The 20th century modernist movement brought a new way to look at the human mission. Terrible events that struck in this era led to a new mindset which questioned what we really live for. Journey Through the Night by Jakov Lind focuses on two passengers in a train car and a man’s drift in and out of a surreal trance. The angle is that the only thing that keeps us alive is the will to survive. The dreaming character goes through a journey of self discovery, the illusion of a cannibal utilized to convince himself he has a reason to go on living. The modern idea of self questioning is pertinent to this story, the man questions himself “men eat men, what’s unnatural about that...human beings cry when a relative dies, but how can anybody cry over
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The narrator observes him physically, “his nose was straight, his lips thin, his teeth uncommonly small...A moustache, that’s what he needs” (Lind 206). This description itself is confusing--why does he “need” a moustache? Then, the narrator jumps to the conclusion that he will do something bad to him “I won’t sleep tonight, I said. You’ve given me fair warning” (Lind 207). But, the reader hasn’t really caught up to the evil intentions of the cannibal which makes it confusing. The lack of quotation marks to separate the dialogue of the narrator and the cannibal also adds complexity but has another purpose--to erase the boundary between the narrator and the cannibal, and show that all of this is really a dream.
The dominant image is the cannibal’s physical features, along with the absurdity of the inner monologue. The passenger is more surprised that the man is a thief than that he is planning to consume him “He’s stolen it somewhere, I said to myself. He’s a thief” (Lind 208). Also dominant is the narrator’s struggle to think of a reason to live, and when he finally does, is is “to go for a walk in Paris”, which isn’t the expected outcome, it seems as if he’s searching his mind for any reason he can and he spouts that one out in a hurry to stop the
The narrator observes him physically, “his nose was straight, his lips thin, his teeth uncommonly small...A moustache, that’s what he needs” (Lind 206). This description itself is confusing--why does he “need” a moustache? Then, the narrator jumps to the conclusion that he will do something bad to him “I won’t sleep tonight, I said. You’ve given me fair warning” (Lind 207). But, the reader hasn’t really caught up to the evil intentions of the cannibal which makes it confusing. The lack of quotation marks to separate the dialogue of the narrator and the cannibal also adds complexity but has another purpose--to erase the boundary between the narrator and the cannibal, and show that all of this is really a dream.
The dominant image is the cannibal’s physical features, along with the absurdity of the inner monologue. The passenger is more surprised that the man is a thief than that he is planning to consume him “He’s stolen it somewhere, I said to myself. He’s a thief” (Lind 208). Also dominant is the narrator’s struggle to think of a reason to live, and when he finally does, is is “to go for a walk in Paris”, which isn’t the expected outcome, it seems as if he’s searching his mind for any reason he can and he spouts that one out in a hurry to stop the