Franz Kafka’s novel, “The Metamorphosis,” is regarded as one of the most fascinating and absurdist works of literature and offers a complex philosophical and psychological examination of current circumstances. There has been much discussion on the plot’s intricacy and underlying significance. Kafka well captures the ephemeral and existentialist character of industrial urbanization. The change of Gregor symbolizes freedom from social restraints and eventually draws attention to modern life’s immorality, alienation, and misery.
Discussion
Kafka leaves several ideas unjustified or without explanation resulting in absurdity. The transformation takes place, and neither Gregor’s nor his family’s reactions suggest that the world as it is portrayed is genuine, but instead that it exists in a condition devoid of any order or integrity. However, this may reflect the reality of modern life, which fosters an environment where alienation, the loss of core human values, and dysfunction are constantly present. Hierarchical social interactions overshadow the notion of biology and family. Gregor’s change turns into a source of resentment for the family despite years of love and cares on their part, “That is to say, Samsa, having been a successful salesman, was once the pillar of his family, but now, being helpless, his sister assumes in the eyes of his parents the role of leadership and reassuring strength that he had once occupied,”( Kafka 21). The torture he endures at the hands of persons he loves deeply is what ultimately kills him. As a result of Gregor’s death, the family has emerged as a functioning unit, a perverted type of redemption.
These days, estrangement is a typical occurrence in the contemporary world. Despite sophisticated technology that improves connectedness, many people nevertheless feel disconnected. In the novel, Gregor experiences a similar feeling while performing a relational job without genuine relationships. A crucial aspect of the plot is the superficial interactions. Gregor’s transformation further distanced him psychologically from everyone, even his family. Kafka highlights that he was a“man who used to lie wearily sunk in bed” (Kafka 36). His incapacity to speak and physical condition, which was only an outgrowth of his human body, led to a state of seclusion. Gregor feels odd in his own space, with his preferences, and in his interactions. The transformation just reaffirmed the climate of alienation that the contemporary social order has produced.
Gregor, through metamorphosis, became a wild creature. His initial reaction is bemusement, “What has happened to me?” (Kafka 15). The history of the human race indicates that civilization has developed into a complex state. However, by turning Gregor into an insect, Kafka suggested that species can evolve into more basic forms, producing the impression of a reverse transition in Gregor. The Samsa family’s sentiments are highlighted as a criticism of the reality of modernist civilization and suggest that people may not have changed all that much. In today’s metropolitan culture, identity is reduced to economic output, with value only lasting, provided one can make a living in a profession that dehumanizes one. If a person is different, they are intentionally separated, and family values and ethical behaviors are devalued.
The humiliating end of Gregor is a true portrayal of people in today’s technological age. Computer networks and sophisticated information systems emphasize the relevance of materialistic worldview and the rate at which it deteriorates as more components of life shift into cyberspace, resulting in a “subversion of an ethical universe” (Michaelides 101). The bug, a hideous vermin operating solely on instinct, represents how low the human soul has sunk in the era of societal systems and technical advancement. However unpalatable, the idea, people are being transformed into informational digital files. Automation and other inorganic factors have reduced humans to a basic state akin to an insect’s.
Gregor’s displeasure with his employment is a metaphor for his dissatisfaction with his societal position and the treatment he receives from others. Gregor propagates his dissatisfaction with his job to the entire population. A person can become alienated from society and other people, but Gregor experiences self-alienation, which is a far more severe issue. He loses his identity to fulfill his family’s expectations and get money. The transformation represents contemporary life, which makes individuals forget about their presence and potentialities, which may be brought into existence if they recognize their power and Gregor’s empty and useless life as a traveling salesman who dedicated himself exclusively to making money. However, bourgeois social life discourages the unique qualities that set one apart and encourage people to resemble one another. This system transforms people into interchangeable parts of a machine by reducing their individuality and homogenizing them. It also covers their personal and cognitive capacities. So, if someone quits their job, another person can take his place.
Conclusion
In conclusion, “The Metamorphosis” raises questions regarding commonplace beliefs. Relationships, social standing, and money achievement may all be illusory or irrelevant. The temporary character of human life, which even the smallest shift in circumstance may impact, is shown by Gregor’s transition. Self-identity has grown reliant on societal responsibilities and outside validation in the facts of the contemporary world.
Work Cited
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis (International Student Edition)(Norton Critical Editions). WW Norton & Company, 2016.
Michaelides, Pavlos E. “Modernity and the Existential Metaphysics of Life and Death in Kafka’s Metamorphosis.” International Journal of Arts & Sciences, CD-ROM. ISSN 6934.09 (1944): 04.
One of the reasons why Franz Kafka is considered one of the 20th century’s most prominent writers is that the reading of his masterpieces leaves very few doubts as to the fact that, while pursuing a literary career, he remained thoroughly aware of what used to account for the major discursive issue of the time – a phenomena of people growing increasingly alienated from the surrounding socio-political reality.
As Kundera noted, “His (Kafka’s) enigmatic parables… demonstrate the alienation of capitalist society… (and) the loneliness and dread of man in a Godless cosmos” (88).
Therefore, it is fully explainable why the motif of alienation continually reemerges throughout most of his writings – Kafka strived to expose the actual reason why many of his contemporaries experienced the sensation of an emotional unease with the world, in general, and with their own sense of self-identity, in particular. In my paper, I will aim to explore the validity of this suggestion at length, in regards to Kafka’s stories Metamorphosis and A Hunger Artist.
Analytical part
Ever since the time of their early childhood, the majority of people is being made to believe in the ‘sanctity of human life’, based upon the assumption that every individual’s existential uniqueness should be regarded as ‘thing in itself’, regardless of what happened to be his or her social status.
This idea, however, cannot be regarded as anything but utterly fallacious, in the conceptual sense of this word. After all, unlike what it is being the case with natural resources, ‘human resources’ are self-renewable, which means that the extent of just about every person’s actual worth is being reflective of his or her varying ability to be considered ‘resource’, in the first place. This is what Kafka’s story Metamorphosis is all about.
In it, after having woken up one morning, the character of Gregor Samsa realized himself being turned into a hideous bug. However, it was namely the social implications of such his metamorphosis that alarmed Gregor more than anything else did. This is because Gregor rightly concluded that, being a bug, he would hardly be able to take care of his professional duties of a travelling salesman.
Nevertheless, being a responsible person, Gregor tried to get off the bed and to go to work, “A slight indisposition, a dizzy spell, has prevented me from getting up. I’m still lying in bed right now. But I’m quite refreshed once again. I’m in the midst of getting out of bed. Just have patience for a short moment!” (par. 15).
Apparently, Gregor was well aware of the fact that, in order for just about anyone to be considered a society’s productive member, he or she must never cease being fully employed – those who cannot work are nothing but the society’s ‘burden’. In other words, Gregor’s physical metamorphosis only indirectly contributed to the rapidly emerged sensation of worthlessness, on his part.
The actual reason why, as the story progressed, this Gregor’s sensation was becoming increasingly acute, is that due to his physical impairment, produced by the metamorphosis, the capitalist society was no longer willing to recognize Gregor’s basic humanity – quite contrary to the fact that, despite his external appearance of a bug, Gregor never ceased being himself.
