Franz Kafka Research Paper

A society is a group of people coming together to decide on the social norms of a community. A person’s greatest antagonist within a community is the society members. According to society, people need someone to tell them what to do, what to believe and even what to think. A story called The Metamorphosis, written by Franz Kafka expresses the idea that a daily routine dictated by a society leads to a meaningless life. Also, a poem called “The Unknown Citizen”, written by W.H. Auden, expressed the idea that “scientific data fails to capture the human quality of life” and that “our lives are largely shaped and dictated” by a greater society leading to the loss of a meaningful life (“The Unknown” 301). Despite differences in the plot of Kafka’s

The Metamorphosis and Auden’s “The Unknown Citizen”, both authors express a similar idea that doing right and conforming to the social norm leads to the loss of a person’s personality and their quality of life.

Franz Kafka and W.H. Auden had successful lives, that led to countless accomplishments. Yet, their lives fell into a routine and became meaningless. Franz Kafka, born on July 3rd, 1883 in Prague, Czech Republic was the eldest of five children by his parents. Kafka graduated from German Karl-Ferdinand University in 1906 with a doctorate in jurisprudence. Post-graduation, he worked in “Worker’s Accident Insurance Office for the Kingdom of Bohemia” from 1908 until 1992. He died on June 3rd,1994 two years after he retired from the insurance office (Beetz 979-980). Kafka stayed with the insurance company his entire life, but he disliked the job, just like the character Gregor Samson in The Metamorphosis. Kafka did not become famous for the utmost of his works of writing until

after his death when Max Brod refused to burn all his writing despite Kafka’s request for him to do so. Kafka is like the man in “The Unknown Citizen” because they were not recognized for their achievements until after their death. In contrast, W.H. Auden was born in 1907 in York, England, but later in his life moved to The United States where he became well known for his writing. He held religious values, that he later abandoned when he acknowledged himself as homosexual. Auden wrote during an era of economic and moral decay, however, after the 1940’s his daily life fell into a steady routine until his death from a heart attack on September 29, 1973 ("W.H. Auden" 73-74). Auden’s life being a routine is the connection to the life of Gregor and the unknown citizen. Gregor and the unknown citizen’s daily life were to go to work and to always do what is asked without question. To say the least, both Kafka and Auden’s personal life influenced their writings.
Everybody in the world has something that differentiates them from others in a society, because no two people are alike.

However, these differences should not become suppressed. In The Metamorphosis, Kafka expressed that Gregor “had not been sick once in five years of service” revealing that Gregor is a diligent man who will do anything for the company (947). This is a personality trait of Gregor that is different to another employee at his company. In addition, in “The Unknown Citizen”, Auden states that the unknown citizen is a “modern sense of the old-fashion word, he was a saint” revealing that the man did the right thing, he was innocent, kind and selfless (Line 7). A person's personality is an essential part of life because they feel valued in society because without personality we are all “equal”. In The Metamorphosis, Gregor found pity in his room when looking “on the wall directly opposite hung a photograph of Gregor from his military days, which showed him dressed as a lieutenant, with a carefree smile, his hand on his dagger, his bearing and his uniform commanding respect” (953). He found pity because he realized that he morphed into an insect, which stripped his personality away from him. Gregor’s transformation was the result of him being too different from the social norm, so the “society” punishes him for being an abnormally to their system. Both authors’ articulated the idea that there are numerous variations of people’s personality that without their

personality, everybody is “equal”.
In like manner, the human feeling of “fitting in” or “being equal” is what decreases a person’s potential to become different from someone else because it allows people to criticize us. Positive criticism is telling people what they excel in, which is always respectable. In “The Unknown Citizen”, the citizen characterized as “normal in every way”, meaning that he was perfect according to the social norm (Line 18). In addition, the man in “The Unknown Citizen” “never interfered with their education” meaning that he always let the teachers teach his children what the government wanted them to know (Line 30). The society wanted their people to follow everything they say so that people “fit in”, but the people who “fit in” are lowering their potential to do something extraordinary because they accept having someone tell them what to believe is true. Even so, there is also negative criticism. Negative criticism is telling people what they need to work on. Sometimes negative criticism is harsh when you think that you are doing the best job possible. In The Metamorphosis, Gregor has thought that he has done the best, that he has a work because he has devoted his life to his work; however, when the Deputy Director comes to visit him at his parents’ house the Director said: “I thought I knew you as a quite, reasonable person and now you suddenly begin exhibit extraordinary capriciousness” and now “your performance recently has been very unsatisfying” (950). This negative criticism from the Director made Gregor realize that what made him different at work was actually hindering his ability to work to the level of satisfaction of the Director. As a result of the negative criticism, Gregor in Part II and Part III of The Metamorphosis Gregor lost the motivation to live typically again and return back to work. In both works of literature, not “fitting in” leads to positive or negative criticism that hinders a person’s potential to do better.
Finally, both authors emphasized that when people lose who they are, they are meaningless. Without a meaning behind an action people feel they are wasting time and they begin to dislike their work. In The Metamorphosis, Gregor complains about his job saying, ‘“Oh, God,’ He thought, ‘what a strenuous profession, I’ve chosen- traveling day in, day out!’” (946). The real reason Gregor hates his job and finds it meaningless is because he has to pay off his parent’s. At first, Gregor did not mind paying off his parent’s debt because “his successes at work translated directly into cash that he could lay on the table at home before his astonished and pleased family” (959). Gregor found meaning and joy in helping provide for his family in a time of need. However, he started to dislike working and providing for his family because “they simply got used to it” and the “special warmth” of providing for his family vanished (959). He lost emotional connections with his family and thus lost the meaning of his job. Even so, if a person follows what society wants them to do, they will find no meaning in performing these tasks. In “The Unknown Citizen”, the society described the man as he “served the Greater Community” because he was not a burden to society by messing with the status quo (Line 8). The society only cares about how the citizen did not mess with the status quo. At the end of the poem, W.H. Auden states: “Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd: / Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard” (Lines 31-32). Society does not care whether you are against or for the ways the society. This control allows society to not to listen to complaints. However, if people are following the societies, orders, they would stay “normal” (Line 18) and hold their “proper opinions” (Line 27) to themselves so that they please the society. When people try to keep the balanced order of the society by losing their differences from others, they tend to lose purpose in everything they do to “help” the society.
Franz Kafka and W.H. Auden, through the works of literature called The Metamorphosis and “The Unknown Citizen”, express that the loss of a person’s personality and meaning of life relates to conforming to the society and doing what is right. The variances in personalities are why everyone is unique and original in the world. Gregor and the unknown citizen both wanted to “fit in” to society so that they could find meaning in their lives, but instead they ended up dying with a life full of meaningless action. People always say that we all need “equality”, but how far will the literal definition of the word “equal” apply to society? Is people’s personality going to be stripped away like Kafka stripped Gregor of his? Or are monuments going to be built in remembrance of people who are nameless to the community members, but because they conformed to the society they deserve a monument dedicated to them? Instead the community needs to stand up and embrace their different personalities and overthrow the social norms of a community created by a society.