Themes In Metamorphosis, The Stanger By Albert Camus And The Perfume

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Throughout the last few weeks we’ve been reading and discussing three largely renowned books (Metamorphosis by Kafka, The Stanger by Albert Camus and The Perfume by Patrick Suskind) that share similarity in themes, and in the character profiles of Gregor Samsa, John Baptiste Grenouille and Meursault. These themes and profiles include; isolation and alienation from humanity as well as society, sociopathic tendencies, distorted reality, feelings of apathy towards life and others, among other.
Firstly, in Kafka’s Metamorphosis we are presented with a man named Gregor, who one day wakes up as an insect, and we see how his life changes completely thereafter, leading up to his death. Gregor is described to be an apathetic loner, basically, whose only aspiration is to work hard as a traveling salesman to financially, and singlehandedly, maintain his family. After becoming an insect, though, he becomes more and more isolated, even from his own family. We see how he is slowly turning more insect than human. He loses his ability to communicate, and remains in his locked room, under his couch all day. He starts to enjoy crawling around his walls, and being in the dark, like any other insect would. He has no feelings of consciousness or remorse regarding the burden he was become to his family, economically and emotionally. His family ends up seeing him as a mere insect and even a parasite, rather than their son and dear brother, and once he is dead they are flooded with feelings of relief and a new appreciation for life and the opportunities it brings.
Distorted reality one the biggest themes in Metamorphosis, as it is the basis of the story. Gregor wakes up as an insect and his lack of reaction makes it seem likes it is completely normal,...

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...e master scent and is devoured by a mob.

Isolation is a key themes in The Stranger. Grenouille is alienated since the moment he is born by being scentless. For example, Jeanne Bussie, the wet nurse who was first appointed to care for him, rejects him for being scentless. She even insists that he is evil and possessed by the devil. It is said that he could never be loved because human love is produced in response to personal scent, and thus he never understood or felt love himself. His superior olfactory abilities also caused isolation, he was seen as unusual when he was young, and other kids always kept their distance. Moreover, on his way to Grasse he began to only travel by night due to the absence of human scent, until he encountered a cave where people and human habitation could not be smelled whatsoever and happily decided to stay there for seven long years.

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