This is because, as it was implied earlier, the objective laws of nature do not correlate with the religion-based assumption of the human life’s ‘sanctity’. People are nothing but the physical carriers of genes (DNA), concerned with replicating themselves into posterity. As Dawkins pointed out, “We are all survival machines for the same kind of replicator – molecules called DNA” (24).
If a particular individual ends up being incapable of ensuring the survival of its genes (e.g. due to the loss of a job, which eventually causes starvation and death), the Darwinian laws will naturally deem such an individual ‘worthless’.
However, it is in people’s very nature to think of themselves as being so much more than just the lumps of an organic matter. Therefore, there nothing too surprising about the fact that, when faced with the workings of ‘godless’ universe, people often experience the sensation of a cognitive dissonance, which in turn causes them to lead socially withdrawn lifestyles.
This is exactly the reason why, as Kafka’s story progressed, Gregor was growing increasingly reluctant to come out of his room. Apparently, the true horror of his metamorphosis was not so much concerned with the alteration of his physical appearance, but rather with his transformation into a ‘social parasite’, who had to rely on others, as the actual mean of sustaining his physical existence.
Hence, the sensation of existential alienation, on Gregor’s part, reflected by his depression-driven desire to remain out of his family members’ sight, “He (Gregor) scurried under the couch, where, in spite of the fact that his back was a little cramped and he could no longer lift up his head, he felt very comfortable right away and was sorry only that his body was too wide to fit completely under the couch” (par. 37).
Being a self-conscious individual, Gregor tried his best to spare his mother, father and sister of seeing him, as he knew perfectly well that there was nothing aesthetically pleasing about his appearance of a bug.
Nevertheless, deep inside Gregor still maintained an irrational hope that, even though he could no longer contribute to the family’s financial well-being, his mother, father and sister were not overly burdened with his presence in the household. Such his hope, however, was about to be proven short-lived. After all, despite the fact that Gregor’s sister initially treated him with compassion, as time went on, she was becoming increasingly weary of having to take care of her insect-brother.
Eventually, she came to a point of refusing to believe that there was any humanness left in Gregor, “If it were Gregor, he would have long ago realized that a communal life among human beings is not possible with such a creature and would have gone away voluntarily. Then we would not have a brother, but we could go on living and honor his memory.
But this animal plagues us” (par. 75). Apparently, Gregor’s metamorphosis did not only affect his state of mind, while causing him to act in a socially alienated manner, but it also had a negative impact on the main character’s loved ones, as well. It appears that, while being exposed to the sight of ‘transformed’ Gregor, they were becoming endowed with suspicions, as to whether their continual association with the hideous bug was also making them less human.
In other words, the motif of alienation in Kafka’s story is not only being explored, in regards to the character of Gregor, but also in regards to the story’s other notable characters. And, as psychologists are being well aware of, if one’s alienation-fueled depression is being left untreated, it becomes only the matter of time, before the concerned individual would grow suicidal.
This is exactly what happened to Gregor. After having realized that his relatives were not welcoming his continual existence, Gregor did not even try to recover from the injury, sustained from his sister, and decided to pass away instead, “In this business, his own thought that he had to disappear was, if possible, even more decisive than his sister’s… His head sank all the way down, and from his nostrils his last breath flowed weakly out” (par. 93).
Despite its unnaturalness, such Gregor’s decision was thoroughly justified. This is because the representatives of Homo Sapiens species are socially-integrated beings. What it means is that, once being deprived of an opportunity to lead socially interactive lifestyles, they necessarily succumb to depression, which in turn often causes them to decide to end the futility of their continual existence.
The motif of social alienation can be easily identified in Kafka’s story A Hunger Artist, as well. This story’s plot revolves around the so-called ‘hunger artist’ – an individual who earns money out of having turned its ability to fast for lengthy periods of time into a public spectacle.
Kafka’s hunger artist was able to attract intellectually marginalized spectators by the mean of providing them with an opportunity to experience a powerful emotional shock, while exposed to the sight of him sitting motionless in the cage and not touching any food for the duration of forty days. Nevertheless, even the hunger artist’s most committed fans could not quite understand what motivated him to continue putting up his show.
After all, the overwhelming majority of these people believed that the reason why the hunger artist was able to withhold from consuming any food for more than a month, is that he was inventive enough to have some food secretly delivered to him, while there were no spectators around his cage.
This is the reason why some of the hunger artist’s fans used to watch him 24/7, so that he would not be able to have even a single bite of secretly delivered food, “Sometimes there were nightly groups of watchers who carried out their vigil very laxly… clearly intending not to allow the hunger artist a small refreshment” (par. 2).
Yet, if anything, the hunger artist wanted to cheat his fans the least, “During the period of fasting the hunger artist would never, under any circumstances, have eaten the slightest thing, not even if compelled by force. The honor of his art forbade it” (par. 2).
Apparently, these fans were arrogant enough to never consider the possibility that the hunger artist’s public performances did not have anything to do with his presumed preoccupation with trying to make easy money, but rather with the artist’s ability to derive an aesthetic pleasure out of his ability to exercise a complete conscious control over its animalistic instincts.
In its turn, this can be explained by the fact that; whereas, the hunger artist was endowed with the so-called ‘Faustian’ mentality (which prompted him to seek self-actualization by the mean of subjecting the emanations of a surrounding reality to his will-power), psychologically speaking, his spectators were nothing but ‘Apollonians’ (individuals driven by their animalistic anxieties).
Hence, their inability to consider the possibility that there may be a purely ‘metaphysical’ purpose of one’s existence (Greenwood 53). What it means, is that while entertaining people, the hunger artist never ceased being emotionally and intellectually alienated from them.
The same can be said on the part of spectators, who never stopped suspecting him of being dishonest, “Most of them (spectators)… believed he was a publicity seeker or a total swindler, for whom, at all events, fasting was easy” (par. 3). This explains why, while fasting, the hunger artist could not care less about the impression he was making on the crowd – he was his own performer and the audience in one body.
The validity of this suggestion can be well illustrated in regards to the fact that the hunger artist always tried to resist being taken out of the cage, at the end of his 40-day fasting periods. Apparently, he could not quite relate to the spectators’ selfish interest in preventing him from dying, at the expense of denying him the chance to beat his own fasting-record, “Why stop right now after forty days?
He could have kept going for even longer, for an unlimited length of time. Why stop right now, when he was in his best form, indeed, not yet even in his best fasting form?” (par. 3). It appears that, despite how spectators used to perceive him, the hunger artist never considered himself an entertainer de facto.
This explains why, after having ended up being completely forgotten by his former fans, the hunger artist nevertheless continued fasting. This also reveals the actual significance of the dying hunger artist’s remark about the fact that there was not much of a rationale for people to admire his fasting skills, throughout the course of his career, as an entertainer, “You shouldn’t admire it… I couldn’t find a food which tasted good to me. If had found that, believe me, I would not have made a spectacle of myself” (par. 9).
Of course, there was not any truth in this remark – the hunger artist simply wanted to show that his former spectators were not worthy of his performances. Yet, it was only at the end of his life that the hunger artist was able to realize this simple truth. What prompted him to do so is the fact that, by walking straight to the cages with animals, without noticing the cage with the hunger artist inside, spectators were proving themselves not much different from the horned and tailed creatures of the nature that they came to see.
