Examples Of Alienation In The Metamorphosis By Franz Kafka

Gregor similar to a man cherishes his memory. This can be seen through his attachment to his furniture and the painting of the girl. The objects in Gregor’s room are the instruments that help Gregor cling to his “human past.” By moving out the furniture, Grete and the mother are “depriving Gregor of everything that he loved.” The way that Gregor reacts to Grete and the mother moving out the furniture shows Gregor’s human side. As a vermin, Gregor might need more room as Grete claims, but as a human, Gregor is emotionally tied to the furniture. This is why he cannot stand to see the furniture removed. As it is observed, this sheds light on the theme of

In the beginning of the novella, Gregor undergoes a transformation. Many readers view his transformation as he turns into a bug because of the way Kafka describes Gregor. Kafka may have been undergoing a transformation of his own. Kafka dealt with many issues growing up such as self doubt, issues with his father, and eventually, health issues. Like Kafka, Gregor deals with issues with his father and within himself and begins to feel less and less like himself as the novella continues. He awakes from his sleep to ask himself, “What’s happened to me (Kafka, 3)?” With the conflicts Gregor has with his family, especially his father, he begins to feel unwanted and unappreciated. Gregor also feels that he is becoming less sensitive when that used to be one of his main traits as a human (Kafka, 24). Seeing that Gregor is losing his sensitivity, that shows that he is truly losing himself since he is losing one of his main traits. Feeling less like himself, Gregor becomes more distant with his close

Gregor's physical transformation also sparks a streak of cruelty on the part of his family. It is understandable that they be frightened when he first appears, but they continue to lock him in his room without ever trying to communicate with him. The only person who ever goes in his room on a regular basis is his sister and she can barely even tolerate his presence. At one point when Gregor successfully escapes from his prison cell, his father ends up throwing apples at him with the intention of causing injury. "Gregor came to a stop in alarm, there was no point in running on, for his father was determined to bombard him." As Gregor merely sat there on the wall, his own father sunk an apple into his shell. After this event they leave him to whither away and die alone in his room. Gregor did not bring this horrid behavior upon himself by his actions, but instead they result because his different appearance and behavior led his family to think of

His family shuns him and will not look at him. In time, his family abuses him and keeps him in filth and debris, which is not only in his room, but clinging to his carapace. They also forget to feed him, or just kick scraps into his room. By showing how much Gregor's identity is affected by his treatment from family and others' treatment of him, the story shows how identity is socially constructed, rather than being an inborn trait. The devolution of Gregor's room from a human bedroom to a storage closet reflects how his connection to human society deteriorates as the story progresses.

“...Doesn't it seem as if, by removing the furniture, we were showing we had given up all hope...so that when Gregor comes back...he’ll find everything unchanged and that will make it easier to forget everything in between.”(Kafka 33) The idea of not moving the furniture for Gregor’s, exhibits how, even though it seems as if everyone in his life has taken advantage of him, his mother still has that small hope for

Gregor is the only one in his room because no one can stand being near him. Everyone stays as far away from him as possible now that he is a bug. The family is leaving Gregor on his own because he is becoming useless to the family, even though he supported them before his metamorphosis. He is all alone in his bare room and no one wants to even be near him, which slowly kills him. Kafka traps Gregor in his room by describing the walls around him.

Most of the furniture was taken out of his room. Gregor, already depressed and weak, simply laid in the same spot for hours. Since Gregor’s family overlooks him and thinks much less of him, they begin to treat him as they view him; “Perhaps she intended to take the things away again as time and opportunity offered, or to collect them until she could throw them all out in a heap, but in fact they just lay wherever she happened to throw them, except when Gregor pushed his way through the junk heap and shifted it somewhat, at first out of necessity, because he has not room enough to crawl, but later with increasing enjoyment, although after such excursions, being sad and weary to death, he would lie motionless for hours.” (128) At this point, Gregor’s family no longer cares about the conditions of Gregor’s room. Most of the things that don’t have a place elsewhere, end up in Gregor’s room.

“They were emptying out his room, taking away everything that he was fond of… he crawled up to [the picture] in haste” (35). Choosing between his physical comfort of having more room and his emotional comfort of saving his last connection to his old life, a decision one may never have to make in the real world, Kafka presents Gregor with the absurdity that develops from his separation of his human mind and vermin

Although it was everything that Gregor knew, after he had been a bug for a while, Grete decided that it would be a good idea to take everything out of his room so that he would have more room to move around, but he wasn’t exactly happy about that because it gave him comfort having some familiar around him. There is also the fact of when his family got a new cleaning woman, she would go into his room and poke fun at him to try to intimidate or scare him. Then, finally toward the end, the cleaning lady and Gregor’s family would throw any of the extra junk lying around the house in his room so that it was out of their way, even if it was in Gregor’s way instead. “...someone had apparently wanted to come into the room, but then thought better of

Gregor feels isolated because not even his own boss will listen to him and Gregor feels like nobody will listen to him, so why bother speaking and hanging out with his family. Physically, we can also see how Gregor's isolation as a bug is mirrored to his life before. In one instance, Gregor's mother had passed out at the realization that this gigantic bug really was Gregor, and right as that happened, his father had walked in: “It was clear to Gregor that his father had badly misunderstood Grete’s short message and was assuming that Gregor had committed some violent crime or other”(Kafka 18). Gregor's father had walked in to see his wife on the floor with Greta by her side and Gregor standing across the room, and without any words said, Gregor's father assumed it was something that Gregor had done out of violence. This could mean that Gregor, before his transformation, was violent and had a bad reputation with people, so his father walked in and just immediately assumed that Gregor had done something to cause

Gregor who once was the family provider became a house pest that must go; he was not a part of the family after the metamorphosis “He has to go”, cried the sister, “that is the only answer, father…” (Kafka 501). To all this dialogue Gregor only thoughts were thee distress his has cause to his family and he let himself die, the cleaning woman found him dead and disposed is body. To what his family felt a sense of relief, they also show remorse and sadness but they were happy that he was gone. The family took the day off and planned their future life, the parents planned to find a husband for the daughter, someone who could take care of her and their needs.

From the very beginning Gregor seems to be oddly calm about this new change while everyone else seems to be in panic. His acceptance of this rather odd transformation is depressing, as it seems that the only reason that he does not worry about it is that he has far more important problems in his life.

A quote that supports my thesis is . This quote is basically concluding the fact that Gregor's room has become a garbage can. No longer considered human, gregor is trash like the rubbish thrown into his room. Gregor has totally isolated from everyone around him, including his closest people like his mother and Grete. Even though there are symbols in the novel associated with the theme of isolation, there are also imageries in the novel associated with

This quote explores the theme that those who are not struggling cannot and do not understand how to help those in need. Gregor desires to have unlimited space to crawl and move around in, which is the reason for the removal of the furniture. However, partway through his mother forgets to consider Gregor’s wants and instead exclaims that she thinks they ought to leave the room as is. Her opinion is that Gregor will return to his human form eventually and then he will wish all the furniture remained in his room.

Gregor is a salesman that begins to isolate himself from his job, and other social circumstances that may threaten him. The apartment is part of larger set of rooms within the home of the Samsa family. Gregor’s apartment is situated between his parent’s room and Grete’s room: “His room, a real room meant for human habitation, though a little too small, lay peacefully within its four family walls” (Kafka 11). This setting provides a confined room that is a form of sanctuary from his job and the realities of day-to-day life. However, the small size of the room also symbolizes Gregor’s mental isolation and psychological break down.