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Literary theme alienation
Literary theme alienation
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The Arrival is a graphic novel, which was written to be a universal tale of immigrating to a new culture without knowing the language or having any prior connections. Illustrations constitute the entirety of the story, with no text in any real language and taking place in a made up culture, assuring that all readers would experience the character’s feeling of alienation in the same way. While the society the unnamed main character finds himself in is a fantasy, it is structured like a real one, with references to Ellis Island and a semi-modern immigration process. This book is similar to The Metamorphosis, as each of these stories focuses on one person whose situation has changed so drastically that simply taking care of himself and getting comfortable requires acclimation. For one, his body and preferences have changed, and the other, the world around him. Early on, both stories show their characters’ misplacement in their environment and then their adaptation by implying a simple task the character wishes to carry out, but showing how it has become more complicated, due to the disruption which has occurred. This is clearer in The …show more content…
While it is unlikely that the reader has personally faced Gregor’s dilemma of literally transforming into a bug overnight, The Arrival is structured in a way the reader shares the character’s lack of knowledge of the new society’s technology, whether or not they have been in the same position in real life. Additionally, unlike The Arrival, where the setting is strange and the character is common, Gregor is unusual and his setting is common. Since the protagonist is not universally relatable, it is hard to be empathetic to him, however, if the reader relates the door scene (Kuper, 24) to the faucet scene (Tan, part II), the door scene prompts the interpretation that foreignness is relative and that Gregor is now a stranger in his own
... to do this every day Gregor would have had to have some sense of time. His dwindling human aspects are prominently marked in two places: the first when Gregor is incapable of communicating with his family and the sales manager and the second when he takes pleasure in rutting about in dirt and filth. Lastly, Gregor's loss of consciousness causes a polar change within his family. As Gregor is no longer able to earn money to support the family, everyone else is forced to take action to bring in capital. The most obvious change is in the father who transformed from a dead weight into a zealous worker. Despite Freedman's employment of flawed logic to formulate some of his theories, the majority of his conclusions are quite valid and probe deeply into the meaning behind Kafka's writing.
“What sorts of excuses people had used on that first morning to get unable to ascertain. Since he was not comprehensible, nobody, not even his sister, thought that he might be able to understand others.” (Kafka, 154) He is the humanoid beetle that doesn't fit in with the rest of the Samsa family. This is where the misunderstood part begins to take place. Gregor is bewildered in the fact that he fell asleep human and woke up as a bug. His family tends to think that it is not even him, and misunderstands how he could have turned into a bug. Things are not the same, because nobody can comprehend what has happened and why. One reason Gregor is so misunderstood, revolves around a feeling of hate. Gregor is the one who did the work to pay for his family. The father was lazy, and the mother has bad asthma. Gregor payed all the bills. Once he can no longer work, his family may think that he did not want to pay the bills, therefore, they pushed him away as if he was never there. Also important, near the end of the story, we find out just how little Gregor is cared for. One of the most important parts of this
The novel uses immigrant labor to form its foundation for the story and then recounts personal memories from Jim’s life about the immigrants to show the hardships they face coming into a new world for the first time.
Gregor’s father demotes societal views of himself by his actions. Gregor’s father depends on Gregor for the income for the family. When Gregor morphs into a bug, Mr. Samsa reluctantly becomes the sole provider for his family. Getting a ...
...haracter, Gregor, transforms into a cockroach in the beginning. Throughout the story, Gregor is portrayed as a “helpless bug” and is treated unfairly and poorly by his own family. His parents are more astonished than pitiful when they first see Gregor. Later on, his mother faints at the sight of him. His father throws apples at him because his mother fainted from the way he looks. Grete, in the beginning of the transformation, is nice and takes care of him. Later, she changes her mind about Gregor, quits taking care of him, and comes up with the idea to get rid of it. ‘If it was Gregor, he would have long ago seen that it’s impossible for human beings to live together with an animal like that,’ (139). Kafka, throughout the story, tries to get the reader to feel sympathy towards Gregor in many scenes, and it works because his family doesn’t show sympathy towards him.
Kafka uses impractical symbolism in order to stress that Gregor being authentic as a bug still is dissatisfying as his inauthentic state as a human. The reason his family continually is discontented with Gregor is, the reason he never meets the expectations that they he should pay off the family debt and stabilize the family with his hard work; the fact that his bug form enables him to support his family they no longer deem him a burden. No matter what Gregor does to get his family’s approval, it either leaves him depressed because he isn’t being authentic or his family is upset that he doesn’t support them. Either way Gregor sways, authentic or inauthentic, Gregor and his family are displeased.