Therefore, it will only be logical, on our part, to suggest that the Kafka story’s ultimate conclusion once again stresses out the motif of alienation. While facing death, the hunger artist had enough courage to admit to himself that the reason why spectators used to admire him, is that they perceived him as something he has been trying hard not to be – a money-greedy human animal. The ironic sounding of the story’s final scene is self-evident.
Conclusion
I believe that the provided earlier line of argumentation, in regards to how the motif of existential/social alienation defines the philosophical significance of Kafka’s stories Metamorphosis and A Hunger Artist, is being thoroughly consistent with the paper’s initial thesis-statement. Apparently, it was Kafka’s proficiency in exploring this particular motif in many of his literary works, which established objective preconditions for him to be considered a truly great writer.
Works Cited
Greenwood, Susan. Anthropology of Magic. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2009. Print.
Kafka, Franz. A Hunger Artist. Trans. Ian Johnston. Vancouver Island University, 2009. Web.
Kafka, Franz. Metamorphosis. Trans. Ian Johnston. Vancouver Island University, 2009. Web.
Kundera, Milan. “Kafka’s World.” The Wilson Quarterly 12.5 (1988): 88-99. Print.
The short story “The Metamorphosis” is written by Franz Kafka. It revolves around transformation and its significance in human life. The story begins with a salesman, Gregor Samsa. He wakes up to find that he has changed into a monstrous and insect-like creature (Kafka The Metamorphosis 5). He tries to adjust to his new condition and he become a burden to his family. After the metamorphosis, Gregor is unable to work. As a result, his family has to start working again. His younger sister, Grete, becomes his caretaker. The relationships in the family are strained as a result. The father has to resume job to cater for his wife and children. His mother is shocked by the transformation (Kafka The Metamorphosis and Other Stories 45)
In this paper, the author will use Saint Leo’s core values of integrity and community to analyze the decisions made by Samsa family when Gregor changes into bug.The decisions of all the family members will be taken into consideration.
The Reaction of Gregor’s Family from the Perspective of Saint Leo’s Core Values
Saint Leo University is a Catholic based institution that focuses on liberal arts. It serves individuals of all faiths. It promotes life and leadership models that can be used to succeed in a challenging world. It recognizes dignity, value, and gifts of all people. One of the core values of Saint Leo University includes focus on excellence. It values and respects the dignity of members. It fosters a spirit of belonging, unity and interdependence among the members.
The values of Saint Leo University are evident in the decisions taken by Gregor’s family after his metamorphosis. His change is captured vividly by Kafka, who states that “One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug” (The Metamorphosis 1). His transformation makes him feel alienated from humanity. According to Kafka, “As (Gregor) heard his mother’s words, (he) realized that the lack of all immediate human contact…” (The Metamorphosis 54). Previously, he used to work hard to pay off his father’s debts (Kafka Franz Kafka: The Complete Stories 5). It takes him time to realize he can no longer play his role in the family (Kafka The Metamorphosis and Other Stories 47).
His family turns against him as a result of the change. They go against Saint Leo’s core value of embracing all individuals by alienating the young man. They thought the change would bring shame to the family. Grete is the only person who shows pity for Gregor. They had great affection for each other before the transformation. She becomes her caretaker, showing the Saint Leo’s values in her (Kafka The Metamorphosis 6). She is the link between her brother and the other members of the family. She undergoes her own metamorphosis from a girl into a woman. However, her affection dims with time. She starts valuing her job more than his brother (Kafka The Metamorphosis 46).
Gregor’s father is a hopeless and unkind man. He is more concerned with money than his son. After the transformation, he shows no sympathy for him. He throws apples and hurls abuses at Gregor (Kafka The Metamorphosis 10). He is selfish and more concerned with the family’s financial status. Clearly, Saint Leo’s core value of servitude is alien to him.
Gregor’s mother has a very weak personality. She is weak both physically and mentally. She portrays Saint Leo’s community value by working hard to protect her son. According to Kafka, she says that “and isn’t a fact that by removing the furniture we’re showing that we’re giving up all hope of an improvement…?” (The Metamorphosis 53). It shows concern for her son.
Conclusion
To Gregor’s family, money is more important. The family members react variously to his metamorphosis. His sister and mother are more compassionate, but the father is selfish. The core values of Saint Leo University are either present or lacking in their decisions.
Works Cited
Kafka, Franz. Franz Kafka: The Complete Stories. Ed. Nahum Glatzer. New York: Schocken Books Inc., 1995. Print.
The Metamorphosis and Other Stories. Trans. Joyce Crick. Ed. Ritchie Robertson. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print.
The Metamorphosis, London: Martino Fine Books, 2009. Print.
“The Metamorphosis,” tells a story of how a man, Gregor Samsa, turned into an indefinite, disgusting insect, and what happened to him and his family after that (Kafka n. pag.). However, perhaps interpreting this text literally would even be a mistake; this is true of many of Kafka’s writings. Robertson points out that this story is “one which resists complete explanation… you can never completely solve it” (Robertson, 1:59). One of the possible readings of the text includes viewing Gregor’s transformation as a way to avoid his exhausting need to slave away for his family. So, let us consider what can be said about “The Metamorphosis” in this context.
A closer look at the main character reveals that Gregor Samsa was a hard worker, a man who labored much to feed his relatives. He doesn’t like his work, but he realizes that he has to be a breadwinner after his father lost the ability to work. In fact, he perceives the obligation of earning money for the family as his natural duty, for who else, if not him, would care for his relatives? Who else, if not him, would make sure that his sister, Greta, gets proper education and realizes herself? It appears that the protagonist believes in some kind of a natural social hierarchy, in which he has the place where he must serve his family and support them by dedicating all his life to this cause. When Gregor turns into the creature, he does not care about that in the slightest; on the other hand, he cannot reconcile himself with the fact that he will miss his train and will not be able to reach his work that day.
The protagonist’s transformation is simultaneous with his loss of ability to earn money. And at this point, his family starts feeling disgusted with him. They quickly forget all the good that Gregor did for them before the metamorphosis and lock him in his room. They now fear him, find him revolting, and, at the same time, blame him for not being able to work and support them anymore. Gregor’s family now perceive him as a parasite who needs to be looked after. They stop visiting him and contacting him altogether; only Greta plays the role of a (policewoman?) mediator and brings him food and drink.
And then, it becomes clear that the family could look after themselves without Gregor’s working for them after all. The father finds himself quite capable of working; moreover, it turns out that he has been setting aside money from what Gregor was earning for them. It becomes clear now that the family was parasitizing on their son all that time.
The whole story of Gregor’s transformation might be interpreted as the protagonists’ attempt to escape the unfair responsibility the weight of which he had to carry solely on his shoulders. This attempt is not conscious because Gregor is so confident about his duties that he does not even seem to care about his new form. This indicates the degree of self-alienation that the protagonist underwent (Hill 161; Sokel 486-487). He became a creature alien and incomprehensible even to himself; the original version of the text does not also indicate what type of an insect Gregor becomes (Gooderham par. 3-5). But the transformation allows him to stop doing the job he disliked so much at last. Interestingly, the roles of Gregor Samsa and his relatives instantly switch; they could be definitely called parasites before the metamorphosis, but after it, they start thinking of their son as one.
