The Metamorphosis By Frank Kafka

This story represents both physical and emotional alienation as the separation of the younger brother was detrimental to both. In the story it states “For 20 years the little family I left behind wondered if I was alive, where I was and what I was like.” (81) showing that the family was deprived and missed the physical presence of the younger brother. They had no clue on what kind of a person he was and little to no recollection of his existence. The same thing can be said about the younger brother having no recollection of his family as he was taken away from a very young age. It was after twenty years, that the older brother was able to track the younger brother home; however the damage was already done. The older brother became quieter and more refined as he was deprived from a healthy brother relationship as stated by the author “It was hardest on my brother”(81). Also, the younger brother was completely isolated from his true family from an age of four, thus affecting him dearly as the author writes “… we don’t get that much time to visit anymore … brothers who never had the chance to age together” (82). The author also writes “At first it was tentative … we didn’t talk much” (82) showing how the isolation of the younger brother resulted in minimal conversations and alienated

So concerned with ensuring his parents and sister were taken care of, he forgot his own needs. It was apparent to everyone that he was no longer thought of as a son or an extension of the family, but merely as a "support system." The tragic fact is that "everyone had grown accustomed to it, his family as much as himself; they took the money gratefully, he gave it willingly but the act was accompanied by no remarkable effusiveness" (Kafka 48). It appears that in the course of his hectic work schedule, he overlooks that in return for dedication to his family, he remains unloved and unappreciated. Yet Gregor still "believed he had to provide his family with a pleasant, contented, secure life" (Emrich 149), regardless of how they treated him.

The Metamorphosis (Die Verwandlung 1912), Franz Kafka’s best known short story, is a master work of incredible psychological, sociological and existential malaise. Although his points are simple and straightforward, this richly layered and textured story is open to many interpreta-tions, making it complex, yet critical to decipher. There is an incredible amount of theories based off of what this story could possibly symbolize or represent, but it is of the autobiographical in-terpretation that is undeniably the most enlightening. This interpretation allows the reader to gen-uinely understand the tale on an intense level that would not be able to be reached, otherwise. In order to gain true insight on the autobiographical approach to The Metamorphosis, a brief examination of his life is required; his thoughts, his beliefs, the acknowledgment of the cruel circumstances of his life, especially his home life, must be made clear that the anguish of his own world is the model for the themes in his stories.

he is estranged from himself. To help expand on this theme it is useful to look

A fundamental and underlying reason for Gregor and Kafkas imposed alienation is the lack of ability to communicate with their families. As Gregor speaks through his door on the first day of his metamorphosis, nobody in the house has a clue as to what he is saying. Gregor’s mother calls out to Grete, Gregor's sister, and shouts”Call the doctor that was the voice of an animal”(Kafka 12). Nobody in Gregor’s family can understand a thing he says, relinquishing his ability to convey his needs. Without the ability to convey thoughts and desires, Gregor has no choice but to forever be alienated and suffer alone. Afterwards Grete pleads

What does alienation mean? "Alienation (or "estrangement" means, for Marx, that man does not experience himself as the acting agent in his grasp of the world, but that the world (nature, others and he himself) remain alien to him. They stand above and against him as objects, even though they may be objects of his own creation. Alienation is essentially experiencing the world and oneself passively, receptively, as the subject separated from the object." 1.(ch5, Marx's Concept of Man, by Erich Fromm)

In Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis,” Gregor Samsa deals with the alienation from his family stemming from both absurd and mundane circumstances. While Gregor’s transformation into a bug is the catalyst to his physical alienation, Gregor had for years been becoming more and more isolated mentally and emotionally from his family due to his displeasure at his having to work a job he hated due to his father’s failings and the lack of gratitude he received from his family for his hard work. It was not just his family who Gregor was becoming isolated from, but it was humanity in general that Gregor had been drifting apart from, as he had not mentioned having any friends or work colleagues which leads the readers to believe he had no social life

Marx’s theory of alienation is concerned primarily with social interaction and production; he believes that we are able to overcome our alienation through human emancipation.

Furthermore, this alienation also creates a negative effect on workers. In Marx’s writing Economic & Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, he said:

     Kafka’s unorthodox beginning of “The Metamorphosis” reads as what would seem to be a climactic moment: “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he

The concept of alienation plays a significant role in Marx's early political writing, especially in the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1848, but it is rarely mentioned in his later works. This implies that while Marx found alienation useful in investigating certain basic aspects of the development of capitalist society, it is less useful in putting forward the predictions of the collapse of capitalism. The aim of this essay is to explain alienation, and show how it fits into the pattern of Marx's thought. It will be concluded that alienation is a useful tool in explaining the affect of capitalism on human existence. In Marx's thought, however, the usefulness of alienation it is limited to explanation. It does not help in

THE TERM "alienation" in normal usage refers to a feeling of separateness, of being alone and apart from others. For Marx, alienation was not a feeling or a mental condition, but an economic and social condition of class society--in particular, capitalist society.

Topic: One of the essential elements to Marx’s alienation concept is that of people or workers being alienated from each other under capitalism, it is still relevant in explaining the problems of the modern world.

The theory of alienation developed by Karl Marx depicts the estrangement of people due to living in a capitalist system of production. Through the manuscript “Estranged Labor” from his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Marx describes his theory of alienation and specifies on the four types of ways in which the worker is alienated. A vivid example of Marx’s theory of alienation can be seen through Charlie Chaplin’s comedy film Modern Times. In his film, the central idea of the theory of labor alienation and how the worker is affected by the alienation are depicted. The notion of alienation depicted in Marx’s “Estranged Labor” is also depicted in Chaplin’s Modern Times.

Gregor had accepted the fact that he would forever provide everything for his family, working himself to death to make sure that they ate and that they had everything that they needed. He fights his new destiny tooth-and-nail; he doesn’t want to accept