Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Farhangian university faculty member
2 Faculty member of Farhangian University
Abstract
Comparative literature provides the framework for examining different works of art and representing their similarities and differences. By selecting characterization as the central subject and relying on a content- and context-analysis approach, two novels — Aldous Huxley’s *Brave New World* and Flannery O’Connor’s *Wise Blood* — were studied to elucidate each author’s narrative mode in representing the issue of human existence. The research methodology included structural analysis of narrative layers, examination of symbols and characters’ actions, and study of the texts’ cultural–historical contexts; these procedures led to the extraction of common and distinguishing patterns in the way existence is depicted. The results showed that Huxley, drawing on the satirical dystopian genre and employing biological and technological perspectives, presents an image of the modern human in which self-awareness and the control of technology play a decisive role in transforming the very nature of existence; by contrast, O’Connor bases her narrative on the literary theory of the “divine mystery” and adopts religious and spiritual viewpoints, placing the human being before ethical and metaphysical questions. Comparative analysis indicates that each writer uses different narrative tools to embody the conceptual relationship between “God” and the position of the human, and both warn the reader about the heedless efforts of modern man to alter his existential philosophy. This study emphasizes the importance of intertextual reading and of cultural and social representation in understanding the complexities of human existence.
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