Interestingly, the writings of Marx and Engels can add to the understanding of the relationships between Gregor and his family. They write that “the bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation into a mere money relation” (Marx and Engels 62). The connection between the protagonist and his relatives is mainly economic; once the monetary part disappears, the whole relationship is broken. The family only looks for Gregor because they do not know where they could otherwise put him.
It can also be said that Kafka’s story shows us the two parts of the society; the first part works, the other one harvests the result of their labor. It is worth noting that the representatives of the higher class commonly perceive themselves as worthy and people who only get what they naturally deserve, whereas the representatives of the working class realize that if they stop working, they and their relatives will have nothing to eat. So, “The Metamorphosis” also shows us this division in the society, where laborers are forced to slave away to make their living, and they are perceived by the bourgeois solely as performers of their functions, being in all the other aspects dirty and unworthy creatures that also turn into hazardous deviants once they stop working and start doing something else.
It should be noted that such a perspective on society might be perceived as obsolete nowadays, but, arguably, it is not, e.g., if we start looking at humanity more globally. Nowadays, the division into the working class and their exploiters might not be always very clearly distinguishable in one society, at least at first glance. On the other hand, this line is clearly visible if one takes a look at the world on the whole. The countries of the First World often thrive thanks to the great efforts of the workers from the Third World, where people sometimes work over twelve hours a day since early childhood. The geographical distance comfortably allows these facts to be unnoticeable to the many. Racism, too, plays an essential role in this, allowing some people to view this situation as instead natural.
Still, the global perspective is not the only appropriate one in this case. It is common today to perceive the people who come from unsuccessful families and live poorly as unworthy, as those who are plainly too lazy to work and earn enough money. Clearly, some of these people, the ones who realize (consciously or unconsciously) that their situation is utterly unlikely to improve however hard they try and go “deviant,” might seem to be deserving of it; but such a point of view means completely ignoring their starting point, the social situation where they did not have much money and chance to become “successful.”
They are deviants, typical members of street gangs, refusing to work, sometimes dangerous and unpredictable. Just as Gregor Samsa became after his transformation, this comparison has its grounds if we assume that the change was Gregor’s (even if unconscious) attempt to escape his fate of a mechanism for earning money; both Gregor and the today’s deviants could continue working hard and making money, but once they stop doing so, they become an unpredictable, disgusting hazard in the eyes of the “righteous” successful commoners; and this kind of opinion is a very comfortable way for the latter to justify the cozy place they occupy in this world, instead of addressing social problems.
As it was mentioned, Kafka’s texts can have numerous interpretations, and the reading given here is only one of many. But, clearly, Gregor Samsa can be viewed as a member of the working class, a person who became so self-alienated while serving his own bourgeoisie that he turned into something incomprehensible and perceivably deviant to escape from his laborious duties.
Sokel, Walter H. “From Marx to Myth: The Structure and Function of Self-Alienation in Kafka’s Metamorphosis.” Literary Review 26.4 (1983): 485-496. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web.
Admittedly, Kafka’s Metamorphosis is one of the most outstanding literary works. Many ideas come across the reader’s mind. It is necessary to note that the idea of the triumph of the self is one of the last ideas that can appear in some readers’ minds. However, on second thoughts, it becomes obvious that the novel is really about the man’s triumph.
The story starts with the man’s dissatisfaction with his work and his entire life. The man does not like his job as a salesman. The reader cannot but agree that Gregor Samsa, the novel’s protagonist, has a rather meaningless life. Therefore, it is possible to assume that the man’s transformation is a symbol of his understanding.
Thus, he finally understands that his life is meaningless, and the man cannot fit the world, which becomes hostile to him. Of course, death is not the most winning option for a man. However, in Gregor’s case, the man did not have another choice. He could not realize himself in any other way. The only thing left was to die.
It is possible to note that there is one more literary work that has the same theme. Kate Chopin’s story “The Story of an Hour” dwells upon a woman who is not happy. Just like Gregor, the woman suddenly understands that there is no meaning in her life. When she hears that her husband is dead, she obtains hope that she can change her life and make it meaningful. However, soon she loses this hope as the man is alive. Chopin sees only one way out. Just like Kafka, she ‘kills’ her protagonist. Chopin suggests that death could be the only way to realize self for that woman at that period of time.
Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is justly considered as one of the most highly-esteemed literary pieces of all time. The themes that rose in the story, such as alienation, isolation, ethics, and family, have always attracted people’s attention. In The Metamorphosis, Kafka manages to describe these and other issues from a new perspective. A person that used to be a normal human being suddenly loses his human shape, and the author demonstrates what happens next in such a situation. Instead of compassion and sympathy, the main character receives disgust and estrangement. Instead of support, he gets unfriendly remarks and offenses. Instead of ending his life in the cozy atmosphere of his home and family, he dies lonely, forgotten, and neglected by everyone.
Main body
The present paper argues that the most prominent theme in the story is that of “the other” which is reflected in a number of situations through a variety of stylistic devices. The thesis of the paper is that the notion of “the other” in The Metamorphosis is represented not so much through the opposition between the character and other characters as though the opposition between his past self and present self. Gregor Samsa’s example will be used to demonstrate the hardships of an individual who cannot be accepted either by himself or others and who eventually give up trying.
The first indication of “the otherness” in the story is at the very beginning when Gregor contemplates his work and the experience he has been having there. In this short introduction, the reader finds out that the main character does not have many friends and does not enjoy his life much. This mentioning of Gregor’s “otherness” is not yet what the thesis concerns, but it is the initial step that is useful for understanding the development of the plot. The young man mentions that his work is “strenuous” and demands much communication “with different people,” which leads to the impossibility of becoming friendly with anyone (Kafka 2). This remark is employed to explain Gregor’s present possibility to spend more time with his family, which, unfortunately, does not become true.
The character’s understanding of his “otherness” is vividly depicted in the way he sees his room. Describing it as “a proper human room” presupposes that Gregor does not consider himself a “proper human” any longer (Kafka 2). He does not feel comfortable in it, and he considers it too big for his transformed body. What is more, the author mentions that Gregor has never felt quite safe at home. He “congratulated” himself for the “cautious” habit of “locking all doors at night even when he was at home” (Kafka 3). These examples show that Gregor has always been different from others in some way. However, this “otherness” has nothing to do with “the otherness” that is about to be revealed.
The idea illustrating how Gregor has become “the other” is further developed in the description of his altered body. Instead of his voice, he hears “a painful and uncontrollable squeaking” when he tries to reply to his mother’s question (Kafka 3). Instead of his arms and legs, he has acquired “all those little legs continuously moving in different directions, and which he was moreover unable to control” (Kafka 4). However, even despite the difficulty of the situation, Kafka pictures Gregor as a man who is different from others and from his past self due to his sense of humor. It would be normal if a person who found himself in such circumstances were in dismay. Gregor, however, manages to treat the situation with a pinch of comicality: despite “all the difficulty” he is in, he cannot “suppress a smile at this thought” (Kafka 4). The character realizes how ironic the situation is: he himself has locked the door in the evening, and now when he desperately needs help getting out of bed, no one can come to rescue.
