How Can Literature Define the Parameters of Identity? Bea Duric 11th Grade

An astutely stated and compelling assertion that “perhaps it’s impossible to wear an identity without becoming what you pretend to be” brings light to one of the myriad disputes concerning what constitutes the core of any human being and whether or not man remains fundamentally the same person depending upon his chosen markers of identity. On the other hand, one of the greatest dramatists of all time and a pertinent figure in the development of literary Realism, Ukrainian-born novelist Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol seeks to resolve such a question by exploring the peculiar fate of a pretentious man whose nose has gone missing in his satirical short story The Nose. Structured in a linear, chronological fashion, The Nose captures the classic conflict of developing one’s identity through a supernatural twist in which the protagonist Major Kovalyov’s own nose detaches itself from his body and leads a separate life as a civil servant. Challenging the literal paradigm of verisimilitude and logic, Gogol entwines the idea of identity only being external with the simplistic, one-dimensional portrayal of his characters and the absence of a character arc to suggest that identity itself is static and solely changes to those who use physical...