In my opinion, there are few words and emotions other than weird and confused that one can really use to describe The Nose by Gogol. Upon finding out that Major Kovalev has lost his nose, I decided that Kafka and Gogol must have sat down and simply thought of weird, unimaginable scenarios before writing their pieces. For instance, how often have we seen someone’s nose disappear or how often have we seen a person turn into a cockroach? There is definitely a complexity present in these pieces of literature, which is hard for us to understand, but which made sense to Kafka and Gogol at the time, thus this picture came to mind:

(Our worlds with noses and people were a little too dull for Kafka and Gogol to record, instead they created a new domain of bizarre happenings for themselves.)

The first question that came to mind upon reading this story was why there was a nose in the loaf of bread. How did it get there? Bread is such a staple everywhere it seems because it is such an easy source of carbohydrates. Thus, it makes sense to see Ivan’s wife baking fresh bread, but it seems strange as to why neither of them would do more investigating about where the nose came from. Instead, Ivan’s wife simply prompts him to get rid of the nose by throwing it in the river. His wife believes that her husband is a drunk and therefore accidentally cut off someone’s nose at work, since Ivan is a barber. This seems to be a highly outrageous conclusion, and overall I was quite confused as to their reactions. Aside from being shocked by their perceptions of this unusual event, I was simply not impressed by the lack of description that Gogol provided. What kind of nose? What size is it? What does it look like? How did it get inside the loaf of bread?!

Another issue that I did not quite comprehend was why Kovalev was so surprised that his ad was not accepted into the paper. It is pretty unusual to see people asking for their nose back. Meanwhile, the clerk at the office was extremely mean. He thought that Kovalev was lying, yet upon finding out that Kovalev’s nose really was missing, the clerk still acts in an extremely demeaning manner. For instance, the clerk offers Kovalev snuff to sniff enough though he knows that Kovalev cannot smell without his nose.

Although this story did seem even wackier than Kafka’s, I did find one aspect of The Nose more intriguing. I thought it was quite evident that this story spoke about social structure for it is clear that Kovalev’s nose has somehow turned into a person of high-rank. Upon meeting each other in the cathedral, Kovalev’s nose informs him that there is no way they belong together for one works in the justice department and one works in the sciences. In addition, during the scene where several people are chasing after the nose on a train platform, there are many instances when ranks are thrown around, all through I do not understand their full value. This underlying theme of importance in society gives this story a deeper meaning that was valid at the time, while The Metamorphosis was unsettling for me because it had an aspect of untied ends. I found myself questioning why Kafka made the family so disconnected from Gregor and it was overall very sad. Meanwhile, The Nose is even more perplexing than The Metamorphosis, but at least it isn’t somber.

I found The Nose quite baffling, but I like that I’m starting to become more accustomed to these unusual stories. We are so used to reading books where many details are right in front of us, but it’s quite interesting to be reading these free-ended stories and having to figure out a lot on our own. Thus, I’m quite excited to see the opera because I can just imagine it being rather grandiose, yet still peculiar which will be very unique compared to all of the other operas I’ve seen.

In addition, I found a Youtube clip of The Nose as an animated series, and it’s actually quite comical. Thus, I find it easier to process Gogol’s perplexing piece because it has a joking air to it. Meanwhile, Kafka’s work was baffling and sad which made it too somber and hard to understand, as I wondered why Kafka would pen such characters. Meanwhile, The Nose almost seems like a comedy or a dream due to its ethereal, confusing nature which is especially prominent in the text where each scene ends with an enshrouding mist.