English World Literature Essay: The Outsider and The Metamorphosis
Comparisons between the relationships that the protagonists had with
their parents and how these defined their characters.
In the novels, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and The Outsider by
Albert Camus, there are many important relationships that help define
the protagonists. The protagonist in The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa,
and the protagonist from The Outsider, Meursault, both had significant
relationships with people that helped develop and define their
character, the most important of these being their relationships with
their parents. I will compare the two protagonists in their
relationships with their parents and explain how these relations
define aspects of their character.
Firstly, in the novel, the Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Gregor Samsa
is a travelling salesman who hates his job but is forced to keep it in
order to support his family and pay off his father’s debts. Gregor has
only one sister, so their family is quite small. Immediately at the
beginning of the book, Gregor is transformed into a giant insect. He
never comes to terms with his metamorphosis and struggles with intense
feelings of guilt as if his inability to support his family were his
own fault. Though he is now free from having to go to work, Gregor is
now a liability to his family who keep him locked up in his room.
Isolated and neglected, Gregor is a metaphor for the human being
oppressed by capitalism and alienated from work, family, and himself.
In the novel, The Outsider by Albert Camus, Meursault is a young man
who lives alone and is emotionally indifferent to most things in his
life. He cares only for physical pleasures, things that he experien...
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...not my fault” when
he informed his boss he had to take two days off. So this is a key
difference between the two characters. Their sense of duty. We also
see that in different ways, Samsa’s duty to his family, and
Meursault’s lack of emotion towards his mother, both end up causing
their demises.
So Meursault’s mother and Samsa’s parents are important in defining
their characters. Meursault’s mother shows his lack of emotion his
outlook on life and his inability to lie, while Samsa’s parents show
that he was once a provider but throughout the book he loses that
ability. The fact that Samsa was living at home working to support his
family and that Meursault had sent his mother away to a rest home is a
clear example of the different ways in which these men think, and even
though Meursault sent his mother away, he felt he was being kind to
her by doing it.
Are outsiders simply those who are misjudged, or misunderstood? When you are an outsider, are you understood by people for who you are? Does being an outsider affect how people view you? Outsiders are people who are misunderstood, rather than misjudged. When you are an outsider, it affects the way people view you. Because you don’t fit in, you slowly become an outcast. Many examples of this transformation are prevailed in the short story, “Metamorphosis,” by Franz Kafka. Outsiders are those who are misjudged and shifted into becoming outcasts.
The feelings of loneliness and betrayal are feelings that we all feel one too many. Some have these feelings for a few simple days, and then those feelings soon pass. For others, however, this is a feeling that is felt for most of their lives. Our loneliness may make us feel alone, when our loneliness is actually common. In The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, the topic of alienation is an ongoing theme from beginning to end. I have interest in this passage because it reveals the writers understanding of a feeling that we all get from time to time. This novella helps us relive these emotions with an understanding that we are not alone in our loneliness.
Franz Kafka’s clear isolation of Gregor underlines the families’ separation from society. In The Metamorphosis, Kafka emphasizes Gregor’s seclusion from his family. However, Gregor’s separation is involuntary unlike the family who isolates themselves by the choices they make. Each family member has characteristics separating them from society. These characteristics become more unraveling than Gregor, displaying the true isolation contained in The Metamorphosis.
to quit his work, because he wasn't happy with it. But he said to himself, "
The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka both incorporate “irreal” elements throughout their works. These elements provide an alternative point of view where the lives of main characters are recreated and imagined as part of their surroundings. It’s almost as if the characters are watching their lives from an outside vantage point, rather than living in the moment, which makes it easier to cope with their difficult circumstances. These two works are complementary in establishing relationships, exposing internal conflicts, and escaping the reality that these characters yearn for in their lives.
Meursault shows very little love or sorrow at the fact of his mother's death. A normal man would feel pain and regret for not being by her side while Meursault does not even care much about the date she passed away. Immediately on the first page in the novel, we confront the situation where Meursault's mother dies, and he does not care about it. "Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know. I got a telegram from the home: `Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.' That doesn't mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday" (3). Meursault does not bother to call back and find information about his mother. Meursault shows no emotion or care for his mother because he sends her away for someone else to take care of her. During the last years of an elder person's life, they are invited to stay with the family in order to become closer with one another. Meursault could care less as he shows no sign of pain, and goes off to do something else. He resembles a figure where an issue as important as death does come as a priority. "We are the hollow men/ We are the stuffed men/ Leaning together/ Headpiece filled with straw" (Lines 1-4).
