Vineet, I love how you manage to relate your presentation to the common, everyday problems faced by the people around you. As a teenager, I certainly am stressed and tired by all the pressures that life exerts, though I certainly don't face as many challenges as Knut Hamsun's protagonist of Glahn. It is interesting how you and Maslow's hierarchy of needs, as Glahn pursues "higher" needs like acceptance and love before fulfilling his "basic needs" of hunger and nourishment. I tend to be skeptical of Maslow's hierarchy, as the needs people perceive themselves as needing change constantly based on their emotional state. Maslow's characterization is too rigid, making it seem like the lower level of needs MUST be fulfilled before personal growth can continue. Glahn as a character reminds me of other influences I have seen in Norwegian literature. Perhaps you have heard of Henrik Ibsen's famous play, Peer Gynt, the story of a listless young man, Peer Gynt, who has no control over his life and wanders the world aimlessly. Like Glahn, Peer is drawn to sensuality; he seduces a village girl, Ingrid, on the day before her wedding, and Peer also abandons his responsibilities, as he quickly spurns Ingrid again. The motif of the play is that Peer is closer to being a troll than a man, as he always runs away from the truth instead of seeking it. Hamsun seems to have concurred with Ibsen, as Glahn's primal tendencies cause his character to regress rather than grow. In your AP open question above, you noted how Glahn was ultimately murdered by a hunter. I think this symbolizes how Glahn has become an animal, a troll, as his "pyramid of needs" has collapsed into a pile of impulses acting on instinct. Maybe Hamsun was influenced by Ibsen? Perhaps the forbidding fjords of Norway, along with the brutal Scandinavian winters built up that sense of alienation from mankind that both Norwegian authors shared.
Vineet, I love how you manage to relate your presentation to the common, everyday problems faced by the people around you. As a teenager, I certainly am stressed and tired by all the pressures that life exerts, though I certainly don't face as many challenges as Knut Hamsun's protagonist of Glahn. It is interesting how you and Maslow's hierarchy of needs, as Glahn pursues "higher" needs like acceptance and love before fulfilling his "basic needs" of hunger and nourishment. I tend to be skeptical of Maslow's hierarchy, as the needs people perceive themselves as needing change constantly based on their emotional state. Maslow's characterization is too rigid, making it seem like the lower level of needs MUST be fulfilled before personal growth can continue.
ReplyDeleteGlahn as a character reminds me of other influences I have seen in Norwegian literature. Perhaps you have heard of Henrik Ibsen's famous play, Peer Gynt, the story of a listless young man, Peer Gynt, who has no control over his life and wanders the world aimlessly. Like Glahn, Peer is drawn to sensuality; he seduces a village girl, Ingrid, on the day before her wedding, and Peer also abandons his responsibilities, as he quickly spurns Ingrid again. The motif of the play is that Peer is closer to being a troll than a man, as he always runs away from the truth instead of seeking it. Hamsun seems to have concurred with Ibsen, as Glahn's primal tendencies cause his character to regress rather than grow. In your AP open question above, you noted how Glahn was ultimately murdered by a hunter. I think this symbolizes how Glahn has become an animal, a troll, as his "pyramid of needs" has collapsed into a pile of impulses acting on instinct. Maybe Hamsun was influenced by Ibsen? Perhaps the forbidding fjords of Norway, along with the brutal Scandinavian winters built up that sense of alienation from mankind that both Norwegian authors shared.