At this point, “the otherness” of the character is depicted not only by changes in his physique. It is obvious that Gregor’s new body creates much discomfort for him. He cannot communicate with his family properly, which leads to the deterioration of their relationships. His own mother and father cannot accept his new image. The only person why seems to have a relatively sufficient level of understanding is his sister, Greta. In the very beginning, Gregor wonders why she is crying (Kafka 6). Even before she sees him, she senses that something has gone terribly wrong. When the mother sends Greta to the doctor, she leaves immediately, although Gregor does not recollect hearing her getting ready. The reaction of his family and the office clerk to Gregor’s transformation deepens the impression of “the otherness” ─ he is so strikingly different from what he used to be that hardly anyone can accept him.
The character’s “otherness” is also revealed through his understanding of the situation and his thoughts about people’s acceptance of his new condition. Earlier, Gregor realized that he was lonely, but it was his own choice to be isolated from others. However, now, he comes to understand that his isolation is no longer his decision. This understanding is particularly clear when the author depicts the clerk’s reaction to the metamorphosis. Gregor hears this man “exclaim a loud “Oh!”, which sounded like the soughing of the wind” (Kafka 7). The clerk’s response, which is stylistically emphasized by a simile, indicates that from now on, people are going to treat Gregor with more or less the same attitude. It will no longer be Gregor who decides whether to communicate with someone. It will now be everyone else who will think whether it is worthwhile to spend time on Gregor.
Conclusion
There are more instances of “the otherness” in the story, but due to the impossibility to include all of them in such a short paper, the attention is given to the most prominent ones. The paper’s thesis concerned the problem of becoming and being “the other.” In this relation, the main arguments were focused on Gregor’s treatment of himself and his realization of his new condition, and the consideration of his feelings related to it. The Metamorphosis is esteemed by critics and loved by readers all over the world. One of the reasons for such acceptance is that the author managed to introduce the notion of “the other” in a way that no one had done before him. Not only is the main character opposed to others but he is also contrasted to himself in the past. This is what makes The Metamorphosis such a valued piece of literature and what unites readers of different ages and beliefs in the company of Kafka’s fans.
Work Cited
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Translated by David Wyllie, The Project Gutenberg EBook, 2002.
The importance of settings in Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” and Marquez’s “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” cannot be underestimated, because it is named by placing their characters within a framework of specific socio-political circumstances, which allowed both authors to endow their stories with strongly defined tragically-comic sounding. Even a brief analysis of both literary works reveals their main motif as being directly related to the idea of social alienation. Yet, what makes a particular person feel like he or she is being alienated from the rest of society? It is the fact that, while acting as society’s integral component, such a person gradually gets to realize the full extent of its expandability. Therefore, it was not by pure coincidence that both authors had placed their stories’ actions amid a social environment that implies suppression of one’s individuality. In this paper, we will aim at exploring this thesis even further.
Striking features of Kafka’s story
One of the most striking features of Kafka’s story is that, even after having realized himself being turned into an insect, the story’s main character Gregor Samsa never ceased thinking about his professional career in terms of being the only objective proof of his existential worth. While speaking with the clerk who came to check on him, Gregor tried his best to assure his superior that was just about to leave the house: “I’m just getting out of bed. Just a moment. Be patient! It’s not quite as easy as I’d thought. I’m quite alright now, though” (Kafka, Ch. 1). Why would Gregor be still willing to go to work, even though he had just been turned into a bug? This is because, while sharing the household with his parents and his sister, he gradually adopted a collectivist mentality. In its turn, this explains why in “Metamorphosis” Kafka applies a great amount of effort in providing readers with the insight onto emotional atmosphere in Gregor’s house: “Through the crack in the door, Gregor could see that the gas had been lit in the living room. His father at this time would normally be sat with his evening paper, reading it out in a loud voice to Gregor’s mother, and sometimes to his sister” (Kafka, Ch. 2). By doing it, Kafka strived to expose his characters’ lives as being highly ritualized. However, people who proceed with the highly ritualized mode of existence are being rarely capable of perceiving their lives’ value as a “thing in itself”. They assess surrounding reality through the lenses of socially constructed notions of “morality”, “ethics” and “tradition”: “Gregor’s father refused to take his uniform off even at home; while his nightgown hung unused on its peg Gregor’s father would slumber where he was, fully dressed, as if always ready to serve and expecting to hear the voice of his superior even here” (Kafka, Ch. 3). While living with his parents and siblings, Gregor was expected to act as an ant – he could not have a personal agenda, whatsoever. And, after having been deprived of its value as a money-generating machine, Gregor was automatically deprived of its value as a human being. This is exactly the reason why in “Metamorphosis”, the author had gone a great length while describing the story’s settings he wanted to emphasize the counter-productive essence of collectivist living. Just as Chinese immigrants in Western countries, Gregor’s relatives had an unhealthy taste for living in extreme proximity to each other as if they were the human equivalent of ants. How do ants treat the non-functional members of their society? They stop feeding them while making preparations for their corpses to be eventually utilized as food. Similarly, Gregor’s relatives had stopped feeding him, while growing increasingly impatient with him continuing to remain alive – all because they could only formally be referred to as humans.
The settings
Even though settings in Marquez’s story “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” are being concerned with particularities of rural rather than urban living, they are being designed to serve essentially the same purpose as what is the case with settings in Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” – instilling readers with a negative attitude towards the idea of collectivist existence. Why it is that the value of an individual’s life in Latin American countries has traditionally been considered not very high? This is because Hispanics continue to think of their ability to conceive as many children as possible as such that directly reflects their existential worth. While describing Nasar’s house, the author states: “On the upper floor, where the customs offices had been before, he (Ibrahim Nasar) built two large bedrooms and five cubbyholes for the many children he intended having” (Marquez, p. 3). It is namely in overpopulated rural societies, where people are being required to adjust their behavior to the principles of “honorable living”, even at the price of violating state-imposed laws. And, the reason for this is simple – the very survival of these societies depends on their members’ willingness to kill each other on the account of even the slightest provocation. As the popular saying goes – the less there are people, the more there is oxygen.
In rural societies, people’s desire to explore their individuality by the mean of indulging in intellectual activities is not being tolerated. On the contrary – the residents of just about any village in Latin America are being valued for the sheer strength of their irrational prejudices, along with their ability to consume large quantities of greasy local food. “They (villagers) placed the sick people in the archways to receive God’s medicine, and women came running out of their yards with turkeys and suckling pigs and all manner of things to eat, and from the opposite shore came canoes bedecked with flowers” (Marquez, p. 5). Thus, the story’s settings subtly imply the nonsensical nature of Santiago Nasar’s death – the only reason he was murdered, is because the Vicario brothers were strongly determined to explore their peasant “spirituality” by declaring vendetta on their sister’s suspected lover. And, what prompts uneducated peasants to begin assessing surrounding reality in terms of “spirituality”, “tradition” and “honor” more than anything else does? Alcohol! This is the reason why “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” contains numerous scenes of people socializing with each other, while in the state of drunken stupor: “205 cases of contraband alcohol had been consumed and almost two thousand bottles of cane liquor, which had been distributed among the crowd. There wasn’t a single person, rich or poor, who hadn’t participated in some way in the wildest party the town had ever seen” (Marquez, p. 4). Just as it is the case with “Metamorphosis”, Marquez’s story’s settings imply collectivist retrogradedness, on the part of those who had no choice but to observe these settings, throughout their lives’ entirety.
