Preview

Isolation in The Metamorphosis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
460 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Isolation in The Metamorphosis
Isolation in Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” Franz Kafka’s short story “The Metamorphosis” centers on the theme of isolation. In the lead character’s transformation he experiences a deep isolation towards society now. What this isolation leads to is to a series of events, that cause Gregor’s isolation to grow. Eventually isolation leads to Gregor’s death. Isolation and its after effects are the central themes involved in the “The Metamorphosis.”
Isolation is the state of an individual being separated from other individuals. Isolation involves both the mental state of an individual and the physical state of the individual. Further isolation also involves the individual’s belief versus societies’ believes. This paper will argue that Gregor’s transformation into a bug is a symbolic representation of one’s difficulty in accepting the isolation reality.
The notion of the isolation is first realized in the author’s work in section . The reader can see that Gregor’s isolation started before the transformation occurred when Gregor mentions “That's all I'd have to try with my boss; I'd be fired on the spot. Anyway, who knows if that wouldn't be a very good thing for me. If I didn't hold back for my parents' sake, I would have quit long ago.” It is at this point that the reader realizes that Samsa was mentally isolated from the society he lived in before the transformation occurred. Gregor had wished to be free from work long before his transformation occurred, but society expected Gregor to work and to provide food for his family, something that Gregor didn’t want. Gregor’s isolation before the metamorphosis occurred was that he wanted freedom and society wanted him to work. By Gregor showing different believes than the rest of the society the reader realizes that Gregor was somehow already a loner even before the transformation occurred.
The notion isolation also affects Gregor in section III.
Some readers believe that Gregor Samsa’s experience is centered on Morality

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    In the exposition of this story, a character named Gregor Samsa is awakened on his bed, only to find out that he has oddly enough transformed into a giant bug. As the story continues, Samsa contemplates the struggles he would normally have as a human, now only with the added conflict of being an insect as well. He tries to go back to sleep in effort of trying to forget what he had come to realization of, which is his new form. Samsa tries to evaluate the situation that he had found himself in, and he still did not find why he was a bug. Samsa had difficulty trying to adapt to the fact that he was a bug, and did not know what to do with himself.…

    • 1337 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Part I of Metamorphosis, Kafka ends the part by illustrating the rejection of Gregor by emphasizing that even before his transformation in an insect; a situation which forces him to hid away from others, Gregor has always been isolated from others. Due to his job as a traveling salesman, Gregor is unable to make any friends or stay close to anyone at all for that matter, turning him into a very reclusive person (though Kafka never states is Gregor has always been this way or if is simply the job that caused this). When we come to the end of Part I, Gregor is also in extreme anxiety due to the fact that he was supporting his family and is now unable to work. This effect Gregor so much that even after he has transformed into a bug, he is still trying to find ways to be able to work. This conflict causes Gregor to feel trapped, like a bug locked in a room, hidden away under the settee.…

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Metamorphosis Franz Kafka examines the alienation from society that turns a human being into a bug. Gregor Sampsa is clearly unhappy with his life and alienated by the expectations placed upon him by his family and society. For example the text says “If I didn’t have my parents to think about I’d have given in my notice a long time ago, I’d have gone up to my boss and told him just what I think, tell him everything, I would have let him know just what I feel,” Gregor says. But of course, he can’t tell his boss how he feels. How he feels is besides the point. “He was a tool of the boss, without brains or backbone.” Gregor is in no position of power he is just another worker for his harsh boss. Gregor’s alienation is symbolically represented…

    • 167 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the novel, Mr. Kafka uses third person limited point of view to tell the story of Gregor Samsa’s life-changing transformation. This literary device gives the author the ability to display both the protagonist’s emotions and actions. For example, Franz Kafka writes about how Gregor stood in his “tall, empty room where he was forced to remain made him feel uneasy as he lay here flat on the floor, even though he had been living in it for five years” (pg.36). The author’s…

    • 305 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the “Kafka’s fantasy of punishment”, Author Kaiser reveals and scrutinizes more insightfully the significant meaning of the metamorphosis of Gregor Samsa. In Kaiser’s point of view, Gregor’s transformation is a “self-punishment for his earlier competitive striving aimed against his father.” His unintentional emotions toward his father are beyond hatred, which is interpreted by Kaiser as an oedipal jealousy intended for the mother. However, that is not the manifest struggle between the son and father. It is Gregor’s bold ambition costs him to suffer. Before his catastrophic metamorphosis, the son takes up the position as head of the family as a result of business failure of his father. He begins to work assiduously to sustain the whole family;…

    • 214 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In The Metamorphasis, Kafka’s treatment of Gregor’s transformation demonstrates how beyond human control the natural world is. The human turning back into nature demonstrates a relationship between man and the environment. Throughout the novel there is, however, much talk of the cure and of acceptance, yet nature goes on unrelated to all talk of ways to change the situation.…

