ŽIVOT I MOĆ: LIK ARNOLDA KRAUSHARA U ROMANU TUCANjE KAMENA KLEMENSA MAJERA

Abstract

The research conducted in this paper presents a possible understanding of Clemens Mey- er’s novel Bricks and Mortar. The analysis of existential, psychological, symbolic, and narrative aspects in which one of the main characters of the novel manifests himself, indicates the exist- ence of two opposing meaningful planes of the novelistic world and human nature in general: man’s alienation in modern society and his constant search for emotional closeness. The mul- titude of characters from the world of prostitution, those tragic heroes and heroines of our world, whose life stories are connected in the misfortune they bear and who are at the same time independent of each other, have a common need for individualism, authenticity, and hap- piness. Determined and imprisoned by the social and sociocultural frameworks in which they find themselves in a never-ending struggle for welfare, the characters in the novel Bricks and Mortar get an (almost hidden) chance to try to find themselves again in human values, such as faith in life, love, and human beings. The aim of the paper is to show the fateful search for the values of essential self-realization through the figure of Arnold Kraushaar, who opens himself to the unusual power of love but also to the power of destroying love. It seems, therefore, that Meyer’s novel represents an apocalyptic vision of the modern world, which examines both what a person wants and what a person does in relation to what the person can do.