Kosinskis Being There and the Existential Anti-Hero Essay -- Being Th

Kosinskis Being There and the Existential Anti-Hero Critics have referred to Kosinskis Being There as his smite novel. Perhaps, Kosinskis prosaic vogue is deceptive in its apparent simplicity (especially when contrasted with The Painted Bird). What Kosinski seeks to do, as Welch D. Everman relates, is to stimulate the readers recreative and imaginative task by offering only the essentials...Kosinskis style draws the reader into the incident by refusing to allow him to remain passive (25). This essay will propose that Being There is a major existential pass water following in the tradition of Sartre and Camus in which Chance, the main protagonist, mirrors Camuss Mersault in A Happy Death and in which Koskinski demonstrates the logical progression of the existential anti-hero. An initial reply to Being There often might be to focus upon the text as a type of Creation anecdote, or as a tender satire, or perhaps as a political critique against mass media and the television gener ation. While all of these readings are legitimate, it seems that the starting point should center on Kosinskis protagonist, Chance, in order to understand the universal significance of the portrayal of Chance, and implicitly the reader, as victim. Chance is a contemporary innocent. Whether, as is often argued, he is mentally challenged or not is irrelevant. Rather, Chance simply exists. He watches television, is unable or unwilling to function within prescribed cultural paradigms, and finally, is simply a mirror, reflecting pricker to others sublimated images of desires projected onto him. Chance is the American Everyman. The events which befall him could befall anyone. He, like all of us, ha... ...en, David. Camus. Philadelphia Temple UP, 1988. Works Consulted Bruss, Paul. Victims. Lewisburg Bucknell UP, 1981. Camus, Albert. The Stranger. New York Vintage, 1946. Granofsky, Ronald. Circle and Line Modern and postmodern Constructs of the Self in Jerzy Kosinskis The Painted Bird . Essays in publications 18.2 (1991) 254-68. Griffiths, Gareth. Being there, being There Postmodernism and Post-Colonialism Kosinski and Malouf. Ariel 20.4 (1989) 132-48. Grigbsy, John L. Mirroring of America and Russia Reflections of Tolstoy in Jerzy Kosinskis Being There. Notes on Contemporary Literature 17.4 (1987) 6-8. Kosinski, Jerzy. The Painted Bird. New York Bantam, 1978. Lavers, Norman. Jerzy Kosinski. Boston Twayne, 1982. Piwinski, David J. Kosinskis The Painted Bird. The Explicator 40.1 (1981) 62-3.