    • 555 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gregor is also alienated both emotionally and physically after his transformation into a beetle. He at one point refers to this change as his "imprisonment." After his metamorphous, Gregor is no longer…

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    An individual cannot prevail positively or productively with all fundamental needs met without the dynamic of society. Society engenders restrictions on man. Our society has created many stereotypes which has blinded many individuals, resulting in leaving one confined to the realms of the world, crippling humanity. In the fictional novel, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, a salesman named Gregor Samsa was left in his own bubble to suffer alone, simply because he didn't measure up to the prevailing social standings that were upheld in this society. Kafka demonstrates the theme of alienation, from a unique perspective through the utilization of tone and imagery.…

    • 233 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka it establishes the theme of alienation from the society and their true identity. The main character, Gregor Samsa awakes to the realization that he has transformed into a verminous bug. His physical and mental metamorphosis creates obstacles throughout the course of Gregor’s life. Gregor who was once the caretaker of his family is now unable to work. This has caused an economic burden on his family. The transformation also is viewed as a danger to the family’s household. Therefore, they barricade Gregor in his room where he has limited access to his family and the society. Throughout the novel the furniture, door and uniforms serve as symbols of Gregor’s alienation from society and himself.…

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    It does always result in trying to escape that isolation, but when we are isolated from ourselves it resides within us, and escape is impossible. It sits closer to the concept of separateness rather than loneliness. It is clear that in “The End of the World”, the narrator’s isolationism is because of his own choice. I argue that the most important way in which the novel discusses isolation is to see it as an internal state which does not necessarily have anything to do with how isolated one is with regard to other people. Instead, it is to show that as even as social beings who constantly interact with others carry elements of isolationism in our lives. Marukami effectively makes the whole story subordinate to the theme of isolationism to relate the reader to his…

    • 1629 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Kafka throughout Metamorphosis shows key examples of the life of Gregor and how it's filled himself with alienation. Alienation is brought out in both Kafka's writings The Metamorphosis and "A Hunger Artist". The way Kafka lived may have been examples and themes in each the two stories. In both stories main characters decide to separate themselves from their own surroundings. They are reasons for each of the characters isolation from what's outside of them. In The Metamorphosis, Gregor, the main focus morphs physically into a bug. His intent was to be freer from his own life, but isolation from family and work increases. Gregor's family then does not want anything to do with him. Also, the hunger artist alienates himself by hiding inside a…

    • 867 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Exile in the Road

    • 658 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Exile not only forces a person into isolation but also instigates an enlightening journey in which the person learns to draw certain conclusions about society. For instance, in The Road, the man and the son are completely isolated from the rest of the world by their status of being the “good guys;” however, this experience shows that although evil is more powerful than good, it does not triumph in the end. Cormac McCarthy shows this belief about humankind by proving the two key components of exile, alienation and enrichment, to be both present and equally important.…

    • 658 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Since the Greek philosophers people have debated endlessly the extent to which the mind influences oneʼs personal reality, or even reality in general. In the Metamorphosis, the link between Gregorʼs mental and physical reality are in some way linked, and as Gregorʼs ability to function within the parameters of humanity dissipates, his physical links with the human world diminish as well. He loses his personal connection with his own body, and slowly but surely loses connection with the outside world; work and acquaintances progress along without him, and his family shuts him away as if he had never existed. But despite the authorʼs frequent superficial focus on Gregor Samsaʼs physical aspect, it is fundamentally the mental breakdown which Franz…

    • 1137 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the novel, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, alienation and isolation are very prominent themes that flow through the pages. When Gregor undergoes his transformation into a grotesque insect, it creates this psychological and emotional rift between Gregor and his family.…

    • 1391 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The early twentieth century represented a time of hardship and struggles throughout Europe. In 1915, at the onset of World War I, Austria-Hungary centered at the heart of this turmoil. This societal angst eventually translated into/became the individual alienation that lies at the center of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. The protagonist Gregor Samsa’s shocking change into a bug reflects this angst felt by Kafka and his own perception of the world – and his role in it. As a bug, he cannot provide for his family any longer, and therefore becomes excluded from familial affairs. The family adjusts to his plight by taking on extra jobs and admitting boarders into the home for extra financial support; all the while, Gregor becomes victimized by the coldness of his newfound world. In a period where everyday living presented a daily fight to survive, the family could not lament Gregor’s absence for too long before worrying about personal wellbeing. This coldness of that era is incorporated through Gregor’s dire situation and in turn, the family’s cold reaction indicates the “survival of the fittest” theme evident in families during that time. Kafka employs depressing language and style, a three-part structure to the novel, and an extended metaphor to shape the belief that in a world filled with conflict, regardless of family ties, only the fittest will endure.…

    • 1379 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays