the body and the earth -- to impose silence on all those who are in need. voices that harass us with their demands. And then also, we work to maintain ourselves, to preserve the species” (Kane, 88 years old). There is an undeniable emotional aspect here, but which is not without an almost physical pain in the body. The use of these echoes creates an interesting paradox that Kane, I believe, uses to comment on the differences between his novel and those of the precolonial bildungsroman. Although the emotional aspect is considered important, it gives physical pain a higher level of humanity: one cannot have the emotional without the presence of the physical. And to continue the metaphor: Samba's fruit basket would be filled to the brim with delicious and juicy fruits of all kinds. Kane gives his characters a diversity of pain that makes them more well-rounded and emotionally accessible. essential aspect of the genre. The differences between time periods and cultures are what create the differences between the two - one of the most notable differences being the presence and use of emotional and physical pain. The concept of pain in literature is strange, because when we study and analyze literature, we are supposed to realize that the characters themselves are not real. Words on a page couldn't create a notion of something so human, could they? Somehow, even though the concept seems out of reach, authors are able to evoke these human feelings and emotions in their characters – quite intentionally, in fact, and sometimes very effective. This is why it is so important to study the use of physical and emotional pain in bildungsroman novels. The use of emotional pain or physical pain to illustrate the wholeness of a character in the context of the novel is intentional, and I wanted to know which model was more effective: the precolonial or postcolonial approach? As for precolonial novels, the depth of Wilhelm's character is hampered by the inhumanity of neglecting the physical pain that humans experience in their daily lives. Due to Goethe's inability or refusal to add a concrete layer of physical pain to Wilhelm Meister's learning (and focusing only.