Kafka and Tolstoy

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Recommended: Analysis of kafka's metamorphosis

Written in 1915 by Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis stands as one of the seminal works of fiction of the 20th century. Also, written by Leo Tolstoy in 1886, The Death of Ivan Ilyich is a fictional masterpiece. Although these novellas were written in different countries by different authors and approximately 30 years apart, they share a common underlying theme of alienation in their stories.
One of the themes of The Metamorphosis is that the protagonist, Gregor Samsa becomes alienated from his own family. Gregor Samsa awakes in his bed one morning only to discover that he has transformed into a large insect. Gregor, a traveling salesman has overslept and receives a visit from his office manager. Inevitably, Gregor’s transformation directly causes him to lose his job as the office manager flees upon seeing him. Although on the outside Gregor is unrecognizable and hideous, he still retains some of his humanity and inner-self but struggles to reconcile it with his physical condition. Gregor is set to remain in this state for the rest of his life. At first sight of Gregor’s metamorphosis, his mother fainted and his father cried. However, his father instantly turns hostile as he chases Gregor into his room with a cane and slams the door shut. The father shows no concern or sympathy for him whatsoever. It is suggested that Gregor’s estrangement with his father in the novella is a representation of Kafka’s real-life relationship with his father. Although Gregor never says that he hates or resents his father, it is obvious that he works as a traveling salesman to make up for his father’s business failures. Gregor’s father sympathizes the least with him out of all the novella’s major characters and is most hostile toward him. Unfortunately,...

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...could not connect and dismissed the boy. Right before his passing, Ivan ponders the rationale behind his upcoming death and the message to the reader is very clear. Tolstoy conveys that life devoid of human connection will have the same meaningless and lonely ending.
In conclusion, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy, bring out the theme of alienation. Whether the alienation was brought about by a freakish and unfortunate transformation such as in The Metamorphosis or self-inflicted such as in The Death of Ivan Ilyich, it caused the protagonists to be miserable and eventually led them to death. Both authors, Kafka and Tolstoy make their points in that an alienated life is not worth living. There is more to life than materialism and status, and a life with no interpersonal or social meaning is as good as death itself.

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