The Role Of Isolation In Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis

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As Gregor Samsa awoke from his slumber one morning, he realized that his life was changed forever. Gregor altered into a large insect and he went from being the bread maker in his family, to being dependent on his family due to his nature of inhabitation. This process of change gave true transparency to the theme that is present throughout the entirety of the novel; the isolation and alienation that occurs just because Gregor is different. The alienation that Gregor faces comes from his family and himself. The first instance of his self isolation is shown on page one, “His room, a regular human room, only a little on the small side, lay quiet between the four familiar walls.” Even before Gregor’s transformation became apparent to his parents, he tried to isolate himself from them. Throughout the novel, Gregor tries to reduce the burden of his presence on his family, by keeping himself isolated in his room. This ideology of isolation is exacerbated even further when he stays in his room, with Grete occasionally coming in. This is displayed on…show more content…
This is explained on page 46, “Many things had become superfluous, and though they certainly weren't salable, on the other hand they could not just be thrown out. All these things migrated into Gregor's room. Likewise the ash can and the garbage can from the kitchen. Whatever was not being used at the moment was just flung into Gregor's room by the cleaning woman.” Gregor’s family had alienated Gregor from human life to such a large extent that his room had been transformed away a regular “human” room, into one more fit for “insects.” The isolation that Gregor’s family devolved to Gregor got to a point where Grete, the only family member that continued to value Gregor as a human being and didn’t fully isolate him, wanted him to leave the house. Gregor’s family started to believe that Gregor was an unneeded burden upon the

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