In the Box
“Doctor, sometimes, I have a suffocating feeling, like I’m
living in a box.”
Part 2: In the Box
The Beginning
In the Box begins with a Kafkaesque setting and tonality. From the confusion of the protagonist, M., to the suffocation of the state he is in, the box, the story relies heavily on a metaphysical undertone.
The reason, as many readers might have picked up, is because the majority of the story is inspired by Kafka’s The Metamorphosis.
However, with a different goal in mind, I try to direct M. and the doctor on a new pathway. It is, after all, a very poor attempt to follow the greatness of Kafka. There was no one like the great suffering author, and there will be no one with a similar uniqueness again. I accept my defeat.
The Path
M. and the box isn’t about the way out. This is what I want to convey, though it has come out somewhat blurred.
What the path should have been understood is: we all have the choice, we are free to choose, but that freedom doesn’t mean we will be free from the consequences of said choice.
The plot is a cocktail of Jean-Paul Sartre, Doris Lessing, and Lao Tzu mixed with a strong dose of 2 AM insomniac high-functioning brain. That is the cause, and the rest is the aftermath.
With the box, I know many people would argue that we can break free. Yes, I concede there’s that choice. But I will also point out where that choice will lead:
In the Box
Choose the prison. Your freedom lies in the right to choose
the prison you live inside
I must say it loud and clear: this is not a defeatist attitude, nor is it nihilism. The point is a few paragraphs above, and that’s how dark my sense of humor is:
In the Box
Because it’s in human nature to rebel. That’s the point, Mr.
M. That has always been the point.
In the Box: A Conclusion on To Be or Not To Be
So, is it a prison?
Let’s say that it is. What can we do about it?
Much like M., we stay inside the box of our own choosing until we reach the limitation, then we break through and choose another box.
It is never about believing in the will to freedom or the will to power. It is about how, deep at heart, people are born rebels. We live until we can’t. Then, much as the fireworks on a midsummer’s night, we burst open and become the best version of ourselves, or the worst. Either way, we prove to everyone, no matter how fleeting the dream of life is, we have lived it, and it was splendid, spectacular even.
And I hope that is what you could take from the story.