An Exit for the Human Product: A Comparative Study of Extreme Literature

Amelia Ying Qin

doi:10.7575/aiac.ijclts.v.2n.2p.1

Abstract

This paper examines from a comparative perspective six novels telling stories of extreme life experiences set in both Western and oriental cultures. The paper argues that in these extreme cases, the characters, subjected to absolute power domination, lose their individual identities and are transformed into “human products.” Their struggles for power will always remain futile unless they find a way to reverse the power relationships they are trapped in. Such a reversal allows the hope of an exit for the “human products” to escape the hopeless situation of perpetuated social, sexual, and mental enslavement.

Highlights

The natural tendency to fight for power is shared by human beings and other animal species
Human beings differ from other animals by having the need for an individual identity, their desire for power in social status and sexuality can be related to similar patterns in animal behavior
When this desire for the pleasure of power becomes the ultimate goal of human life, human beings are deprived the distinction of having individual identities

Summary

Introduction

The natural tendency to fight for power is shared by human beings and other animal species. Worrying all the time about things like business cards and restaurant reservations, he does not notice that he has lost his own identity alone the way and become a human product and an unhappy slave In this situation of selfenslavement, the power he obtains through his dominant social status does not constitute as his power any more, because it is a chain on his own neck and causes him to lose his individuality. Bateman is in the dominant position of his power relationships over people of lower social status and people who are his sexual victims He is enslaved by his own ceaseless desire for the pleasure of power, and loses his identity as an individual with a soul. He has a chance to find an exit from his enslavement and obtain his own individual identity

Seeking for an Exit and an Identity

Conclusion