Conclusion
The conclusion of this paper can be formulated as follows – in their stories, both: Kafka and Marquez strived to present readers with a three-dimensional clue on particularities of their characters’ behavior. In its turn, this prompted both authors to invest heavily into bestowing their literary works with the spirit of existential fatefulness. And, how they had gone about accomplishing this is being primarily concerned with Kafka and Marquez’s ability to adjust stories’ settings to correspond to these stories’ plots with utter exactness.
Bibliography:
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. Chronicle of a Death Foretold. New York: Vintage Books, 2003.
Kafka, Franz “Metamorphosis”. 2005. The Project Gutenberg EBook. Web.
Metamorphosis by Kafka is one of the most challenging works of the twentieth century. In his novel, through the wide use of symbols, the author aptly portrays the disintegration of social ties. In the example of the Samsas’, the author depicts how perceptions and feelings of family members change, revealing the illusory character of seemingly unshaken family bonds and relations within society at large. The novel is full of allegories, metaphors, and hidden connotations, which lay the basis for any possible interpretation and allow the readers to draw parallels between fiction and reality. The physical metamorphosis of Gregor serves to highlight the moral metamorphosis of his family, and the physically repulsive insect shows more human feelings than people.
The central themes raised in the novel are the interrelations between a person and society and the restrictions these relations impose on an individual.
The book argues that outer attributes of success and well-being replace true feelings, which people have to hide deep within themselves in today’s society. While people are accessed by outer attributes, the wall of alienation between individuals grows, resulting in the disintegration of a society, due to which each person remains alone with his hopes and feelings.
Transformation as an Embodiment of Gregor’s Life
The novel’s central character is Gregor Samsa, a young man who lives with his family: his mother, father, and sister. He works as a traveling salesman and provides for his family – parents, and sister. He is a man with a deep inner world and a sincerely loving heart who, every day, forces himself to go to an unloved job for the sake of his family. Moreover, he is constantly afraid to let his family down and not live up to their expectations.
Portraying Gregor’s character Kafka (1948) raises the topic of the sacrifice of one person for the benefit of many and, at the same time, its meaninglessness. Neither Gregor’s parents nor his sister truly cares for his feelings, but, at the same time, they are happy to take his money and make use of it (Kafka, 1948). Later it turns out that Gregor’s father is not too old to work, and his sister is able to find a job, too; they just do not want to take the trouble working while Gregor can provide for them. Denying himself every luxury, Gregor believes that the family can not do without him, while in reality, his father puts his money away for himself.
Perhaps the transformation would not have taken place if the atmosphere within the family had been different and Gregor had had his share of love and affection. The transformation turns out to be only a complete embodiment of the state of things in which Gregor had been living for a long time. Now his appearance reflects the life he led because love for his family stood above all his other interests, and he had to live like a fussy and helpless insect. Nevertheless, Gregor believes his family truly loves him and will support him in any situation.
All Gregor’s illusions are shattered when he turns into a repelling insect. Gregor loses the ability of speech, but not of understanding, and at once, he is confronted with the truths that he could not understand before due to exhausting work. Thus, he discovers that his relatives are more concerned about his losing a job than about his well-being. Being in dire need of sympathy, he sees that his family takes no pains to understand him. They make no effort to communicate with him through gestures or body language and treat him as if he has lost all feelings with the ability to speak.
In fact, his family begins to treat him as an enemy. They close the door into his room as if he were dangerous and wanted to escape. His sister is the only one who comes to him and then only to clean the room and bring him food; she takes no notice of Gregor and, in fact, is happy not to see him at all (Kafka, 1948). When one day he shows himself, she does not step into the room at all, uncaring whether he will remain hungry.
Gregor’s mother first wants to see her son but is unable to take him as he is – she screams and faints, frightening her daughter and Gregor. His father is hostile and treats Gregor as if he were a natural insect. Kafka (1948) writes, “For [Gregor] knew from the first day of his new life that, as far as he was concerned, his father considered the greatest force the only appropriate response” (p. 31). All members of Gregor’s family once willingly called him brother and son, were proud of him, and enjoyed the fruits of his work. Now they think about themselves, what people will say – about anything but Gregor, leaving him alone with his misfortune, without hope, nor for help nor sympathy. Here the theme of social loneliness is felt, which inextricably follows the main character. Gregor is alienated from his family not by his revolting appearance but, in truth, by the loss of the ability to contribute to the family’s well-being in terms of money and social position.
Kafka’s View of Society in Relationship to the Protagonist
The author opposes an individual to the society, stating that deeply feeling individuals may not find their place within modern society, built on greed, self-preservation, and love for comfort. Here Kafka draws parallels with his own life since his parents were not interested in his inner world and cared only about his physical comfort. Kafka grew up in a family where his father’s authority was absolute and overriding; the inability to share his feelings with anyone led to feelings of deprivation and deep sadness.
Kafka’s protagonist, Gregor, suffers deeply from the attitude he perceives within the family to himself. However, Gregor, as a loving and caring individual, even understanding that his family does not take any interest in his feelings or health, still thinks of them with tenderness. Kafka (1948) writes, “He remembered his family with deep feelings of love” (p. 45). Moreover, Gregor is eager to do his best not to disturb anyone and, in the body of an insect, behaves more humanly than his family. Thus, Kafka (1948) opposes an individual the society, stating that deeply feeling individuals may not find their place within modern society, built on greed, self-preservation, and love for comfort.
Indeed, soon Gregor is seen as an inconvenience within his own family, and they are eager to get rid of him: “It must be gotten rid of […]. That is the only way, father”, says Grete (Kafka, 1948, p.42). Having made no attempt to communicate with Gregor, she blatantly claims that he lacks understanding and is no better than a usual insect. Shutting the door behind him, she shuts out all the good things that Gregor had done for them; once he is incapable of taking care of himself, no one is willing to compromise their comfort for his sake. The family is not willing to try to cure his wound, which had inflamed; they are not even interested in whether he eats or not.
Thus, the novel depicts social alienation, alienation the most drastic since it takes place within a family, among people one first turns to for love and compassion. Kafka paints the picture of a deeply feeling individual, capable of self-sacrifice, rejected by his family at the moment when he needs them most, but who, miraculously, still cares for them. Kafka (1948) portrays this with the help of a terrible metonymy: he conveys the complete spiritual isolation of the hero through an incredible metamorphosis of his appearance. This metonymy can be extended further to embrace society at large where people, above all, care about their own comfort. While society is governed by self-preservation, each person remains alone with his feelings since social ties are futile. Kafka sees alienation and the inability to foster loving and caring relations as one of the worst calamities of the twentieth century.
The very fact that Gregor refuses to eat is suggestive: torn between love for his family and the understanding that they do not care for him, he chooses death rather than living with strangers ironically called ‘the family. Moreover, he does not want to create inconvenience to the people he loves. His whole life has been a sacrifice for his family’s sake, and, to remain true to his character, Gregor Samsa has to die not to become a burden to the people he loves.
