Outsiders: Are They Misjudged or Misunderstood?
The short story “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka shows many different aspects of change and being an outsider. An outsider can be known as someone who doesn’t fit in with everyone else surrounding them, and feels secluded and different from the rest of the world. Most of the time, outsiders are simply misjudged and/or misunderstood, as many people do not give them a chance. “The Metamorphosis” shows how this can affect a person experiencing this, as the story centers Gregor Samsa, a man who wakes one day to find himself transformed into a hideous bug. Gregor quickly becomes an outsider in his own home and family, showing how outsiders can be both misjudged and misunderstood without second thought, even by people who had once cared for you.
To be an outsider means many things. It means that you might be secluded from everyone else, misjudged, and different. There are also many reasons for this. One of the biggest reasons is that others just do not give the ‘outsiders’ a chance. In many instances, they simply do not want to. The short story “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka shows this, when the main character, Gregor, is transformed into a bug. This changes his life drastically, and his family soon begins to treat him like an outsider. His father assumes the worst, and throughout the story refuses to give Gregor a chance. “With his left hand, his father picked up a newspaper from the table and, stamping his feet on
“The Metamorphosis” is a surreal story by Franz Kafka surrounding the transformation and betrayal of Gregor Samsa, who wakes up one day, reborn into a large insect. Along with the bizarre and nightmarish appearance of his new hard back, brown segmented belly, and many legs, Gregor only desire is to live a normal life, unfortunately, this is impossible because he struggles to even get out of bed. Gregor transformation into an insect is a vivid metaphor for the alienation of humans from around the world. After losing human form, Gregor is automatically deprived of the right to be a part of society. Franz Kafka could relate to Gregor because he too was mistreated/neglected by his father and worked a job that he was unhappy doing. Franz and Gregor both were providers for their families. Alienation, isolation, and loneliness were not hard to recognize during the Modernity and Modernism time period.
When individuals are rejected by family and society, they tend to feel abandoned and unloved. In Franz Kafka’s, The Metamorphosis, Gregor’s transformation into a “monstrous vermin” (Kafka 1) results in him being psychologically and even physically abused by his family. Rejection from his mother, sister, and father leave Gregor feeling unwanted and feeling as if he is a terrible burden on the family and their well being.
Have you ever walked into school or a job and felt like you were not like everyone else? Many people struggle with the feeling of not fitting into a certain norm, which causes them to feel as though they are an outsider. In the story Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka Gregor Samsa becomes an outsider when he wakes up to discover he is a monstrous bug. Not only does his family misjudge him but they starve, mistreat, and seclude him. Outsiders like Gregor Samsa have always been different and misjudged.
There is a bountiful number of outsiders in our society and we are wondering, why are they outsiders and what have they done to become that, what defines them? Outsiders in our society are simply misunderstood and people do not understand them, hence them being outsiders. The reasons that seem to make outsiders misunderstood is that they do not like or do the popular stuff at the time. Also, those who are outsiders are seen as people that are “different,” but really are misunderstood. Outsiders are just misunderstood in society and not purposely being pushed out.
Being misjudged can cause serious complications in somebody's life, like feelings of alienation and some forms of depression in a complex group of situations. Misjudging is drawing interpretations and incorrectly assessing something or a situation from visual observations. This is displayed in “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka, when Gregor Samsa was mysteriously transformed into a life-size beetle one life-changing morning. His alteration not only transformed him into a monstrous, verminous bug, but also into a perceptible outsider. These situations of outcasts being misjudged can be displayed in both real-life situations and fantasy stories, such as “The Metamorphosis”.
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is a reflection on how alienation and isolation begin and develop in a society by employing the characters in his novella as a representation of society as a whole. Using Gregor’s manager to demonstrate the initiation of isolation and alienation of a person, Gregor as the person being isolated and the inhabitants of the Samsa household as the other members of society, Kafka creates an effective model to represent the hierarchically structured effect of isolationism and alienation in society on a larger scale.
In the Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka bring out the character of a hardworking man, Gregor, who faces an incident where he soon is driven into complications to remain his once isolated life. Gregor’s alienation causes no gain for help from anyone even after the tragedy of transforming into a roach. Isolation removes all social interactions affecting the character of the persona by which can no longer seek help or gain itself being. Isolation in life, results in the expulsion of humankind partying from all social interactions, preventing contact with the world.
