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The Metamorphosis: Difference between revisions
→Major Themes
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==Major Themes== | ==Major Themes== | ||
===Alienation=== | |||
The theme of alienation plays a major role in the story because Gregory is alienated from his family and society before the metamorphosis occurs and even more so afterwards. Kafka uses the theme of alienation in this story to "comment on the human need to experience love and acceptance" (Hughes). Gregory's mother tells his boss when they first discover that something is wrong, "He's not well, sir, you can take it from me. What else would make him miss his train? Why, the boy thinks of nothing but his work! It makes me quite cross that he never goes out in the evening..." (1970). Before the metamorphosis, Gregory's work is what alienates him from his family and society. | |||
After the metamorphosis, however, it is his distinct features that alienate him. One example of the alienation is that his family locks him in his bedroom. Gregory is not allowed to be a part of the family. Gregory then has to make the adjustment from being a man in the working world and traveling everyday, to being a prisoner in his own bedroom (Hughes). Another way that Gregory's family alienates him is that when they talk about him, they openly talk about his features in front of him because they think that he cannot understand what they are saying. "If he understood what we said...we might be able to come to an arrangement with him. But as things are..." (1995). They refer to Gregory as "it" rather than by his name. "It has to go...it's the only way, father. You must just try to get out of the habit of thinking that it's Gregory" (1995). In this way, the reader finds out that the family has stopped acknowledging Gregory as their son. The family also treats Gregory like an animal by the way that they feed him. Gregory's sister would bring in scraps from the table that the family wouldn't eat to feed him. "She brought him a whole selection of things, all laid out on an old newspaper, to see what he liked. There were some old half rotten vegetables; the bones from supper, covered with congealed white sauce; some raisins and almonds; a piece of cheese...two days old; a slice of dry bread..." (1978). The family treated him like an animal, rather than their son who got sick and needed his family to look after him. | |||
===Novella=== | ===Novella=== | ||
Technically a theme, but more of a genre so to speak, that is unknown to most of us present day readers of Kafka is novella. "A novella is a short novel; a narrative work of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prose prose] fiction somewhat longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. A common length is about 50 to 100 pages. The extra length is generally used for more character development than is possible in a short story, but without the much greater character and plot development of a novel. Novellas often are characterized by satire or moral teaching"(Wikipedia). | Technically a theme, but more of a genre so to speak, that is unknown to most of us present day readers of Kafka is novella. "A novella is a short novel; a narrative work of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prose prose] fiction somewhat longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. A common length is about 50 to 100 pages. The extra length is generally used for more character development than is possible in a short story, but without the much greater character and plot development of a novel. Novellas often are characterized by satire or moral teaching"(Wikipedia). | ||