Life—The Antagonist of Artistic Pursuit?

The paper aims to talk about how artistic pursuit or passion while indispensable also poses a predicament in life in terms of human relationships and the raising of ethical quandaries. As an ideal that is considered to be intertwined with the creation of meaning in life and its contemporary popularity seeded in its overtaking by the capitalist industry, it becomes pertinent to examine the complexities surrounding the idea of artistic pursuit. The paper will examine Ernest Hemmingway’s The Old Man and the Sea and Mario Vargas Llosa’s The Way to Paradise to further propound on the nature of such a predicament.