People might leave “outsiders” out due their appearance and might “look different” from everyone else. These “outsiders” are left out and it can make them feel bad about themselves and their appearance. For instance, in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, the main character, Gregor, is isolated by his family after turning into a bug. Before he was a bug, his family is fine with him and treats him fairly. After he turns into a bug, his family traps him inside his room and that causes him to lose his humanity. Gregor can be compared to an outsider because he was left out and isolated from
What is an outsider? An outsider is a person who is not excepted by or is isolated by society. Have you ever been an “outsider”? Everyone experiences a situation where they weren’t able to fit in. The feeling of not being able to fit it is universal. Not everyone is the same and in certain situations you may not be able to bond with everyone. Everyone is focused on being judged or being the person who is judging someone. If you are not like everyone in your society group, those people don’t except you. Nowadays our society feels that if you aren’t up to people’s expectations, you are known to be an “outsider”. Being an outsider is universal because not everyone is social, not everyone can afford nice things and not everyone is popular.
An outsider is someone who stands out from the crowd. They have their own beliefs, their own way or thinking. Standing out is often thought of in a negative way, but it can bring along many positive things. During the time period of Martin Luther King Jr., there were many protestors who began to stand up for themselves and their race. Even though many people did it, there were only a few people who started the movement, and those people, were outsiders. Two people who were outsiders from that time period were Jackie Robinson and Rosa Parks. They stood against normal beliefs and tried to change the way of life, which is what many outsiders do. An outsider is not simply someone who is misjudged or misunderstood.
An outsider can be a person who does normally not fit in with the people around them, acknowledging that they are unique and special in their own way. Another way an outsider can be looked at as is “a person not belonging to a particular group, set, party, etc.” (Dictionary.com). With there being different meanings to the word outsider an actual outsider can be timid and absent to the people around them or they can be outspoken and persistent by any means necessary.
In The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka conveys the series of emotional and psychological repercussions of a physical transformation that befalls the protagonist, a young salesman called Gregor Samsa. As the story progresses, Gregor finds himself unfairly stigmatized, cruelly rejected because of his clear inability to financially support his family, and consequently increasingly isolated. Through extensive use of symbolism, Kafka is able to relate the surreal and absurd, seemingly arbitrary events of this short story to a general critique of society-particularly on the alienating effects that conformity generates. On a broader level, the combined themes-which include the themes of conformity, freedom, and alienation--found throughout The
Change plays a major role in one's life. It is what makes one’s life unique and different. In the novel, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Gregor Samsa, the protagonist, initially appears as a respectful young man working as a traveling salesman to pay off his family debts and provide for his family. But then Gregor goes through a transformation that turns him into a gigantic insect. Even though Gregor’s sister, father, and mother undergo many changes, the most significant transformation that occurs in the story is the change in Gregor, from an ordinary working man to a gigantic insect. This initial transformation becomes only the first impulse, which causes a lot of changes in his external and internal world along with forcing him to adapt to his new position in the family.
‘The Metamorphosis’ by Franz Kafka, the composer of the novel, explores the relations between an outsider and an insider, and Gregor Samsa’s relationship with his family, gradually following up on how Gregor decided to become an insect that he was physically being seen as, although he had been psychologically/ mentally been feeling like an “insect” for a while now. Gregor allowed himself to transition into an insect, as he chose he would let his family affect his personal happiness. Subsequently, he made the choice to become accustomed to the routine of the life he was living, to exclude and suppress himself from all persons and things, and to become fully focused on his job and his duties, despite the fact that he despised it so much. Gregor wanted to believe that he was in full control of his own life and emotions, when he only allowed his family to affect him thoughts and progression, similarly just like Kafka’s did as well as confiding to become an insect
Change is unavoidable and inevitably in every moment of our lives. In every second of our lives, changes appear and disappear, impacting our lives. Humans perceive change differently and it reveals the true nature of our heart. It is due to the dissension of change between humans that determines the differences in our individual perceptions. In the novel, “ Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka, the word change is taken to a entirely absurd degree as the main protagonist, Gregor Samsa is illogically transformed into a bug. Although Gregor’s thoughts still shown traces of his human self, Gregor’s family is unable to cope with his hideous form and isolates him from their world. Once perceived as the breadwinner of the family, Gregor is now seen