A Character Analysis of Walter Faber "Homo Faber" by Max Frisch
Max Frisch, a Swiss author born in 1911, wrote this novel, "Homo Faber" in the span of a month during 1957. Michael Bullock first translated this book from German to English in 1994. Like many other of his books he bases it on individuality of ones self. We can quickly see that develop during the first few pages of the book, as he believes in existentialism. Existentialism is the belief that in ones life they must choose their own path without living up to anyone else's standards. Because of this freedom to choose our own path in life we must withhold our responsibilities and commitments, which the narrator end up regretting. Homo Faber has a close relationship between his belief in existentialism, guilt, and fate, which I plan to enlighten the reader about.
Walter Faber, the narrator, is a man of the new age, technology. His reliance and dependence on such machinery takes him through a series of life changing events. I find him a stale person who pays attention more to his surroundings and what he sees rather then actual events in his life .
"
I could see her enormous mouth with black lips and her pink gums
"
He seems to be distracted by minor details such as this woman's mouth. You would not usually pay so much attention to someone's much in such a way. He describes all three nouns in the sentence with an adjective and begins with saying "I could see
" which refers to the physical world.
Along with judging life upon the merely the physical he likes to portray himself as a wise, uptight business man who is well accustomed to the modern age of technology. He bluntly states how he is a technologist and does not believe in fate. Not only this gives me the impression that he is an uptight man. He refers to the time quite frequently which implies that he must always be on time and have everything planned correctly. "Time: 11:05 A.M. I wound up my watch."...