Studyspark Study Document

The Problem of Alienation Essay

Related Topics: Alienation Family Society World

Pages:1 (355 words)

Sources:1

Subject:Science

Topic:Metamorphosis

Document Type:Essay

Document:#13384484


Free Essay Sample

Metamorphosis

Frank Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is a short novel that was first published in 1915. The author uses his experience to develop much of Gregor Samsa’s life and demonstrate the physical metamorphosis. Prior to the metamorphosis, the protagonist’s family viewed him as a means of survival and eventually took advantage of him. Samsa’s alienation from the family and his surrounding world begins with his transformation into an insect. According to Kafka, the book is a “story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family…” (p.1). After the metamorphosis, the protagonist becomes a quintessentially alienated man as he is an outsider in his own home. While Samsa is available and close to his family and friends, they are unable to communicate with him as he is trapped in another physical body that makes it impossible for him to connect with them. Alienation also generates self-esteem as Samsa develops “feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation” (p.1). He is locked up alone in his own room by his family as they attempt to help him in his new physical form. Samsa dies of a broken heart and realizes that he lived a purposeless and meaningless life. Kafka states “Look at that, it has died, here it is lying really-really dead!” (p.428).

Gregor Samsa is not unique in his alienation from the surrounding world as Kafka intends him to serve as a symbol of all humankind. This story demonstrates the problem alienation causes to people in terms of their interactions and communication with their family, friends and others in the society. While human beings may not metamorphose into animals or insect, they can get caught up in other things that end up causing alienation. In today’s world, alienation can be brought by an individual’s failure or refusal to conform to the demands and norms of the society. Refusal to conform creates a problem where an individual becomes trapped in a particular way of life and end ups getting isolated from friends, family, and the society.

Work Cited

Kafka, Frank. The Metamorphosis. Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing, 2019.


Cite this Document

Join thousands of other students and "spark your studies."

Sign Up for FREE
Related Documents

Studyspark Study Document

Problem Solving on a Regular Basis, Humans

Pages: 2 (930 words) Sources: 1+ Subject: Government Document: #51252290

Problem Solving On a regular basis, humans must solve problems or issues. This has been true for millennia, from the time in which we were hunter-gatherers to now having a myriad of choices in almost every single moment of our lives. We must choose clothing, colors, styles, entertainment, meals, and time schedules, almost down to the minutiae. Because we are now confronted with so many decisions, these decisions often bleed off

Studyspark Study Document

Alienation in "A Rose for

Pages: 8 (2361 words) Sources: 3 Subject: Literature Document: #2484922

The image of the fog is significant because the protagonist is comparing himself to the fog in that he skirts along the outside of what is happening. If he is like fog, moving slowly and quietly, he does not have to become involved but can still see what is going on. When he writes that there will be time to "prepare a face to meet the faces that you

Studyspark Study Document

Alienation, Self-Identity, and Hope Discovered

Pages: 4 (1180 words) Sources: 1 Subject: Sports - Drugs Document: #48529692

The conclusion of the story leads us to believe that he has found a single memory that he can identify with as he watched J.P. And his wife reconcile. The single moment of happiness he remembers is enough to compel him to try to communicate with his wife and girlfriend and become the man he used to be and the man he wants to be. He can recover who

Studyspark Study Document

William Blake Alienation and Moral

Pages: 3 (904 words) Sources: 1+ Subject: Literature Document: #75716671

" The use of "coffins in black" as symbolism for death aptly justifies the use of the word "weep" to capture the abusive nature of the sweepers' work, not to mention the unfair conditions in work these young workers were forced to agree with. Lacking any choices or rights, the young, alienated sweepers became victims of moral degeneration, a condition only found in Blake's modern society. Abuse of the youth's innocence

Studyspark Study Document

Alienation of Women in "The Yellow Wallpaper"

Pages: 5 (1821 words) Sources: 1+ Subject: Sports - Women Document: #18474003

Alienation of Women in "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "A Doll's House" Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Henrik Ibsen's play "A Doll's House" share similar themes of women being alienated from the community and offer similar solutions to this problem. Nora and the narrator of the yellow wallpaper are both alienated because of the limited role that society places them in. This limited role based on their

Studyspark Study Document

Alienation People at Odds With Society

Pages: 8 (2320 words) Subject: Literature Document: #76717904

Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison. Specifically, it will contain a brief biography of the author; address the topic of alienation as it pertains to the work, and include some critical reviews of the novel. Many critics consider novelist Ralph Ellison's "The Invisible Man" a classic in American literature, and a treatise on how blacks have been treated by white society throughout the decades. His story is a tale of

Join thousands of other students and

"spark your studies".