“It has to go”, cried his sister. “That’s the only answer, Father. You just have to try to get rid of the idea that it’s Gregor. Believing it for so long, that is our real misfortune. But how can it be Gregor? If it were Gregor, he would have realized long ago that it isn’t possible for human beings to live with such a creature, and would have gone away of his own free will” (Kafka 52). The relationship between family member’s in Kafka’s Metamorphosis is an interesting theme addressed, and somewhat distressing subject. Why is it so hard to accept that this monstrous bug is Gregor? Is it so bad for him to want to stay and be near his family- the only thing he’s ever had and known? For the sister to even come out and say these words seems somewhat selfish. Why can’t it be turned around to a viewpoint through which we have a family loving their son, unconditionally, regardless of what state he’s in? The word love is definitely one which is not seen in close companionship with the Gregor family. And we can see that this lack of affection carries on to be one of the driving forces behind the theme of alienation in the novel.
A mother sees her children off to school at the school bus stop; however, they would never see each other again. The mother’s trip to the immigration check-in has caused a dramatic change in both her’s and her family’s lives. A story such as this, one where a parent is taken away and deported, is far too common in the U.S.A. An unsympathetic system of deportation has torn many families apart and has thrown away all the effort that immigrants have put into coming to America. Throughout the novel Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario, a young boy named Enrique struggles to immigrate to the U.S. and faces many obstacles that infringe on his right to immigrate. The right to immigrate is threatened both in the U.S. and around the world by corrupt dysfunctional
Gregor’s entrapment inside of the bedroom forces the realization of the isolation and alienation from society into his mind. Gregor’s life as an insect takes place in an apartment in a city. The setting forces Gregor to contemplate the reality and meaning of life. The location of a hospital across the street from Gregor begins Gregor’s questioning. He wonders why his family does nothing and how he can live close to a hospital and not get any help. Kafka applies irony to the presence of the hospital and begins Gregor’s downfall and loss of hope in returning to a normal life. Also, the window itself portrays how close, yet how far he remains from safety. The bedroom contains his body and completely controls the rest of his life. Later on, hiding in the dark becomes a routine, “And he scuttled under the coach again” (Kafka 23). The bedroom becomes too much, and he can only feel comfortable and safe while hiding under furniture. His hiding prohibits any communication with anyone, and forces him into solitary confinement. The space of the room eventually leads Gregor to flee into safer areas, yet at the same time ends all contact and communication w...
During the beginning of the story, Gregor, the main character wakes up to find himself as a bug. He is the sole supporter of his family, so he worries about getting to work. Because he woke up late, the chief clerk and his family show up to see what is wrong. When his mother first sees him she gets very scared and runs away. “This set his mother screaming anew, she fled from the table and into the arms of his father” (Kafka 10). This shows how weak and scared his ...
As illustrated in Metamorphosis, Kafka demonstrates the isolation of Gregor, the protagonist through the medium of his room. The “room” symbolizes how Gregor lacks relationship with his surroundings, his family and others. Kafka describes it as being “ A regular human room …” with “the four familiar walls”(3). This is society’s standards. It is portrayed as being full of ones basic essentials; with the regular old furniture. However, as the novel continues, Gregor’s life continues to change. His room is transformed to his new life and essentials. He begins to lose all his furniture, that “he had been use to [for] so long”(33). As a result there is a sense of emptiness and hollowness which is reflective of his surroundings and within himself. ...
Conrad changes the environment to cause his protagonist struggles, and Kafka does the same but through internal contrasts. Kafka’s transformation of Gregor into a disgusting vermin causes doubt within him. These doubts place his family in a position where they lose any love and care they ever had in their son. On what should have been a normal morning, Gregor awoke and “found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin” (Kafka 3). Gregor's surreal transformation forces him to doubt and deny anything happening around him.
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.
When comparing Franz Kafka and his personal life to The Metamorphosis it is obvious in more ways than one that he was writing a twisted story of his life. The emotional and physical abuse Gregor goes through are similar to what Kafka went through in real life. They were both abused and neglected by their fathers when they were disappointed with them. Kafka uses Gregor transforming into a bug as a way of exaggerating himself, trying to express his feelings and point of view. When writing, Kafka felt as if he was trapped in his room which he referred to as "the noise headquarters of the apartment". Gregor was an exaggeration of this because he could not leave the house to escape the noises and abuse.
Theme of Alienation in Literature A common theme among the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne is alienation. Alienation is defined as emotional isolation or dissociation from others. In Hawthorne's novels and short stories, characters are consistently alienated and experience isolation from society. These characters are separated from their loved ones both physically and psychologically. The harsh judgmental conditions of Puritan society are the cause of isolation for these characters and eventually lead to their damnation.