There is a theory that dream and myth are related which is conveyed through the writing of Douglas Angus’ Kafka's Metamorphosis and "The Beauty and the Beast" Tale and supported by Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. The stories are very symbolic when conveying the metamorphosis of a human being. Unlike Beauty and the Beast, in the Metamorphosis some suggest love is received through acts of cruelty yet in actuality it appears that cruelty results in heartache. Due to being a beast, the repulsiveness requires genuine love which can achieve the “magical transformation.” This “magical transformation” is not achieved and creates a twist in the plot derived from the concepts in the “Beauty and the Beast.”
thoughts against his boss. He wishes to tell him off, surprise him so much that falls off
In the novella “The Metamorphosis”, Franz Kafka focuses on the topic of alienation and considers its underlying effect on the human consciousness and self-identity. The alienation Kafka instigates is propagated towards the main character Gregor Samsa, who inevitably transforms into a giant cockroach. The alienation by family relations affects him to the extent that he prioritizes his extensive need to be the family’s provider before his own well-being. This overwhelming need to provide inevitably diminishes Gregor’s ability to be human-like. Kafka also enforces the idea of the ability to resurrect one’s self-identity following psychologically demanding events. In this essay, I utilize Gregor Samsa’s metamorphosis to address that alienation, in its various forms, is instrumental in the dehumanization process and can also oppositely induce a restoration of self-identity. The metamorphosis acts as a metaphor to express the inhumane change of state that occurs to a victim of alienation; it also formulates Gregor’s epiphany. He suffers through three forms of alienation: exploitation, violence, and neglect. The joint presence of these three external forces deprives him of a human distinctiveness, but in turn, influences a final realization that enforces the restoration of his self-identity, and therefore human identity.
...immediately gives an impression of a lack of emotion towards the demise of his mother. This lack of emotion highlights the existentialist ideal that we all die, so it doesn't matter what life we have while we are alive. We simply exist, as did Meursault. It becomes apparent, as the novella unfolds, that Meursault has acquired an animal like indifference towards society. His interactions with his neighbour Raymond are an example of his indifferences. It never dawns upon Meursault that society does not condone his interactions with the pimp, avoided by his community. Meursault simply acts to fill his time. Being a single man, he has a lot of time to fill, and finds the weekends passing particularly slowly.
... mother, he does not react in a way most people do. He does not cry but instead accepts what has happened and realizes that he can not change it. He goes back and does physical things he would do on a normal day. When the caretaker offers him coffee, he accepts it, he smokes a cigarette and has sex with a woman he just met. Meursault also does not lie to escape death. He refuses to conform to society and lie. He would rather be seen as an outsider than do something that he does not believe in. Finally, Meursault, will not believe in G-d or Christianity just because it is the only thing to turn to before he is put to death. When Meursault decides not to cry at his mother’s funeral, he accepts himself as an outsider. When he is considered an outsider, it does not matter if he is guilty or innocent; at the end of the day he guilty just for being different.
Existentialism is defined as a philosophical movement that human beings are completely free and responsible for their own actions. Existentialists will try not to cause waves and remain completely uninvolved with anyone because they do not want to hurt anybody. There is absolutely no such thing as an existentialist because he would have to be so uninvolved to the point where he would not be able to live at all. Although the two stories: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and The Stranger by Albert Camus are very different in approach, their endings are similar in that they both support the basics of existentialism.
On the day of the funeral Meursault immediately notices details such as, “the screws on the casket had been tightened and that there were four men wearing black in the room.” Throughout the day he does not display any signs of grief, and hardly seems to pay any attention to the fact that he is at his own mother’s funeral.
Gregor’s own decisions, along with others, ultimately cause his isolation and lead to the dehumanization
Life is a never-ending metamorphosis. It is always changing, always transforming. Sometimes a change is followed by positive results, but on the darker side, a metamorphosis can lead to damage or suffering. But of course, the concept of metamorphosis can also be related into the wonderful yet unrealistic world of magic and sorcery. Metamorphosis can mean a rapid transformation from one object to another or a distinct or even degenerative change in appearance, personality, condition, or function. The concept of metamorphosis is commonly used in pieces of literature to describe an extreme change in character or form.