The death of Gregor lifts him above the hostile world: having learned the truths about his family and the society at large, he understands how unbearable his situation is. Turning into an insect serves, on the one hand, as a sentence imposed on the hero of the story, but, on the other hand, it morally justifies and tragically elevates him. The alienation of Gregor, which arose within the family and therefore had the character of universality, conveys the features of society at large, where the considerations of success and comfort often override sympathy, compassion, and disinterestedness.
Incredibly, everyone is relieved by Gregor’s death, seeing it as liberation from hateful duties. “It’s lying there, totally snuffed!” says the cleaning woman, who is the first to see the dead Gregor (Kafka, 1948, p.45). Gregor’s mother only asks indifferently whether it is true, and his father’s reaction is monstrous: “Well, now we can thank God” (Kafka, 1948, p.46). The callousness with which Gregor’s family took the news of his death reflects the indifference that reigns in society regarding an individual’s needs and feelings. His parents and sister plan to move to a new place to forget the events of the last months, to forget Gregor altogether. In fact, they have already forgotten him, making plans for their daughter’s marriage.
Conclusion
Today, the problems raised in Kafka’s novel are especially relevant because the cult of success in terms of money and comfort in modern society often replaces human consideration. Society itself imposes a limitation on individuals, dividing people into successful and not, into those who ‘made it and those who did not. Children are often afraid not to live up to their parent’s expectations, not get the right education, or find a highly-paid job. They often choose careers and professions with high salaries but not those they have an inclination to. Societal and family considerations often come to the fore, while an individual is tormented by the contradiction between his desires and society’s expectations. The novel raises the problem of alienation which arises when people, eager to share their success, forget to share their trouble and feelings.
Moreover, the novel highlights how the attitude to a person when he is incapacitated and cannot take care of himself may change on the part of his family and friends. The very title of the novel ‘transformation’ depicts physical transformation and a more profound moral transformation within family members, where from the seemingly supportive and united family, they turn into Gregor’s bitter enemies. Today, with the aging population and a high number of traffic accidents, it becomes especially relevant to remember that we are human, and misfortune may happen to everyone.
Work Cited
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Schocken Books, 1948.
Society today can learn a lot from the story of Gregor Samsa, as the theme of alienation is deeply disclosed in this work. Kafka wrote the book at the time when society was just adjusting to new era of industrialization. People had to modify social relationships in order to conform to the new workplace order. A large number of these individuals failed to balance the two worlds and became disillusioned. It may thus be said that Gregor’s alienation was a dramatic result of the unsustainable socio-economic structure of the industrial revolution.
Gregor’s estrangement
Karl Marx stated that one of the worst consequences of the economic system in his era was depersonalization of work. Capitalists treat individuals as cogs in a money-making machine. They are only worth something if they add value to the controller’s wealth. Furthermore, for the elite to maintain their positions, they must extract as much out of their workers as possible. This often manifests as exploitation through low wages, hazardous conditions and long working hours.
On the other hand, workers must keep at it because they need to earn a living to feed their families. Attempts to demand for more from their employers were often met with resistance and sometimes redundancy from work. The masses thus felt enslaved at their workplaces. Their bosses controlled when they could leave, enter, eat or even spend time with their families.
The industrial revolution thus dehumanized employees by only seeing them through a utilitarian lens. It is for this reason that when Gregor woke up as a bug, his number one concern was work. The bug worried about potential excuses he could use to explain away his tardiness. This only shows that others dehumanized him before he literally became non human. Samsa’s physical appearance was inconsequential to that feeling; he had always been lifeless even as a real man.
Bloom argues that jobs in Karl Marx’s world disillusioned employees because workers did what was alien to them (107). These individuals did not control wealth, so they could not even purchase what they created.
Marx argued that, aside from the owners, all individuals in the capitalist economic system lack mental and physical energy because they do not exercise their ingenuity. Gregor Samsa underwent all these experiences and was a man who epitomized the dilemma. The transformation into a bug was mostly a physical one because mentally he was already in an isolated and dehumanized state.
Humanity has the ability to dream and aim for greater things. It is likely people will become alienated if a system takes away these elements. Gregor wanted to do work on his own terms; he needed to have ambitions and reach out for them at his workplace. However, there were no opportunities for leadership there.
His family obligations prevented him from really doing what he wanted to do. These unmet desires are also what explain the source of alienation of Gregor in his family. The transformation into an insect was a form of revelation to the protagonist about his real position in society. He found out that he was only a small portion of the grand scheme of things just like an insect (DeNicola 54).
One should also note that Gregor’s alienation took the literal form of being isolated from his family. Not only was he unable to perform the breadwinning role that he took pride in, but now he became a burden to his family. The quality of Gregor’s family relationship had already deteriorated long before his physical transformation. According to his family, Samsa’s worth stemmed from his ability to contribute to their income. Therefore, when he was no longer able to do this due to the physical challenges, he lost value to his family.
One can argue that the value systems perpetuated in the capitalist world had already trickled down to the family-level. In the same way as Gregor’s employers, his family only valued his humanity because of his economic value. Initially, Gregor’s sister appeared to sympathize with her brother. She was the only one who fed him twice a day, or bothered to find out what he liked to eat.
However, the caregiver role eventually created resentment in his sister’s mind as she changed her behavior later. This indicates that Gregor’s alienation after the transformation was not a result of his appearance; it was his inability to contribute economically to the family. Mercy in this society is only predicated on one’s ability to provide.
Alienation in the story may also emanate from weak self identity and self perception. Gregor seemed to lack a factual understanding of his real self. He did not really understand who he was because of the economic relationships he had in the past. Therefore, he looked to others to define his identity. The rest of society only understood him through the things he could do or put together. However, when the transformation occurred, and he could no longer do these things, it shattered his identity.
The change damaged Gregor because it disrupted what he initially could do. Others’ reaction to it augmented this matter. His family was unwilling to accept the change or even give comfort following the alteration (Bloom 59). Alienation was a product of damaged identity in the eyes of the protagonist, as well as the stigmatization and rejection of others. These negative reactions all stemmed from the social structures and definitions of human identity.
Kohzadi, Azizmohammadi and Mahboubeh explain that Gregor’s feeling of disillusionment came from a delineation of his inner and his impersonal self (1603). It first started as a dream and eventually became reality. Kohzadi and others analyze Gregor’s isolation using a psychological lens.
They explain that Gregor constantly oscillated between worlds: his work and his true, inner self. It is for this reason that he prompts himself to get back to work at first as his rational mind was telling him. However, his inner mind also told him a totally different thing. In one instance he was mused: “How about going back to sleep and forgetting this foolishness … the problems of travelling” (Kafka 4).
Familial obligations put a strain on Samsa’s life. He always wanted to quit his job and give his employers a piece of his mind while at it. However, his parents had accumulated massive debt that could only be paid after four to five years of work at the firm. Gregor wanted to be independent and free to do as he was pleased.
However, his obligation to his family caused a sharp division between his freed self and the self that was impersonal and acceptable to others. Gregor’s state of affairs was oblivious to him because he was very firmly enmeshed in the socio-economic values of the day. Capitalism caused people to rationalize and plan their lives.
