Alienation and Isolation in The Metamorphosis Essay

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is a reflection on how alienation and closing off begin and develop in a friendship by employing the characters in his novella as a representation of smart set as a whole. Using Gregors managing director to demonstrate the initiation of closing off and alienation of a soulfulness, Gregor as the soulfulness being isolated and the inhabitants of the Samsa household as the other members of society, Kafka creates an effective poser to represent the hierarchically structured effect of closing offism and alienation in society on a larger scale.Kafka uses the company Gregor is forced to fail for to embellish the hierarchical effect of closing off and alienation, where the initiation of isolationism begins at the top of the berth structure and thus creates a ripple effect d throw through the catch ones breath of society. The carriage of the company that Gregor moldiness work for due to a family debt is the articulation Kafka chooses to demonstrate the closely important person in the power structure. By light up as an insect and being late for work, Gregor has broken his residency to the parameters of what is tolerated by the company, so the manager himself comes to deal with the issue since such hazard can only be entrusted to the intelligence of the manager (Kafka, 13). This, as intimately as how the family treats the manager as nicely as possible when he arrives demonstrates the importance of the managers decisions and their watch for authority.Further demonstrating the importance of his decisions, the manager is the first to react to Gregors transformation by threatening, your position is not at all the most secure (17) when Gregor will not brusk his door. This orients that he has the ability to completely disrupt Gregors place in the hierarchy and in doing so, isolate and alienate him from the rest of society. The manager remarks, that was an living creatures voice (20) when Gregor speaks, which alienates Gregor from humanity and reacts strongly to the sight of Gregor by pressure sensation his hand against his open mouth and moving back slowly (23). later firing Gregor, the manager flees the building which causes the initiation of Gregors isolation since work was the most important and most time consuming thing in his life. This demos that as with society in general, the person in charge holds tremendous influence over the rest of the population and is capable of initiating the motif that a person must be isolated.Just because the radiation pattern in power decrees that a person is not a good member of society and should be isolated, however, does not mean that all members of society react the analogous way. the spectrum of views that members of society take against those who have been isolated is shown through Kafkas limning of the Samsa familys reaction to his transformation. Gregors father represents those who respect authority and direct agree with those higher in the hierarch y and unquestioningly aid in the isolation process. He wears a blue uniform with gold scarcetons (62) make up when he is at home, asleep on a chair in the living room which demonstrates the value he places on the system. This is also adornd as soon as the manager reacts to Gregors deviation from normal when Mr. Samsa begins to start out Gregor back into his room by waving the cane and the newspaper (29). another(prenominal) members of the family, however, react differently to the situation.Grete is the closest to Gregor and is the most sympathetic to him immediately afterward his transformation by placing milk in his room, which was his favourite drink and which his infant had currently placed there for that reason (34). Her reaction to Gregors isolation demonstrates the opposite of Mr. Samsas by being as considerate as he is forceful in Gregors alienation. Her relationship with Gregor demonstrates how in society, those who chouse the person being isolated before its initiat ion are most likely to resist helping to enforce the isolation. However, Kafka understands that people are actually dynamic and ofttimes change their opinions. Grete undergoes a change in post to such a degree that by the end of the novella it is she who declares, we must get rid of it (84). This change in perspective shows how Kafka believes that members of society often stop sympathizing with the isolated group when it becomes inconvenient for them to continue doing so. Gregors sire reacts in an sign manner somewhere between the father and sis since when first seeing him she went two steps toward Gregor and collapsed right in the heart and soul of her skirts (23).These conflicting desires continue through the novella, such as when Mr. Samsa tries to kill Gregor, she begged him to preserve Gregors life (65) but at the same time she is repulsed by him. This illustrates how she wants to help him and tries to think of him the same way she did before his transformation, yet is inefficient to. This resembles the idealists in society who theoretically support the alienated person but often succumb to social pressures when they are forced to face the problem. These common chord reactions to Gregors transformation as a result of the initiation of his isolation by the manager demonstrate the spectrum of reactions. From the immediate acceptance of the hierarchy delineated by Mr. Samsa, to the true compassion of Grete and the idealism of Mrs. Samsa, Kafka shows how a wide mix of reactions is expected from society, and how people often change their opinions.Similarly to how social pressures concern his mother, Gregor is also convinced through his respect for authority that he deserves the isolation enforced on him by society. He believes those above him in the hierarchy to such an extent that he eventually reaches the conclusion that he would be better off dead that to have his family suffering because of his presence. Like his father, Gregor has a strong res pect for authority and served in the military until his father, who is an autocratic figure in his life, needed financial help so he became approximately overnight, a traveling salesman, who naturally had entirely different possibilities for earning money () which could be set out on the table at home in front of his astonished and delighted family (43). Gregors decision to help his family birth off their debt without thinking of the effect it would have on his own happiness or considering refusing shows how firmly he is entrenched in the hierarchical system.The opinion that authoritative figures are always correct leads him to think that since society dictates that he is worthless and deserves isolation, he would be better off dead than a burden to society. This is shown after Grete and Mr. Samsa decide that they want him gone, but Gregors own thought that he had to disappear was, if possible, even more decisive than his sisters (89). He overhears his family bemoaning their mi sfortune and since they are above him on the hierarchical structure, Gregor believes that he has to hap in order to spare them the trouble of having to deal with him. This illustrates how Kafka believes that society is so dependent on a hierarchical structure and the guidance from authoritative figures that they cannot think for themselves and even the person who is isolated may still respect and follow those higher in the hierarchy. This is the final step in the infection of an idea through a social hierarchy whereby everyone believes that a person is lesser and should not exist, including the alienated person themselves.The Metamorphosis comes together to show the hierarchical pattern Kafka believes a society follows in regard to isolation and alienation. He uses the manager of the company Gregor works for to model the instigation of isolationism, which in society is determined by the most important person in the hierarchy. Gregors family represents society as a whole and is use d to illustrate the variety of reactions the people in society after they are told who to alienate. These reactions sick from immediate, unquestioning agreement with those higher in the hierarchy, to idealistically supporting the isolated person, to sympathizing with and seek to help the alienated person.He also uses Grete to demonstrate the dynamic give tongue to of human reactions, by changing from sympathetic and caring to vicious and contradictory by the end of the novella. Kafka continues this shaping of society from the hierarchical structure by causing Gregor himself to agree with the authoritative figures in his life and conform to the idea that he is worthless, thus imposing self-isolation. the interactions between the characters in The Metamorphosis show how Kafka believes that the isolation and alienation of a person in society is initiated by those at the top of the social hierarchy and works its way bolt down through the hierarchy until eventually everyone in socie ty has been influenced to accept the initial decision of one person.Works CitedKafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Trans. Ian Johnstone. Nanaimo Malaspina University-College, 1999.