They did not care about feelings or unmet desires; they only focused on what had to be done. If the industrial revolution did not exist, it is likely that Samsa would have given his inner self greater priority than he did. Rational thoughts and plans were the order of the day in that society even though they could never bring satisfaction. Overall, the capitalist system made people’s inner being alien to them (Kohzadi et. al. 1604).
Alienation in the book is also a direct result of self disillusionment that had occurred in the protagonist’s mind. Because of the socio-economic system in this country, it became necessary to only focus on the necessities of life. Gregor concealed and distorted his personal needs in order to provide his family with a comfortable and secure life.
The protagonist was even immune to the fact that he was conflicted and needed to do what he really loved. This distortion of reality estranged him from his sister and parents, especially when they failed to appreciate the sacrifices he made for them.
Conclusion
On a superficial level, it appears that alienation in the book stemmed from a broken family relationships and distorted sense of identity. However, principles that defined family values and personal identity emanated from the socio-economic system of the era. Capitalism had reduced people’s worth to their economic contributions.
This prevented Gregor from realizing his inner ambition and developing his true identity. It also caused his family to think of him only as a source of material input in the family. These capitalist values alienated workers from their friends and family as well as their places of work.
Works Cited
Bloom, Harold. Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. NY: Infobase Publishing, 2007. Print.
DeNicola, Paul. Literature as pure mediality: Kafka and the scene of writing. Saas-Fee: European Graduate School press. 2007. Print.
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis: Norton Anthology of World Literature. NY: Norton and Company, 2003. Print.
Kohzadi, Hamedreza, Fatemeh Azizmohammadi and Mahboubeh Bouri. “ A study of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis.” Journal of Basic Applied Scientific Research 2.2(2012): 1600-1607. Print.
One of the reasons why Franz Kafka was able to gain the fame of one of 20th century’s most prominent writers is that his literary works contain many motifs/themes, closely associated with a number of people’s subconscious anxieties.
In this paper, I will aim to substantiate the validly of an earlier suggestion in regards to Kafka’s short stories A Hunger Artist, Jackals and Arabs and The Metamorphosis, as literary works that are being concerned with exploring the themes of alienation, surrealism and self-sacrifice, which in turn explains these stories’ an essentially subliminal appeal to the reading audiences.
A Hunger Artist
The most striking characteristic of Kafka’s short story A Hunger Artist is that in it, the author had shown that socially alienated introverts might nevertheless pass for being nothing short of extraverts. As it appears from this particular story, the actual reason why the character of a hunger artist was growing ever bitterer is that he sensed that the viewing audiences did not appreciate real motivations behind his public performances.
Whereas; Kafka’s hunger artist strived to be recognized as someone who had a plenty of will power to derive pleasure out of suppressing its own animalistic instincts, spectators never ceased thinking of his performances as having been solely motivated by the artist’s essentially animalistic hunger for fame and money.
The soundness of this suggestion can be well illustrated in relation to the story’s scene in which butchers (hired to observe artist at night, so that he would not have a chance of eating any sneaked out food) preoccupy themselves with playing cards – hence, allowing the hunger artist to have a bite.
Apparently, it never even occurred to them that the artist was a perfectly honest individual, totally incapable of cheating: “During the period of fasting the hunger artist would never, under any circumstances, have eaten the slightest thing, not even if compelled by force. The honour of his art forbade it”. It was namely due to the artist’s continuous exposure to people’s arrogance that he started to yield to depression.
However, being utterly unable to recognize artist’s existential nobleness, as the actual driving force behind his act, spectators could not help worsening the situation with artist’s mental state even further, because they arrogantly thought that the deterioration of his physical condition was brought about by his fasting as ‘thing in itself’.
Yet, this was far from being the case. As it appears from the story, nothing could satisfy the hunger-artist’s longing for self-realization better than being provided with an opportunity to do what he used to do the best – practicing an extreme form of fasting. Therefore, it would only be logical, on our part, to suggest that the artist’s ultimate demise came as a result of him never ceasing to remain strongly alienated from the rest of society.
Jackals and Arabs
The reading of a short story Jackals and Arabs leaves no doubt as to the fact that this story’s foremost thematic element is being of clearly surreal nature.
The reason for this is simple – it is not only that the characters of jackals, featured in the story, are shown as being endowed with perfectly human psychological traits (they experience hate, fear, hope), but they can also speak human language: “I’m the oldest jackal for miles around. I’m happy I’m still able to welcome you here”. Jackals approach the narrator and begin to elaborate on how much they hate Arabs, as utterly filthy people, whose religious practices undermine the cleanliness of a surrounding environment.
This, however, is not only the single aspect to story’s clearly defined surrealist sounding. After all, it is not the encounter with jackals that can speak human voices, which amazes narrator as something rather impossible, but the fact that jackals appear to have been anticipating his arrival.
Such narrator’s reaction, of course, cannot be referred to as anything but strongly surreal, because it only makes logical sense within the framework of a story’s semantic content. The same can be said about story’s setting, which provide a surreal authenticity to plot’s unraveling.
There is also a surreal quality to the image of rusty scissors, which jackals used to carry along with them. Even though, when it comes to slashing people’s throats, one would be so much better off using a knife, the author made a deliberate point in representing scissors, as the intended instrument of Arabs’ punishment. Apparently, Kafka wanted to increase the story’s surreal appeal even further.
Just as it is being the case with the motifs in Salvador Dali’s paintings, which despite their seeming oddness make a perfectly good sense to those aware of the essence of Dali’s worldviews, clearly surreal undertones to Jackals and Arabs also appear fully explainable to those who have been introduced to Kafka’s biography.
The Metamorphosis
One of the foremost thematic elements in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is self-sacrifice. Even throughout story’s introductory part the theme of self-sacrifice is being featured rather prominently. After having been turned into a bug, the story’s main character Gregor Samsa does not think of his metamorphosis in terms of a personal tragedy, but solely in terms of how it may affect the members of his family.
This alone portrays Gregor as an individual endowed with an acute sense of social responsibleness, who does not think of ensuring of its personal well-being as such that represents his foremost priority. Therefore, it does not come as a particular surprise that, throughout story’s consequential phases, Gregor continues to act in a strongly defined sacrificial manner.
For example, while being perfectly aware of the fact that his family members find his new appearance utterly appalling, Gregor tries not to come out of his room, even though not being to socialize with his loved ones does hurt him rather immensely. Gregor also does not protest when his sister Grete rearranges furniture in his room, simply because he does not want her to be getting upset even more. This again portrays Gregor as an individual with strong self-sacrificial anxieties.
Nevertheless, Gregor’s ultimate sacrificial act was his decision to die – hence, relieving his relatives of a burden of taking care of him: “He remembered his family with deep feelings of love. In this business, his own thought that he had to disappear was, if possible, even more decisive than his sister’s”.
Apparently, despite the fact that, after having been turned into a bug Gregor never ceased being abused by the members of his family, he nevertheless continued to love them with a deep passion. Therefore, Gregor did not resist dying, as he felt that his relatives really did want him to disappear. Such Gregor’s final act, of course, cannot be referred to as anything but highly sacrificial.